And now the MotherAunt, namely Mrs. Thornton, Mr. John Thornton's mother in North and South and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy's aunt in Pride and Prejudice. Both women are tough old broads, independent without husbands, and fiercely protective of their heirs and subsequently their legacies. But here is where they begin to differ.
Lady Catherine is old money, high brow snobbery and prideful disdain. Mrs. Thornton has lived in the luxury of self-made money, been brought low to destitution, and worked her family back up from it to live in luxury again. She stood by her son and worked alongside him to get them out of debtor's prison. Her legacy is to have taught her son how to scrape until parsimony, be parsimonious unto frugality, and be frugal even while rich. Thornton himself cites his mother's lesson to Margaret as a virtue rather than fault during one of their many disagreements. Lady Catherine de Bourgh also has a legacy: to impart the awesome responsibility of the family to the heir of hers, Fitzwilliam Darcy. And she has done so. Darcy's pride in himself, his family, his legacy, his responsibility, everything about himself, is ingrained in him, perhaps even to extent that he is all those things more than he is himself. He lost sight of where his pride tipped him over the edge to snobbery rather than virtuousness. Well done Lady Catherine. It took Lizzy Bennett to undo that work.
Each woman is an extension of her prospective younger relation; Lady Catherine is Mr. Darcy's smugness magnified. Even later, as Darcy thwarts Jane's marriage believing the family to be inconsistent in affection and decorum, he admits the same kind of resistance in consideration of his family when contemplating his own proposal to Lizzie. He denied his own justified feelings for what he felt was the greater good.
Mrs. Thornton is the backbone of Mr. Thornton's industriousness. His father speculated their fortune away. Mrs. Thornton will not allow this to happen again. John denies himself just as Darcy does after his mother extracts a promise to not visit Miss Hale. Darcy's reticence was self-inflicted while John's is not. Still each of these matriarchs has her roots in the exemplified personification of our heroes.
Lady Catherine does not speak but to judge and point out fault. Mrs. Thornton is seen to be almost sneering at times, even when giving good, sound, loving, motherly advice. But that again is where they diverge and we see the influence of Gaskell's more nuanced vision of human relations. Austen has caricatures with a single point or two of contrast in which we see how a single rule does not suit for every situation, for example, breeding does not imply good judgment. Gaskell meanwhile creates a caricature of a woman similar to Lady Catherine, one whom we are meant to instantly dislike, but then introduces us to the more myriad characteristics inherent in all human beings. Rarely are we all just good or just bad. Austen uses the Single Rule technique, applying it to 2 very different situations in which we see life is not always so easy (Darcy's vs. de Bourgh's good breeding and good judgement); Gaskell applies the same kind of logic but individually. We begin to see new sides of Mrs. Thornton, a woman who has known hardship but now lives in comfort because of her son, is fiercely proud of him for his hard work and dedication, and feels she understands completely the laziness and snobbery of the South because of the South's own prejudice toward tradesmen in general, be they worker or master. The South makes no distinction and so she will not.
When given a compliment by Mrs. Hale on the fine lace of her shawl, she retorts that the North can certainly produce products just as well made as the South, and with more industriousness. Mrs. Hale intended to please and pacify Mrs. Thornton, but the notice is misconstrued and the latter more offended and certain of herself than ever. Even Thornton himself comments, however kindly, that he is glad Milton's best wallpaper is fine enough to meet even moderate standards for Miss Hale.
Yet then we see Mrs. Thornton bound by a deathbed promise to Mrs. Hale to look after Margaret. She is willing to do this because Mrs. Hale is dying and only on her own terms. She states outright that she will not go easy on Margaret, already having one particular circumstance in mind, and relinquishes. The two women have found their common ground. Mrs. Thornton will don the mantle of guidance to the one person she believes will not listen to her, and if she were to heed the advice, would become a daughter in reality.
Mrs Thornton confides to her son that she extracted her own promise from him to not visit Miss Hale so that she might have one last night at the top of his affections, for she knows he goes to propose to Miss Hale. We even see a counterpoint reprimand to Lady Catherine's visit to Lizzie at Longbourne, demanding that she refute an engagement to Darcy; Mrs. Thornton admonishes Miss Hale on the empty mill floor after it is closed down. This is so near the end of the story however, that the reprimand is seen for what it is, a Mother Bear's growl and denial to accept pity. There is no remaining, blatant assertion of inherent correctness due to class or position. Miss Hale had already rejected Thornton's proposal; his mother is just angry. Miss Hale recognizes this and offers affection instead of Lizzie's uppity dismissal of Lady Catherine. To be sure, Lady Catherine deserved her rebuke. But the contrast is obvious: Mrs. Thornton's statements are rigid but not nearly so bombastic and the young Affectionate openly recognizes the snap to stem from motherly concern. She offers her own balm by countering with her dismay at the lack of industry in the place.
The reconciliation of this heroine and MotherAunt begin on much better terms than Lady Catherine and Lizzie's will. (Though, Lawrence Olivier's Darcy has a more sympathetic aunt; she admits to setting Greer Carson's Lizzie on edge to be sure of her affection rather than deter it, something Darcy admits to in the book: the vehemence with which Lizzie will not promise to accept a renewed proposal from him only gives him hope.)
A quick note about the actor's accents in North and South: Sinead Cusack plays Mrs. Thornton and her adopted lopsided speech makes way for the sneer and self-deprecating half-smile in turns. Even Armitage's accent is uniquely northern. His typical British accent is tweaked on only certain sounds to place him as having roots in the working class but with considerable education. His sister, on the other hand, (also wonderfully acted) has the typical witless northern accent, made fun of by Brits as being almost Scottish and meant to denote dim-wittedness. I cannot hear her without also recalling Fanny Squeers and her recitation of the letter sent to "Nickelboy's" uncle about a pin piercing her "motha's bren" and how she had a brain fever. All are stupendous.
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