So i know my blog is late but in a way i’m glad it is because today’s discussion changed the way i am viewing the novel.  I don’t really have a thing for mrs. norval, or for lavinia or any of the other women in the book.  what i don’t like is having to define the novel as being from a feminist or non-feminist point-of-view.  I just don’t think Ruiz de Burton wanted future generations to look at her story as being about the power that women do or do not have.  I really see this novel as being about people and the state of the world at the time and how everyone coped with their situations.  Yes, the women in this novel play very central roles, and have a lot of power (whether it is acknowledged by the men or not) and they all know their own strength (ex 1: [pg94] mrs. cackle admires mrs. norval and the wives of the ‘divines’ and looks up to them because they are stronger women than she.  it takes dr. norval’s generosity to bring mrs. cackle – and her family – to the same status as the other women, but she still views them as the more affluential and reports back to them regularly.  ex 2: [pg 51] ruth knows that her father has no real power in the household and that she ‘enjoys managing her mother’ because she holds the actual power within the family).