Bessie Higgins (Anna Maxwell Martin)
Bessie is Nicholas Higgins daughter. She and Margaret become very close. She is sick for the entirety of the movie. This sickness came from working in the cotton mills all her life. The cotton is in her lungs and she struggles breathing. Eventually, she dies from this. She represents a member of the working class who has no say in her circumstances. She was required to work as a child and by the time she was a teenager, she was beyond repair. She is forced to watch her father take on the strike and fail. She's dragged through the ups and downs caused by the men. Higgins says, "She lived the life of a dog." Her life was so horrible, the audience feels happy for her when she finally dies and feels no more pain.