The epistolary novel “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” by Anne Bronte is a series of letter from Gilbert Markham to his friend about the mysterious widow who has moved to Wildfell Hall, and the encounters he has with her. Asking his neighbours about her, he slowly falls in love with the standoffish and “widowed" lady Helen Graham. Along the way he is met with jealousy, rumours and being friend zoned, but his love still prevails and uncovers the shocking secrets about her past.
The characterisation of Helen and Gilbert is lifelike as they had many flaws and subconsciousness that can be seen in the writing of the letters such as Gilbert’s love for Helen growing along with his curiosity; the minor charters such as Eliza, the Pastor and Mrs Markham are also wonderfully written with their own feelings and problems. The themes in the book are quite modern thoughts such as animal cruelty, double standards and feministic traits. The major crisis in the book were the rumours and thoughts of people and the effect on other, in the book Arthur tells Helen that he is “ not
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quite satisfied with her” because she is too religious and is making him “ Jealous of one’s maker”, this highlights how women were stuck between men and religion, who ultimately are one, as she and others in the novel are dictated by what people believe they have to be. The setting of the house is also a Victorian novel postmark as the house hinting at the feelings of the characters such as Helen painting for profit rather them pleasure. The book was long and needlessly dull at some points, but it was also full of meaning and insight to the era that Anne lived in. There is not a single page where she is not commenting on the position of the church in peoples lives or how dependent females were on males for survival, such as Helens only escape being her brother. The novel also had feelings of sympathy to people who have to go through domestic abuse such as Helen’s and her recount of her domestic trauma also allowed the reader to understand her guarded position with herself and her child. Bronte condemn domestic abuse and alcoholism by creating the hated character of Arthur and giving him such traits to make the reader feel disgust for the character and the things associated with him, and thus killed him off. Helen is called the tenant of Wilfell Hall to suggest that she doesn’t belong to her surroundings but is also to show how she doesn’t fit in with her reputation as a widow into society. This coming into play when Mrs Markham exclaimed “Good gracious, my dear! The place is in ruins!” suggesting that her place in society and her reputation is decided before they even meet her. Anne Bronte is often overshadowed by her older sisters and is ridiculed by her sisters about the novel stating that is was “hardly desirable to preserve” but this is a negative representation of a book which is on the same status as Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice with her heroine Elizabeth reflected in Helen with her faults of judging people beforehand with Mr Gilbert and her virtues of being her own women and not being a wall flower but a women of intelligence and skills.
The novel is also one of a kind where other books such as Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and countless other Victorian novels, Anne does not brush over the flaws of her male romantic interests she shows that Gilbert has jealousy , is quick to anger and doesn’t not portray Arthur’s abuse throughout rose tinted glasses, unlike other authors who brush over the fact that their male characters are “ Alcoholic dickbags” to quote Hark a
Vagrant. The novel is a romance and may deter males from reading the book but the novel is so much more about the social commentary of the status of women and how society is dictating their lives, so it should be read more to broaden the perspectives of people that meaning can be found anywhere even where you don’t expect it. The novel uses uncommon language such as “he ejaculated” that may put off younger audiences and is sometimes oddly worded but so is other Victorian era literature and should not discourage readers. The novels epistolary nature makes the writing seem disconnected to the action as the writing is past tense and does not build up the tension that writing in present tense would, for example when Mr Markham and Mr Lawrence get into the fight about Mrs Graham it is written in retelling in the letter losing some of the imagery and suspense. Also the book took a long time to unfold making the novel seem dull and also repetitive in cases of Helen’s and Gilbert’s letter recounting the same incident. The novel has a lot of hidden and not hidden meanings in the text that make it relevant to todays society, the main point Anne Bronte was trying to point out was the dangers of marrying impulsively and with thought. This in Victorian society could relate to thinking about the class and general prospects of the person you were marrying just like in the book where Helen jumped into marrying Arthur who would abuse her later in the marriage and Gilbert romancing a suitor Eliza against the wishes of his mother. This can be related in today’s society where people rush in and marry without knowing who the person really is like and can cause problems such as Helen’s of domestic abuse.
In these five paragraphs I will be writing about the book “Hotel on the Corner of Sweet and Bitter” written by Jamie Ford and five quotation that important and made up the theme for me. This book gives a feel a lot of different emotions. The first quote was “‘You are Chinese aren’t you,Henry? That’s fine. Be who you are, she said, turning away, a look of disappointment in her eyes. “But I’m an American’’(p. 60). This quote is important because it shows how Keiko believes even if her parents are Japanese she feels more American then Japanese since she barely spoke Japanese.
