Margaret Hale
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Margaret Hale is the heroine of Elizabeth Gaskell's beloved 1854 novel, North and South. Indeed, Gaskell wanted the title of North and South to be Margaret Hale.
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[edit] Descriptions
From Chapter Seven...
- "Margaret could not help her looks; but the short curled upper lip, the round, massive up-turned chin, the manner of carrying her head, her movements, full of a soft feminine defiance, always gave strangers the impression of haughtiness."
- "She sat facing [Mr Thornton] and facing the light; her full beauty met his eye; her round white flexile throat rising out of the full, yet lithe figure; her lips, moving so slightly as she spoke, not breaking the cold serene look of her face with any variation from the one lovely haughty curve; her eyes, with their soft gloom, meeting his with quiet maiden freedom."
[edit] Biography
Margaret Hale grew up in Helstone, in the south of England, with her parents-- Richard, a minister, and Maria-- and older brother, Frederick. When she entered adolesence, Margaret was sent to live in London with her aunt, Mrs Shaw, and cousin, Edith Shaw. Edith and Margaret were the same age, and became fast friends.
Fredrick, meanwhile, joined the navy. Once at sea, he took part in a mutiny against his wicked captain. Branded a traitor, the Hales realized the Frederick would be hanged, if he ever returned to England.
When the girls grew up, Edith married Capt. Lennox. Lennox had a younger brother, Henry, who became infatuated with Margaret. She rejected his advances, and chose to move back to Helstone. Mr Hale, however, had begun to question his faith. When asked to renew his vows, Mr Hale could not. Quitting his profession, Mr Hale moved his wife and daughter to Milton, in the north of England, where he took up work as a tutor.
One of Mr Hale's pupil's was a local mill owner, John Thornton. Though he was young and handsome, Margaret took an instant dislike to Thornton, seeing him as the embodiment of the harsh, working-class north. Margaret, feeling homesick, romanticizes the south. Mr Thornton, on the other hand, is immediately struck by Margaret. "He did not understand who she was," when he first saw her, "as he caught the simple, straight, unabashed look, which showed that his being there was of no concern to the beautiful countenance, and called up no flush of surprise to the pale ivory of the complexion. He had heard that Mr. Hale had a daughter, but he had imagined that she was a little girl." Margaret eventually comes to feel at home in the north; she makes friends, including Bessy Higgens, a dying young woman who works in Thornton's mill.
The workers in all the mill around Milton are dissatisfied. They strike. At the end of the strike, a mob of workers comes to the Thornton's house, where Margaret is calling on Mrs Thornton, John's mother; and Fannie, his sister. Thornton goes out to speak to the rioters. Afraid that they will kill him, Margaret rushes out to Thornton. Margaret believes that no one would try to hurt a woman, and throws her arms around Thornton, to protect him. Margaret is mistaken, however. A man named Boucher throws a rock at the pair, and Margaret is knocked out.
Mrs Thornton, who dislikes Margaret, and her son's affection for her, surmises that Margaret acted as she did out of love for Mr Thornton. She tells her son so, and Thornton proposes to Margaret. She insists that she would have tried to protect anyone.
Mrs Hale, even less happy to be in Milton than Margaret is, is also dying. She wants to see Frederick one last time, so Margaret, without telling anyone, writes to him in Spain, where he has been living. Frederick comes to visit the Hales in Milton, and manages to stay hidden, while still seeing his mother, before she dies. Margaret takes Frederick to the train station, to get him out of Milton; they are seen by three people. The first, Mr Thornton, sees Margaret embracing an unknown man. Margaret sees him watching her, and spends much of the rest of the novel feeling horrible about what he must think of her. The other man who sees the Hale siblings is a man named Leonards. He knows that there is a bounty on Frederick's head, and tries to grab him. The two struggle. Leonards is drunk, and takes a fall. He later turns up dead.
There is an inquest into Leonards' death. The third person to see Margaret and her brother, a boy who works at a Milton grocer's, comes forward. He claims to have seen Margaret with the man who fought Leonards. Margaret does not know if her brother is still in the country. Trying to protect Frederick, she denies having been at the train station. Mr Thornton is a local magistrate, and becomes involved in the case. He knows that Margaret was at the station, but, still in love with her, defends her, taking over the case. Margaret is declared innocent of any involvement in Leonards' death. She knows that Thornton has heard her claiming not to have been at the train station. Margaret is racked by more guilt, sure that Thornton must assume that she was having a clandestine affair.
Margaret and her father slowly begin to recover from Mrs Hale's death-- they are helped by the news of Frederick's safe return to Spain, though not by Bessy's death. Mr Hale recieves an invitation to visit an old friend, Mr Bell, in Oxford. Margaret insists that her father go; while there, however, he dies.
Margaret moves back to London, to live with Capt. and Mrs Lennox. She is unhappy, however, and listless. This is attributed solely to Mr and Mrs Hale's deaths, and Margaret does being to perk up, as time passes-- she is also realizing her feeling for Thornton. She develops a close bond with Edith's young son, Sholto. It is Margaret who disciplines the child, when he is bad, where Edith would simply spoil him, and the Lennox family appreciate this-- along with their genuine love for Margaret, they encourage her to stay with them. Edith and her mother even hint to Henry to begin wooing Margaret, again; they dream of the whole family living together, forever.
After a trip to the beach, Margaret is feeling much better. She returns to London, where Mr Bell has made her his heir. Margaret is suddenly quite rich.
Mr Thornton, meanwhile, has not been able to catch up on cotton production, after the delay of the strike. He is in London on business. Margaret and Thornton meet again, admit their love for each other, and become engaged.
[edit] Television Adaptations
North and South has been adapted for the small screen, twice. In 1975, Rosalind Shanks played Margaret. In 2004, Margaret was played by Daniela Denby-Ashe.
[edit] External Links
- The text of North and South
- Victorian Web articals
- Margaret Hale as 'Word Bearer'
- Margaret Hale as Social Explorer
- Margaret at the BBC site
