MovieChat Forums > When Calls the Heart (2014) Discussion > Gowen and Abigail - Labor Disputes and P...

Gowen and Abigail - Labor Disputes and Progress

posted 10 years ago by Riverbend123
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I just think Gowen needs an Abigail in his life. They are at odds right now and this is mainly because Gowen is such a dedicated company man and alone. His life revolves around the mine and it's like his self-identity is wrapped around the success of the mine and town.

It's clear that Gowen admired Abigail, but when she went snooping behind his back, worst, stole papers that didn't belong to her, only to turn around and threaten the mine, well Abigail basically attacked the man and he's fighting back.

I just think that Gowen personifies management during that time period and it wasn't pretty. It's an aspect of the story that I like, the historically critical progress of labor relations and conditions during this time period. And this is the part that Gowen's character brings out. He's more than just the bad guy.

I see their fight as about the progress of labor improvements and that this progress came at a high cost, as with the lives of the men and broken families, and equally the achievements were life changing.

And Gowen as management can represent not the rigid, heartless picture of the company, but reveal that management were just ordinary men who worked with limited tools, like the bird as their only alarm for deadly gas, and these tools were never adequate to handle or anticipate the natural dangers of mining.

Should Gowen, a business manager, then be punished for his shortsightedness and because he didn't avail himself to the sciences of mining and geology and so avert the mining disaster?

I see Gowen as the only one running that mine, but mining is a complicated business which requires different aspects of the industry to manage and I'm hoping that's what the trial is going to reveal. That Gowen needs help running that mine and he needs to reorganize his operations quickly to make the mine and town succeed. Because Gowen, I think, really only wants to see people succeed. It's just that he's alone doing it.

Remember what Jack told Elizabeth about President Buchanan, the only unmarried US President and about his decisions? That's Gowen, too.

This is also where Wynn's invention of the mine ventilator is going to be very key, because it was these kinds of developments from disasters that were also key turning points at this time.

I like the potential idea that the show can highlight this aspect of the labor progress of the time period. How the challenges of the rich mining industry and the travails of the town growing around it often brought out the ingenuity and creativity of its citizens and especially, in it's young people.

And the series showcases that it is a young female teacher that helps to grease this progress along for this small, but growing town. Just one more great reason to watch season two.

[–] tohimbglory 10 years ago

While your discussion about Gowen seems to have the concepts of labor progress in mind, I only wonder if you are seeing Gowen's intentions clearly. It is my belief, based upon the clear implications written into his very own attitude and lines that would have me believe that he honestly understood the shortcomings of the mine safety, regardless of his lack of engineering prowess.

While Gowen does indeed personify management during that time period, much of that personification was in their feelings of being the law because they were the income. The entitlement that was based upon power often lead otherwise well-intending individuals to lay aside their moral responsibilities to their fellow man on behalf of their company, and this intentional oversight is precisely what the show is indicating as wrong.

I have very little urgency in my heart to witness the progress of labor equate to a power-hungry man such as Gowan portrays - actually leading to his own good favor or better position. Quite contrarily, I am in hope that season 2 (I am waiting for it on Netflix) will bring about a clear showing that Gowan was primarily at guilt for the short-comings in safety at that mine, and that his elevated position will one day be chopped down for the sake of SAFE labor.

Finally, I hope that as the show has indicated the terrible cost of power-hungry, money hungry companies of the time, that it also continues to weave a back-story of the progress that justice-based institutions made to tame the heartless souls of the careless company-man types such as Gowan so aptly portrays.