I'm not at all sure JA intended us to view Lady Russell as a villaness: it all depends on ones definition thereof, I daresay.

I think JA paints her as a strong, complicated women. She is certainly not one dimensional as the epithet "villaness " might indicate.

She is not depicted as severe, in one scene she actually laughs-and not many 'older women in JAs works do that. She is shown as a woman capeable of great love-for Anne and her mother. She is certainly, along with one other man, the only person in the book and the Elliot's circle who is perceptive enough to appreciate properly Anne's quiet qualities of intelligence and moral strength.

But she is also portrayed as someone who is sometimes blinded by rank, and who is not above using emotional blackmail (in my view) to try and get what she wants.