In Stephen Dunn’s 2003 poem, “Charlotte Bronte in Leeds Point”, the famous author of Jane Eyre is placed into a modern setting of New Jersey. Although Charlotte Bronte lived in the early middle 1800’s, we find her alive and well in the present day in this poem. The poem connects itself to Bronte’s most popular novel, Jane Eyre in characters analysis and setting while speaking of common themes in the novel. Dunn also uses his poem to give Bronte’s writing purpose in modern day.
“The Palace Thief” by Ethan Canin, shows Hundert a moral person from a boarding school named St.Benedict, and taught students with different backgrounds, including 3 generation of Senator’s sons, but when one of the Senator’s sons named Sedgewick, caused Hundert to be a person who praised himself by saying ‘he did this or he became this because of me’. However, in reality, Sedgewick stole his spotlight from the reunion to Hundert going back to his landowner. “The Palace Thief” was a story about never losing one’s own morals, because it is the power to do the righteous.
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights share similarities in many aspects, perhaps most plainly seen in the plots: just as Clarissa marries Richard rather than Peter Walsh in order to secure a comfortable life for herself, Catherine chooses Edgar Linton over Heathcliff in an attempt to wrest both herself and Heathcliff from the squalid lifestyle of Wuthering Heights. However, these two novels also overlap in thematic elements in that both are concerned with the opposing forces of civilization or order and chaos or madness. The recurring image of the house is an important symbol used to illustrate both authors’ order versus chaos themes. Though Woolf and Bronte use the house as a symbol in very different ways, the existing similarities create striking resonances between the two novels at certain critical scenes.
Bronte, Charlotte. The Letters of Charlotte Bronte: 1829-1847. Ed. Margaret Smith. 2 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1995-2000.
What makes a good relationship? Many would answer love, true passionate love, is why you date someone. Candide and Northanger Abbey give a very different idea of what makes a good relationship. In both books, strong relationships are marked by two distinct traits, naivete and the decision to love someone, despite actual feelings towards them.
The three events that mark Jane as an evolving dynamic character are when she is locked in the red room, self reflecting on her time at Gateshead, her friendship with Helen Burns at LoWood, her relationship with Mr. Rochester, and her last moments with a sick Mrs. Reed. Brought up as an orphan by her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, Jane is accustomed to her aunts vindictive comments and selfish tendencies. Left out of family gatherings, shoved and hit by her cousin, John Reed, and teased by her other cousins, Georgina and Eliza Reed, the reader almost cringes at the unfairness of it all. But even at the young age of ten, Jane knows the consequences of her actions if she were to speak out against any of them. At one point she wonders why she endures in silence for the pleasure of others. Why she is oppressed. "Always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, forever condemned" (Bronte, 12). Jane’s life at Gateshead is not far from miserable. Not only is she bullied by her cousins and nagged by her aunt, but help from even Bessie, her nurse and sort of friend, seems out of her reach. In the red room scene Jane is drug by Ms. Ab...
Jane spends her first 10 years of her life at Gateshead Hall, a lavish mansion. She lived with her Aunt, Mrs Reed, and three cousins, Eliza, Georgina and John. During her time in the mansion she wouldn't dare argue with the mistress, and fulfilled every duty. Jane is deprived of love, joy and acceptance. She is very much unwanted and isolated.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre focuses on the life of a young orphan named Jane Eyre. In the beginning of the novel Jane is living with her aunt, Mrs. Reed at Gateshead Hall, where she is treated horrible by not only Mrs. Reed, but her children as well. Later in the story Mrs. Reed takes to Jane to the Lowood Institution, a charity school run by the a man named Mr. Brocklehurst. While at Lowood, Jane meets Helen Burns, who befriends Jane and ends up helping her learn how to endure personal injustices and believe in God. When Jane is 18 she starts to advertise for a job as a private tutor. After doing so, Jane gets hired to be a governess to the young Adele Varens at Thornfield manor where she meets the love of her life Mr. Rochester, the master of Thornfield manor.
