One of the major branches of existing studies on North and South is gender study. By in-depth analysis of working women and single women in Mrs. Gaskell’s novels, Hu Yile points out that Mrs. Gaskell judges male and female objectively on the same moral foundation, and queries about feminist issues. Chen Lizhen couples the separation of social space with sexual politics, he questions critics’ defining Margaret transgression the separation of social space as triumph of women’s gender empowerment, and claims that her salvation is propped up by moral power of conventional patriarchal society; in addition, he presents that her saving Thornton’s career reflects the personification of loan capital. Fu Yanhui analyzed the novel with Victorian domestic ideology, she finds out that Mrs. Gaskell hopes for repositioning of the role Victorian middle-class women are expected to play and widening their sphere.

     Another is class conflict. Chen Jiao’e and He Chang introduce “Structure of Feeling” of Raymond Williams to compare and explore Mary Barton and North and South, it is concluded that the persity of “structure of feelings” contributes to different emphasis in the two novels: Mary Barton embodies the “structure of feeling” of the working class while North and South embodies that of middle class. 源]自=751-·论~文"网·www.751com.cn/

     Zhu Hong proposes a cultural perspective to study North and South and concludes that, industrialization is an irreversible trend of history and Mrs. Gaskell advocates the perfection of internal virtue as to build a humane society.

     Zhou Xianghua has an ecofeminist approach to North and South. Based on the analysis of Mrs. Gaskell’s ingenious design about the conflicts between north and south in the novel, she explores the exposure and deconstruction of binary oppositions between women and men, nature and industrial culture, and interprets Mrs. Gaskell’s eco-feminist thoughts presented in the novel.