To what extend did Victorian women writers such as Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre) and Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights) relate to the historical context of love in their literature?
The Victorian era spanned over many years, from 1837-1901. Throughout these years, women were treated differently in many areas and this stretched from marriage to sexuality. Women were not treated as equals, and two of the most prominent Victorian women writers of the time, Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte, reflected the theme of love in their novels as love consistently shadowed Victorian women’s everyday life. Jane Eyre, published in 1847, by Charlotte Bronte and Wuthering Heights, published in 1847, by Emily Bronte are the main novels which I will be focusing on, as they include the theme of love which relates directly to the historical context and how it was perceived at that time.
The Victorian era, 1837-1901, was a time of great historical change and a time of many prominent themes. It was regarded as the era of Romanticism. During the Victorian period, men and women’s roles became a lot more sharply defined than at any other period of time in history. As the 19th century began to get into full swing, men began to commute to their place of work, while women were left at home to oversee domestic duties. As time went on, those domestic tasks were increasingly being carries out by servants. The two separate sexes were being viewed as completely different, with nothing in common within their daily lives. The Victorians thought of themselves as “separate spheres”, they had completely different lives to one another and only came together again at breakfast and dinner. There were many stereotypical views against women, they were frequently thought of as being physically weaker yet morally superior to men. As this was the main view at the time, people believed that women were best suited to the domestic, stay at home life while the men could go out and work.
Another large issue which occurred during the Victorian era was that marriage and sexuality had strong views by many people. Young girls were not expected to focus on finding a husband, as it should not have been a priority. If you appeared to be eager to find a husband or enjoy being in the company of men it suggested a worrying sexual appetite. However, there was another belief that women could desire marriage as it allowed them to become mothers and to start a family rather than pursue emotional or sexual satisfaction. It was typical women to marry in their early to mid 20s, usually the groom would be around 5 years older. This gave the women’s parents more security as it made more financial sense, as it would be deemed that he would have enough money to support her and any other future children which they may have. The laws which were around at the time stated that when a woman got married, their husbands would then take care of them. Before the 1882 Married Property Act became used and effective, when a woman was married all of her wealth was passed to him. Post marriage, if a woman worked, her own earnings then belonged to the husband and she got none of it. The Victorians believed that middle and upper class women had to become fully dependent of her husband. After marriage, divorce was a very difficult process and it mostly didn’t happen. However, the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 allowed husbands to be able to get a divorce but only if their wife had committed adultery. If the divorce had happened, the husband were allowed to keep the children and the mother could be prevented from seeing them. If married women discovered that their husband has been commuting adultery, they would not be allowed to get a divorce. This is due to Victorian men in general having more power and so being able to mostly do what they want.
If a woman became a mother, it was confirmation that she had “entered the world of womanly virtue and female fulfilment.” In the Victorian era, if a woman did not become pregnant or did not become a mother, she would have been labelled a failure and she would have been treated as if she was abnormal. If you were single and didn’t have children you would have been encouraged to be a nursery maid or a governess as this highlights that you were at least caring for children.
Charlotte Brontë held strong feelings about how women had a very limited role in life and society and reflected this in her 1847 novel, Jane Eyre.
“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing the piano and embroidering bags.” (Ch.12)
Prostitution haunted the middle-class home in the Victorian era. Some Victorian women serviced the needs for men, this happened both before and after marriage. The prostitute was therefore a worker in the economic market place as she exchanged her services for cash. As prostitutes were seen as a worker in the economic market placer this created a vision within them that they were equals to men as they both had a deserving place in the economic market and gave the Victorian women some form of equality which they believed they deserved.
*Courtship was popular and was a tradition in the Victorian era. However, there were extremely cautious when dealing with them. They dated in stages which were seen as socially acceptable. The first date would involve the gentleman and the woman speaking to each other, the second date would involve them going on a walk and finally they frequently were in each other’s company. They then socialised at different events. The lower class socialised at church whereas the upper class socialised at larger social events. There was strict rules which had to be followed in order for it to be deemed acceptable. The first and main method which people used in order to find a partner was to attend a ball/dance. When a women attended one of these it was seen as “coming out” and was an indication that the young lady was interested in finding a partner. As soon as you found a “partner” and began dating it was assumed that you would get married, this led to little route of escape. A woman was never allowed to go out by herself and meet a gentleman, if she went, she would have to be accompanied by an elderly person. However she had to get her mothers permission before she could go out anywhere. Once married, all of the woman’s possessions and property went straight to her husband.
Victorian courting had a number of strict rules which always had to be obeyed. A single woman could never address a gentlemen without him being introduced to her. In addition, single women were not allowed to hear or participate in any impure conversations. No physical contact was allowed between the gentleman and the woman until after marriage this coincides with the fact that a woman could not be at home with a man alone unless another family member was also present in the room.