Jane Eyre, the female protagonist of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, begins the novel as a ten-year old orphan living with her aunt in Victorian England. As an orphan, Jane gains very few happy experiences with her cousins—John, Georgina, and Eliza Reed—and her aunt—Mrs. Reed, and she has even fewer privileges in the Gateshead estate where she is viewed as “less than a servant [because] she does nothing for her keep” (14). However, Jane, for a youth of barely ten years, clearly communicates an intrinsic dream to find a community in which she not only feels loved and respected, but also finds that she can act independently of this community. Unfortunately, these desires work against the conventions of society that would rather see Jane be “kept humble” (36) and utilized “properly” according to her class. Nevertheless, Jane Eyre’s precise articulation, effective assimilation will help her conquer society’s conventions and gain a sense of individualism.
The novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, has a plot that is filled with an extraordinary amount of problems. Or so it seems as you are reading it. However, it comes to your attention after you have finished it, that there is a common thread running throughout the book. There are many little difficulties that the main character, the indomitable Jane Eyre, must deal with, but once you reach the end of the book you begin to realize that all of Jane's problems are based around one thing. Jane searches throughout the book for love and acceptance, and is forced to endure many hardships before finding them. First, she must cope with the betrayal of the people who are supposed to be her family - her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her children, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. Then there is the issue of Jane's time at Lowood School, and how Jane goes out on her own after her best friend leaves. She takes a position at Thornfield Hall as a tutor, and makes some new friendships and even a romance. Yet her newfound happiness is taken away from her and she once again must start over. Then finally, after enduring so much, during the course of the book, Jane finally finds a true family and love, in rather unexpected places.
In the gothic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the author hides motifs within the story.The novel contains two major love stories;The wild love of Catherine, and Heathcliff juxtaposing the serene love of Cathy,and Hareton. Catherine’s and Heathcliff's love is the center of Emily Bronte’s novel ,which readers still to this day seem to remember.The characters passion, and obsession for each other seems to not have been enough ,since their love didn't get to thrive. Hareton and Cathy’s love is what got to develop. Hareton’s and Cathy’s love got to workout ,because both characters contained a characteristic that both characters from the first generation lacked: The ability to change .Bronte employs literary devices such as antithesis of ideas, and the motif of repetition to reveal the destructiveness of wild love versus a domestic love.
Similar to many of the great feministic novels of its time, Jane Eyre purely emerges as a story focused on the quest for love. The novel’s protagonist, Jane, searches not only for the romantic side of love, but ultimately for a sense of self-worth and independence. Set in the overlapping times of the Victorian and Gothic periods, the novel touches upon both women’s supposed rights, and their inner struggle for liberty. Orphaned at an early age, Jane was born into a modest lifestyle, without any major parent roles to guide her through life’s obstacles. Instead, she spent much of her adolescent years locked in imaginary chains, serving those around her but never enjoying the many decadences life has to offer. It is not until Jane becomes a governess that many minute privileges become available to her and offer Jane a glance at what life could have been. It is on her quest for redemption and discovery that she truly is liberated. Throughout Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel Jane Eyre, the story’s protagonist Jane, struggles to achieve the balance of both autonomy and love, without sacrificing herself in the process.
While at Lowood, a state - run orphanage and educational facility, Jane’s first friend, Helen Burns, teaches her the importance of friendship along with other skills that will help Jane grow and emotionally mature in the future. She serves as a role model for Jane. Helen’s intelligence, commitment to her studies, and social graces all lead Jane to discover desirable attributes in Helen. Helen is treated quite poorly, however, “her ability to remain graceful and calm even in the face of (what Jane believes to be) unwarranted punishment makes the greatest impression on the younger girl” (Dunnington). Brontë uses this character as a way to exemplify the type of love that Jane deserves. This relationship allows Jane to understand the importance of having a true friend. Given Jane’s history at Gateshead, finding someone like Helen is monumental in her development as a person. Helen gives through honest friendship, a love that is
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte is a novel about an orphan girl growing up in a tough condition and how she becomes a mature woman with full of courage. Her life at Gateshead is really difficult, where she feels isolated and lives in fear in her childhood. Her parents are dead when she was little, her dead uncle begged his evil wife, Mrs. Reed, to take care of Jane until she becomes an adult. But Mrs. Reed does not keep her promise, no one treats Jane like their family members even treats her less than a servant. By the end of this essay it will be proven that Jane’s life at Gateshead has shaped her development as a young woman and bildungsroman.