Brontës Flashcards
Breaking away from reality in Jane Eyre (2)
- Jane refers to Rochester’s dog as “Gytrash” when she first encounters him, who is a mythical black dog said to haunt the deserted roads of northern England
- Rochester refers to Jane as a “Sprite” & a “fairy” who “bewitched” his horse
Metafiction in Tenant of Wildfell Hall (4)
Gilbert tells Halford he has “an old world story” to share,
- that it will be a “long story” complete with the “details and circumstantial details,”
- and that he will begin “with Chapter First - for it shall be a tale of many chapters” (10).
“There is such a thing as looking through a person’s eyes into the heart, and learning more of the height, and breadth, and depth of another’s soul in one hour, than it might take you a life time to discover”
–>The language signals Brontë’s awareness of the novel as a story, and, as a story, necessarily not real.
Example of Romantic Art in Tenant of Wildfell Hall (2)
- Helens early sketch, intended to be her “masterpiece” is highly idealised and romanticised landscapes
- -> “a young girl was kneeling on the daisy-spangled turf, with head thrown back and masses of fair hair falling on her shoulders, her hands clasped, lips parted, and eyes intently gazing upward in pleased, yet earnest contemplation of those feathered lovers…”
–> Subject matter is entirely ideal & fictional, and representative of her youthful and imaginative desires - the same desires and naivety that lead her to fall in love with Huntingdon
Example of Huntingdon manipulating Romanticism to patriarchal gain (3)
–> Huntingdon uses Helen’s art against her in order to manipulate her emotions towards him
“Let me have its bowels then […] as he deftly abstracted the greater parts of its contents”
He claims, in response to her burning his portrait, that “if you don’t value me, I must turn to somebody that will”
“Stained with the blood of his prey”
–> Mutilation imagery emphasises how he is taking her apart.
Support of Realism and realist art in the Tenant of Wildfell Hall (2 + Argument on benefit of realist Art)
–> Contrast to the realist landscape art she creates when at Wildfell Hall, “a view of Wildfell Hall, as seen at early morning from the field below”
Markham describes Helen’s painting of “a view of Wildfell Hall […] faithfully drawn and coloured.”
Art allows Helen to live independently from an oppressive male force → Same way Anna Bronte is using art to present a means of women finding freedom through Tenant
Teaching and education in Tenant of Wildfell Hall (2)
“You yourself would willingly undertake to be his teacher”
“’How shall I teach [Arthur], hereafter, to respect his father, and yet to avoid his example’
–> “Father” can be viewed in reference to the patriarchy, and thus teach the future (children) to respect men but not follow in the feet of the patriarchy
Feminist quotes in Jane Eyre (1)
John Reed, Jane informs the reader, “bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in the day, but continually”
Recognition of art in Jane Eyre (1)
Jane draws “fancy vignettes, representing any scene that happened momentarily to shape itself in the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of imagination”
–> ”. The “ever-shifting kaleidoscope” of Jane’s art implies a metafictional awareness of the novel’s “ever-shifting” transition between Romanticism and Realism in the texts
Example of aversion to Romanticised love in Jane Eyre (3)
Rochester addresses Jane with a “solemn passion conceived in my heart” whilst furthermore desiring to
“wrap my existence around you- and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuse you and me in one”.
Jane responds with a “shudder”
Examples of aversion to Romanticised love in Tenant of Wildfell Hall (4)
Huntingdon showers Helen with praise, referring to her as an “angel”, a “dream” and a “treasure”.
In sharp antithesis to the hyperbolic and romantic lexis employed here, Anne Brontë describes the result as leaving Huntingdon “stained with the blood of his prey”.
Practical marriage vs love marriage in Tenant of Wildfell Hall (3 vs 1)
Conflict between marriage of Huntingdon and marriage of Markham
“I am not fitted to be [Arthur’s] only companion, I know”, highlighting her marriage to Markham based partially in the necessity to adequately raise her son.
Helen’s aunt warns “Be watchful and circumspect from the very commencement of your career, and not to suffer your heart to be stolen from you by the first foolish or unprincipled person that covets the possession of it”
“When I tell you not to marry without love, I do not advise you to marry for love alone - there are many other things to be considered”
VS
Marrying Huntingdon because he was “lively and entertaining” proved to fail
Significance of Helen’s Aunt in Tenant of Wildfell Hall (3)
Before Huntingdon is even met, she warns Helen, “Be watchful and circumspect from the very commencement of your career, and not to suffer your heart to be stolen from you by the first foolish or unprincipled person that covets the possession of it”
vs
Markham’s claim that “[Helen’s aunt] received [him] very kindly” and the pair “got along marvellously well together”.
“Aunt” offers logos and the image of a wise, old, and naturing woman
Practical marriage vs love marriage in Jane Eyre (1 vs 1)
Charlotte Bronte presents two contrasting depictions of marriage in the first (failed) union of Jane and Rochester, and their later successful marriage
First marriage based on “passionate”, romanticised love
Jane claimed, “my future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world”
vs
Second marriage, plain and simple: “reader, I married him. A quiet wedding we had”
–> Simple language, and largely monosyllabic lexis
Examples of marriage as the necessary ending to Tenant of Wildfell Hall (rather than a failure of feminism)
Helen’s Aunt: “Could [Helen] have been contented to remain single, I own I should have been better satisfied; but if she must marry again, I know of no one, now living and of suitable age, to whom I would more willing resign her to, or who would be more likely to appreciate her worth and make her truly happy, as far as I can tell”
- -> “if she must marry again” is key: society had not reached a stage whereby women could simply live without the presence of men
- -> If the Brontë’s wanted to truly portray the reality of the female condition, their women must marry, must continue to be subjugated, as this was the reality for Victorian women.
Examples of dismissal of female voice in Tenant of Wildfell Hall (4 + 2 explanation/significance)
-Huntingdon is only ever displayed through the voice of Helen’s diary, which allows her account to be questioned on the basis of her femininity.
–> Whilst Helen can describe how her husband is a manipulative “drunkard” with “heartless depravity”, who calls her a “slut” and has an affair with Lady Lowborough, the men in the novel consistently dismiss or ignore the female voice entirely.
- Huntingdon repeatedly refers to Helen’s melancholy as “nonsense”
- Helen’s cries of, “Let me go Mr Hargrave!” to which “he only tightened his grip”
Despite Helen’s insistence upon Millicent’s affliction to Hattersely, he claims
- “she likes me all the same, whatever I do” and
- “how can I tell that I am oppressing her?”
–> Existential paradox for the feminist novel at the time: In order to empower the woman, Bronte had to give the voice to a woman, but in doing so was providing a voice that would be inherently dismissed and doubted
