Maria Hale (Lesley Manville)
Maria Hale is Margaret's mother. Throughout the movie, we discover that she was a vivacious, kind, and beautiful youth who married for love rather than money. Love doesn't seem to quite cut it for her. She is frail and discontent no matter where she is. She does love her husband and they have a good relationship but she never completely gets over the move from Helstone to Milton. She suffers mainly from "low spirits." This is not considered a viable cause for death in the fast-paced, cutthroat north. Nevertheless, it does weaken her until she eventually dies. She doesn't attempt to adapt socially to the north. She stays in the house wishing for the past and missing her son. She becomes representative of those who have been made soft by the comfortable rural nature of the past and are unable to adapt to the energy and ambition of the industrial revolution.