Nineteenth Century Women Writers and the Challenge of Gender Roles: Feminist Heroines in the Novels of the Brontë Sisters (original) (raw)
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(En)gendering Romanticism: A Study of Charlotte Bronte's Novels
1996
Brown 1 Chapter I Introduction: Bronte's Feminized Romanticism: "If you knew my thoughts, the dreams that absorb me, and the fiery imagination that at times eats me up, and makes me feel society, as it is, wretchedly insipid, you would pity and I dare say despise me," Charlotte Bronte wrote to her friend Ellen Nussey in May,1836 (Wise and Symington 1:139). The portrait o f herself that she presents is that o f a Romantic artist, consumed by the fire o f her imagination which alienates her from society. She is an outcast because her dreams elevate her above the prosaic people around her. That is the Byronic Bronte who bears her mark o f Cain with Satanic pride. Yet, Bronte's Romanticism is also informed by the other Romantics. She greatly admired Wordsworth's poetry and was familiar with Coleridge's. She was also sufficiently versed in Shelley to quote from Prometheus Unbound. 1 Shelley's conception o f poetic imagination clearly informs Bronte's; there are parallels between her and Keats on the subject as well. Her challenge to norms o f society and literary genres, and the enforced silence o f female voices in both, is fueled by her Romantic spirit o f protest. In this respect she offers an analogue to the radicalism o f Blake. Yet Bronte's social protest included her objection to the situation o f women, an objection that also applied to their placement within Romanticism as defined by the male poets. Bronte's Romantic inspiration, therefore, is also informed by the female Romantics who gave voice to women's issues, most notably in the feminist arguments o f Mary Wollstonecraft. Romanticism is a term that evokes manifold associations. However, an exploration o f the movement of Romanticism in all of its facets is beyond the scope of this study which is limited to the aspects that bear on Bronte's writing. In particular, Bronte was drawn to Romanticism for its elevation o f subjectivity, the poet's creative Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Brown 9 spiritual journey and her state o f mind. Jane's own restless pacing allies her with the imprisoned mad Bertha; both women chafe at the checks imposed on their desires. The image o f the discontented woman's refusal to sit submissively still, a feature o f all o f the novels, becomes paramount in Villette. Lucy, despite her passive appearance, walks her own way to achieving independence. From her initial walk under the aurora borealis to her penultimate walk, a deliberately transgressive nocturnal escape to the park, she rebels against the fateful restraints imposed on her. Her ultimate walk is the one that leads to her own house, her own school, and her own independent life. The function o f walking in Bronte's writing bears out Moers's assertion that "[a] whole history o f literary feminism might be told in terms o f the metaphor o f walking" (130). The heroines' walking, like their creator's writing, constitutes an assertion o f self in defiance o f the physical or literary restrictions imposed on women. Thus walking for Bronte was associated with her writing, for it served as an outlet for her otherwise suppressed wild spirit and as means to imaginative contemplation. Bronte's writing was not merely a continuation o f the authorized route o f women writers but a deviation, a transgressive excursion onto the road untrodded by female feet, that o f the male literary tradition as defined by Romanticism. The image o f the walk, according to Rachel Bowlby, warrants two views "of women's writing: as a question o f progress, forward along a given line, or a question o f transgressiveness implicit in the position outside that o f masculine normality" (45). Bronte both advanced Romanticism and transgressed its norms by displacing its masculinist center, engendering a feminized Romanticism. Bronte's rendering o f Romanticism is not synonymous with what Anne K. Mellor calls the "female Romanticism" o f the female contemporaries o f the six male poets enshrined by the English canon. The women who wrote during the Romantic period
CELEBRATING WOMANHOOD IN 19TH CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE
The role of women in the society is constantly questioned, and for centuries, women have struggled to find their place in a world that is predominantly male-oriented. Literature provides a window to the lives, thoughts, and actions of women during certain period of times in a fictitious form. In most of the English novels, the female characters appear as more heroic figures than their male counterparts. This paper focuses on the novels of 19th century England. For the discussion, it choses Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre, Lucie Mannette in a A Tale of Two Cities and Tess D’Urberville in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, as they belong to the group of the most powerful women characters who possess all the heroic qualities like courage, virtue, honesty and strong sense of individuality. The paper argues that they are not only successful in playing their traditional roles as daughters, wives or mothers, but also successful as individuals, retaining their identity under extreme pressure of patriarchic society.
