North and South

1. What specific details show us that Margaret feels uncomfortable in Edith's world of luxury and social expectations?

2. Why does Margaret resist Henry Lennox's attempts to categorize her character and predict her future happiness?

3. Why does Mrs. Hale skip her sister's wedding, and what does this reveal about how shame affects our choices?

4. How does Mrs. Hale's withdrawal from the wedding create a cycle that makes her family problems worse?

5. How does Henry's behavior change from the beginning to the end of his visit with Margaret?

6. Why do you think Henry becomes sarcastic and cutting after Margaret rejects his proposal?

7. What forces Mr. Hale to leave his position at the church, and why does he ask Margaret to tell her mother instead of doing it himself?

8. Why does Mr. Hale's personal religious crisis become a family catastrophe? What does this reveal about how individual choices affect others?

9. What forces Margaret to take charge of her family's crisis, and how does she handle responsibilities that should belong to adults?

10. Why do you think Margaret's parents both retreat (into guilt and illness) while she steps forward? What makes some people leaders in crisis while others collapse?

11. Why does Margaret hide her own grief while everyone else around her cries openly?

12. What happens to a family when one person becomes the 'strong one' during a crisis?

13. What specific details about Milton-Northern immediately signal to Margaret that she's entered a completely different world from her southern England home?

14. Why do Margaret and Thornton both walk away from their first meeting with negative impressions of each other, and what is each person actually protecting themselves from?

15. What changes Margaret's attitude toward the factory workers from fear to connection?