Explore a mode of female freedom in Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South

Margaret’s inheritance in North and South serves as a source of economic freedom as it successfully integrates her into the masculine sphere of influence. Margaret is transformed from a woman characterised by “a deep sense of shame” for daring to step out of the sphere of female passivity in rescuing Thornton, to one defined by innovation and opportunity as she uses her money to form a business proposition: “if you would take some money of mine…and bringing me in only two and a half per cent – you could pay me better interest”. Gaskell transforms Margaret from a woman who was not even able to own property until the Married Women’s Property Act 1870 to one who assumes the role of the ‘bread winner’ as Thornton now relies on her support to continue his employment. This consequential reversal of power between her and Thornton embeds the traditionally masculine traits of sexual independence and intellect into the identity of the female.

The environment also serves as a mode of female freedom, as Margaret’s successful integration into the North, a symbol of commerce and economic growth, legitimises her new-found status as an empowered and active woman. Margaret begins the novel with Helstone being her true place of belonging: a place governed by natural duties and its dependence on the rural economy - a physical ambassador for restrictive feminine ideals: “There is the church and a few houses near it on the green – cottages, rather – with roses growing all over them”. The effect of this is clear in Margaret’s initial struggle to adapt to Milton, a place defined by technology and material wealth: “the chimneys smoked, the ceaseless roar and mighty beat, and dizzying whirl of machinery”; where progression conquers nature. However, Margaret not only marries a man at the centre of this industrial power-house, but shapes the future of its growth, as her business proposition saves the mill at the heart of Milton: “North and South has both met and made kind o’ friends in this big, smoky place”. It is this which marks the complete transformation of Margaret’s identity: of one bound by the fixed traditions of femininity in the South, to one freed by the values of individualism that the North embodies, and is reinforced in her realisation of the limitations the unchanging nature of Helstone imposes, with its “stagnant waters” and the “dullness of the life…it would eat you away like rust”.