Hannah Thornton (Sinead Cusack)
Hannah Thornton is Mr. Thornton's tough and disciplined mother. She is harder on the mill workers than he is! She is so proud of her son and loves him more than she loves anything else. She's seen her share of hardship and she put her son in a position to climb out of that. In fact, after Margaret accuses him of being more affluent than others only because he was lucky, Mr. Thornton argues that his only luck was having her for a mother. She does not like Margaret at any time during the movie. She is totally impatient with the Hale's way of life and feeling. She never approves of her son's choice of Margaret and she approves even less after Margaret's rejection. She doesn't think Margaret is worthy of her son. Her opinion is that Margaret is part of a dying age that values birth and breeding more than work and ambition. She thinks that mindset is out of date and impractical. Her son is not a titled gentleman but he has as much money and power as one. This is because he worked for it. To her, that is everything.