The only touch between a gentleman and a woman which was deemed acceptable was if a man offered the woman his hand If the road was uneven and there was a danger of her falling. However, during that stage of courtship, the woman was never allowed to walk with the gentleman. At night the rules were again very strict, an unmarried girls could never date a man at night and he was not allowed to stay for too long of a period in a woman’s room, this was because it was considered highly impolite. In addition to this, the woman should never have been invited by any gentleman back at his house as this was also deemed unacceptable. If the woman was not engaged or related to the gentleman, she was never allowed to accept any expensive gifts which the gentleman may have offered to her. Once they were engaged, the gentleman was never allowed to see another woman and no sexual behaviour was allowed even after an engagement. However being engaged did allow the couple to have a few more benefits. This includes taking unchaperoned rides, having separate walks alone and being able to hold hands in public. They were allowed to meet at each other’s houses but by the time it was night they had to be separated once again. The engagement could never be called off, as it would tarnish a woman’s reputation. After all this, the marriage was the final step in courtship. Marriage was allowed and respected if the woman and gentleman was from the same social class, marriage was not allowed if the couple were from different social classes. The woman, after marriage, then had to play the newly formed role of wife and mother.
Charlotte Bronte was one of the most prominent Victorian women writers of her time as she “challenged 19th-century conceptions of appropriate female behaviour through the creation of a heroine who works, demands respect and combines self-control with passion and rebellion.”
Jane Eyre which was published in 1847, links directly to historical context at the time, there was working class uprisings of the Charists, who demanded that working people should get the vote. Simultaneously, there was a number of political revolutions which were sweeping across Europe. Jane Eyre highlights that women should be able to act and behave how they would like and not performing to social restraints. She believed in having equal education and being able to freely have romance whenever you liked. However, in Lady Eastlake’s eyes, this was very close to an overthrowing of social order. Throughout the novel, Jane frequently demands respect and equality.
“Do you think” , she demands of Rochester, “I am an automaton? – a machine without feelings?”
Jane, within the novel, began having a romantic relationship with her employer, which within itself broke all the rules of the Victorian social hierarchy.
Jane Eyre was courted by St John Rivers and she feared that if they married, he would “scrupulously observe … all the forms of love.” This in itself didn’t appeal to Jane as she didn’t want sex with St John Rivers if they was no form of romantic love behind it. This links back to historical context that Victorian women mainly resorted to prostitution in order to earn money and how men frequently believed that they would always get what they wanted. However Jane did not give in and have sex with St John Rivers as she felt as it would force her “to burn inwardly and never utter a cry.” (Ch.34)
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Wuthering Heights deeply explores and investigates many different types of love.
The novel is structured around two parallel love stories, with the first half focusing on the love between Catherine and Heathcliff and the second half focuses mainly on love which has developed between Catherine and Hareton. Throughout the novel, there is many forms of romantic relationships on display such as Heathcliff and Catherine’s passion for one another which is highly destructive and the love with Catherine and Edgar has which is civilised and has much less passion. It is deemed at the time to be a more socially acceptable type of love. Overall, Catherine and Heathcliff’s passion for one another is the central relationship within the novel, this is due to the fact that it is the source of most of the major conflicts that structures the whole of the novels plot.
In the novel, the most important and prominent relationship is the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine. Catherine strongly fell in love with Heathcliff, who was the orphan that Mr Earnshaw brought home from Liverpool, who grows up to be a servant. She claimed in the novel that they were the same person and that they both had the same believes and so that was a reason for how deeply in love they were. Catherine was always interested in keeping her social status high and though that she would be looked down upon to marry Heathcliff who was an orphan who then grows up to be a servant. As she didn’t feel that marrying Heathcliff would be good for her social advancement she decided to marry Edgar Linton instead. Throughout the novel she was constantly torn between her social ambition and her deep love and passion for Heathcliff. Catherine was always focused and curious of Heathcliff’s social standing that at the beginning of the novel she deeply questions whether he will be able to love her at all and frequently thinks that she deserves a man of social class than him. Heathcliff and Catherine’s love for each other was partly created by the nostalgia of their childhood and so may be a reason why their love was so deep. Their love went beyond the boundaries which were deemed acceptable at the time; their love was created due to rebellion and wasn’t fully focused on sexual desire and physical appearance. Both of them did not understand their deep love for one another as they both betray each other. This occurs as as they both marry a different person who they do not love as much as they love each other. Heathcliff was so frustrated that she chose to marry Edgar Linton rather than himself, this caused him to want revenge and so illustrated how powerful and cruel he could truly be and how much he truly loved her.
(The love between Catherine and Heathcliff is a large exaggeration of the love between Catherine and Edgar. Catherine and Heathcliff’s love is founded primarily on Edgar’s weakness).
There is a love between Hareton and Cathy which balances the traits of the others relationships, they have passion without destructiveness and they also have the gentleness but without the dullness and the high level of inequality regarding power.
“Well, if I cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend – if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I’ll try to break their hearts by breaking my own. That will be a prompt way of finishing it all, when I am pushed to extremity!” Ch.11
“I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same and is as different as a moonbeam from lighting, or frost from fire.” (Ch.11)
Hareton and Cathy -> their love story involves growth and change
Catherine and Heathcliff’s love -> based on their shared perception that they are identical. They love is based on the fact that they refuse to change over time and they refuse to embrace differences in others. In the novel, Catherine declared “I am Heathcliff,” while Heathcliff when Catherine died, wailed that he couldn’t not live without his “soul.” His “soul” meaning Catherine. They do not kiss in dark corners or arrange secret times for one another to meet up together.