Beyond the Ideal: Anne Brontë's Realistic Feminism
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This article offers a fresh perspective on Anne Brontë's feminist stance in her novels The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Agnes Grey. While previous scholars have criticized Brontë's portrayal of her female protagonists in a manner that contradicts her feminist message, this article argues that Brontë's nuanced portrayal of the complexities of female subjectivity within the social, cultural, and historical constraints of her time is essential to her feminist stance. Anne Brontë empowers her female characters with realistic feminine tools to cope with the patriarchal suppression they face and calls for a rethinking of the miserable situation of women in the Victorian patriarchal society. The article argues that Brontë's aim is not to call for an impossible revolution through an ideal feminine figure but rather to promote action based on the reality of the situation. This article's originality lies in its fresh and sophisticated interpretation of Brontë's feminist stance that avoids reducing her characters to mere symbols of resistance and acknowledges the complexities of female subjectivity in a patriarchal society.
THE VICTORIAN WOMEN IN THE NOVELS OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË
2016
This study, entitled The Victorian Women in the Novels of Charlotte Brontë is qualitative in nature that used content analysis. The study used and analyzed Charlotte Brontë‘s novels namely; Shirley, Villette, and The Professor. This study identified and analyzed the major women characters in Charlotte Brontë‘s novels. It also studied how the characters reflected the life and times of the author. Using the Formalistic and the Biographical Approaches, the researcher came to the results: that women characters like Frances and Lucy belonged to the working class, and they later develop their status through their own effort to middle class but Shirley belonged to the upper class; that their roles were an heiress, a lady of the manor, a lady-companion, a nursery governess, a teacher, a governess-pupil, a wife, a mother, and a irectress; and that through these roles they possessed character traits such as independent, compassionate, and helpful. This study came to the conclusions: that women statuses are derived from their roles in the society; that women character traits are derived from their status and roles; and that the portrayal and representation of Brontë‘s women characters reflect her own time and life experiences.
CEPOS, 2017
Abstract Many authors began to write about the sufferings and endurances of women in the Victorian Age. More and more novels focused heavily on traditional, typical Victorian female characters and their interactions. As to the movement for the emancipation of woman from the unjust burdens and disabilities to which the five authors made it a subject to reveal the benign qualities of woman, Hardy, Thackeray, Gaskell, Trollope and George Eliot also focused the condition of woman, besides Charles Dickens and the Brontë sisters – with a remarkable account of the social institutions of Victorian London. This does not mean that those novelists held feminist ideas, they simply he wanted to give woman her feminine privileges and rights. This study aims to explore most important Victorian writers who wrote about woman to seek the accuracy of Victorian views towards women. Charles Dickens was a pioneer in dealing with the kind of woman that was identified in that era. We also include Thomas Hardy and Charlotte Brontë who had different ideas in this point
Charlotte Brontë: Voice, Agency, Spaces
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The theme of overcoming adversity and finding yourself is a common trope in realist fiction, particularly a Bildungsroman. This dissertation will offer a feminist critique of the works of Villette (1853) and Jane Eyre (1847), with the question of displacement as a rite of passage that forges freedom, resistance, and happiness for women of the working class. The psychological voyage the protagonists Jane and Lucy embark on is painfully forged with survival at the forefront of their bildung prior to their growth and independence.
The Image of Victorian Women as Depicted in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
2020
This paper attempts to explore how successful Charlotte Bronte is in creating for her novel Jane Eyre a heroine of her age, dramatizing her own autobiography, including social problems that she encountered as a woman during the Victorian era. And how she can tackle and address many nineteenth century Victorian social problems such as class and gender inequality, race prejudice, and religious beliefs. The research uses the descriptive analytical method, and in it is revealed that Bronte has deliberately created Jane, the main character along with other female characters to refute Victorian inherited conventions that treated women unfairly, many critics and writers think and confirm that women were oppressed during Victorian era. Bronte made an innovation by raising a powerful, passionate, female character who can articulate her thought, and fight for her rights. This portrayal contracts with the real women images of Victorian time, who were oppressed and marginalized by men. It is su...