By this deed, Margaret shows her courage and her cleverness and she argues that “some norms must be broken in pursuit of something more important once more” (Strnadova, 2017:18).
After the strike, Nicholas Higgins is out of the work, it is Margaret who convinced him to speak to Mr. Thornton and after many tries finally they shake hands and Higgins returns to work, this is a proof of Margaret’s untraditional participation in men’s affairs (Algotsson, 2014:11). Elliot (1994) argues that “Margaret serves as an exemplary mediator by translating the language of men to each other” (41). Thus, Margaret brings the two classes into contact and she conciliates between them. Margaret Hale breaks the gender norms by acting in the public sphere and showing interest about political issues. In fact, Gaskell gives her heroine a moral space for claiming her own sphere of activity (Branthinger and Thesing, 2002:179).
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Margaret as an Heiress: Needless to say, Victorian women did not play an important part in society, due to the fact that they had limited rights. They could not inherit a property until the decreeing of the Women’s Property Act in 1870 only for married women while single women were not concerned with the act. In north and south, Elizabeth Gaskell made Margaret an heiress of the fortune of her Godfather Mr. Bell. This deed confirms that Mrs. Gaskell in a way or another is defending the social status of women through her