Bronte Flashcards
What is the first Victorian theme?
Gender, sexuality, domestic ideology
What is the second Victorian theme?
Poverty, unrest, social criticism
What is the third Victorian theme?
Doubt, self-reflection, Romanticism
What is the fourth Victorian theme?
Art, aesthetics, critique of Victorian values
What is the fifth Victorian theme?
Progress, science, colonial expansion
Who was Sarah Stickney Ellis?
She wrote Female Conduct Guides: home managers for the advancement of husbands and sons
Denis de Rougement’s Theory
passion must entail obstructions (pleasure is forbidden, pain, yearning, never obtaining)
Niklas Luhmann’s Book
Love as Passion
Medieval Courtly Love
the idealization of love because of beauty
Amour
the passion of the 17th-18th century French aristocracy, sexuality, illicit love affairs
Romantic love
marrying due to desire and affection
19th Century English Marriage
to secure establishment for females, to have families as a duty to God and country
Passion
Inherently opposed to reason
Overrides thoughts, self-control
Irrational, wrong, dangerous, can’t help yourself
Not just risk, inevitable, unavoidable, unendurable pain, sorrow, death (ex. Romeo and Juliet, “parting is such sweet sorrow”)
Lord Byron
Handsome, charming, and sexually unconventional
Abandoned by dad, volatile mom, molested by nursemaid
Inherits title, loves Greece, celebrity, marries, meets up with Shelleys
Dies @ 36, one of the first focal points of modern journalism
Addiction
Alcohol safer than untreated water
Cholera epidemics common
Boil drinks (tea) or drink alcohol
Opium, opiates, and laudanum are common treatments for both kids and adults
Recreational drug use also flourished
Confession of an English Opium-Eater
(1821) autobiography of laudanum addiction
Dangerous Drugs Act of 1920
banned opium
Coverture
upon marriage, a wife’s legal status, property, and existence were subsumed by that of her husband’s
Once married, everything she had or will have is his alone, with no legal recourse in case of infidelity, abuse, neglect
“Madwoman in the Attic”
Gilbert and Gubar - highly influential
Thesis: confinement of female characters to “angel” and “monster” stemmed from male writer’s tendency to categorize women
Argument: must kill off both monster and angel because neither is accurate
Brontes’ House
Haworth Parsonage
Brontë Sisters Portrait
Books, dark colors, fold/creases on painting, discovered years after their death (1914), painted by brother Branwell (edited self out), positioned himself in center, replacement looks like a light beam
Charlotte (18) Emily (16) Anne (14)
Juvenilia
Work made during artist/author’s youth
12 toy soldiers → fantasy world “Glass Town federation”
Charlotte and Branwell - Angria, continued to write in minute script
Emily and Anne - Gondal (very important to Emily)
Combined fact and fiction, based on historical figures
Presided over their stories as genii
Wrote from childhood into their 20s
Poetry
Charlotte discovers Emily’s poetry
Anne and Charlotte have also been writing
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846) - hid names with Christian, masculine names
Sisters spend evenings in their sitting room discussing writings (after poetry is published)
Charlotte’s poetry
200+ poems about Glasstown or Angria, some biographical, experimented
Her wish to be “forever known” as a poet
Developing ability to express feelings, how she was influenced by other writers