Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In Charlotte Bronte's novels, the importance accorded to female homosocial relationships - such as friendship and the mother-daughter relationship - challenges the conventional structure of the Victorian realist novel, in which the focus of the female protagonist's development is almost exclusively on the eventual achievement of heterosexual marriage Structurally. heterosexual marriage at closure re-establishes the status quo that has been threatened or destabilised during the unfolding of the plot. Yet what Bronte's novels reveal, is that the status quo thus re-established also confirms patriarchy as a system in which the bonds between men are consolidated to maintain social, political and economic power as a male prerogative By contrast, the ideology that promotes marriage as the sine qua non of women's existence positions women as rivals and the representation of female homosocial relationships in the nineteenth-century novel is either relegated to the margins of the text or erased entirely. In Bronte's novels, the structural relationship between this conventional displacement of female homosocial relationships and the silencing and containment of female desire in heterosexual marriage at closure is consistently explored and subverted. In an increasingly complex process of rewriting the Victorian novel from a female perspective, Bronte's novels construct alternative plots that privilege the representation of female homosocial relationships even as they imitate conventional plot structure In so doing. the gendering of narrative voice as female lays claim to a female discourse of desire. which is rooted in female homosociality and inclusive of lesbian desire. Compulsory (female) heterosexuality which is exclusively domestic and maternal. IS therefore challenged by an alternative representation of female desire as defiant of the ngid categories Imposed by heterosexuality. because it is fiurd and multiple in Its expression This thesis explores the process of recuperation through which Bronte both places the representation of female hornosocial relationships at the centre of her novels and reveals patriarchal structures of control at work / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In die romans van Charlotte Bronte konfronteer the sentraliteit van vroulike homososiale verhoudings - soos vriendskap en die moeder-dogter verhouding - die konvensionele struktuur van die Victoriaanse realistiese roman. Volgens hierdie konvensionele struktuur is die fokus van die vroulike protagonis se ontwikkeling bykans uitsluitlik gerig op haar uiteindelike toetrede tot 'n heteroseksuele huwelik. Struktureel gesproke herstel die heteroseksuele huwelik by die sluiting van die roman die status quo wat bedreig of gedestabiliseer is gedurende die ontplooing van die roman. Wat Bronte se romans egter aan die lig bring, is dat die status quo wat so herstel word, ook die patriargale sisteem bevestig - waarbinne die bande tussen mans gekonsolideer word ten einde sosiale politieke en ekonomiese mag as 'n manlike prerogatief te waarborg Die ideologie wat die huwelik voorhou as die sine qua non van die vrou se bestaan posisioneer vroue as mededingers, en hierdeur word die uitbeelding van vroulike homososiale verhoudings in die negentiende-eeuse roman verskuif na die buitewyke van die teks, of word dit algeheel uitgewis. In Bronte se romans word die strukturele verwantskap tussen hierdie konvensionele verplasing van vroulike homososiale verhoudings en die demping of beheer van vroulike begeerte in die heteroseksuele huwelik voortdurend in die roman se sluiting ondersoek en ondermyn In 'n proses wat 'n toenemend ingewikkelde herskrywing van die Victonaanse roman vanuit 'n vroulike qesiqspunt inhou. stel Bronte se romans alternatiewc verwikkelinqsplanne saam wat voorrang gee aan die uitbeelding van vroulike hornososiale verhoudings terwyl hierdie storieplanne konvensionele struktuurplanne naboots. Ole manier waarop die verteller se stem so vervroulik word gee uiting aan 'n vroulike diskoers van begeerte wat gewortel IS In vroulike hornososialiteit en wat lesbiese begeerte insluit Verpliqte (vroullke) heteroseksualiteit. wat uitsluitlik huislik en moederlik IS, word dus gekonfronteer deur 'n alternatiewe uitbeeldinq van vroulike begeerte wat die rigiede kateqoriee opqele deur heteroseksualiteit verwerp en meer vloeibare en veelsoortiqe vorme van ultdrukklng daarstel Hierdie tests ondersoek die herstellinqsprcses waardeur Bronte die uitbeeldinq van vroulike hornososiale verhoudinqs sentraal plaas In haar romans, terwyl sy terselfdertyd die werkswyses van patriargale beheerstrukture aan die lig bring.

This thesis is a study of rebellious child protagonists in Victorian bildungsroman. It discusses five novels ??? Jane Eyre, The Mill on the Floss, What Maisie Knew, Vanity Fair and Kim ??? that feature ???radical child??? protagonists who use indirect methods of narrative control to resist conservative models of character development. It argues that these novels form a subset of subversive English bildungsromane, which threaten the genre???s traditionally liberal values. Theories of narrative desire, reader seduction and discursive manipulation are used to reveal how the radical child in the Victorian bildungsroman takes command of the reader???s sympathy and gains power over the realist text, despite its physical and social powerlessness. Especially important is the presence of a fantasy counterplot, which coexists with, and ultimately undermines, the bildungsroman???s realistic surface narrative of successful socialisation. The counterplot allows radical child protagonists to develop in a non-linear manner that contradicts bourgeois ideals of stable progress. Focusing instead on sites of rupture between the individual and society, subversive bildungsromane resist both the dialectical model of character, which aims to harmoniously unite the protagonist with the realist world, and the dialogic model of interaction, which requires the restriction of personal liberty for the common good. This rebellious child in the Victorian bildungsroman thus represents an assault on the genre???s democratic ideals. Rejecting compromise, the radical child replaces the bildungsroman???s central ethic of interpersonal responsibility with an individualistic ethic of domination. Indeed, the thesis argues that the appeal of such child protagonistslies in their rejection of the obligatory, but anticlimactic, exchange of freedom for security that underpins the realist bildungsroman???s social contract, a rejection attractive to the reader precisely because it is unrealisable in reality. Finally, the thesis compares this radical child with the Gothic monster. While the monster is punished for its subversion, the radical child???s counterplot enables it to enact most of its subversive desires unpunished. The conservative English bildungsroman thus becomes a more effective way of representing asocial energies than the more obviously radical Gothic genre, which openly displays its anti-democratic sentiments.

This thesis is a study of rebellious child protagonists in Victorian bildungsroman. It discusses five novels ??? Jane Eyre, The Mill on the Floss, What Maisie Knew, Vanity Fair and Kim ??? that feature ???radical child??? protagonists who use indirect methods of narrative control to resist conservative models of character development. It argues that these novels form a subset of subversive English bildungsromane, which threaten the genre???s traditionally liberal values. Theories of narrative desire, reader seduction and discursive manipulation are used to reveal how the radical child in the Victorian bildungsroman takes command of the reader???s sympathy and gains power over the realist text, despite its physical and social powerlessness. Especially important is the presence of a fantasy counterplot, which coexists with, and ultimately undermines, the bildungsroman???s realistic surface narrative of successful socialisation. The counterplot allows radical child protagonists to develop in a non-linear manner that contradicts bourgeois ideals of stable progress. Focusing instead on sites of rupture between the individual and society, subversive bildungsromane resist both the dialectical model of character, which aims to harmoniously unite the protagonist with the realist world, and the dialogic model of interaction, which requires the restriction of personal liberty for the common good. This rebellious child in the Victorian bildungsroman thus represents an assault on the genre???s democratic ideals. Rejecting compromise, the radical child replaces the bildungsroman???s central ethic of interpersonal responsibility with an individualistic ethic of domination. Indeed, the thesis argues that the appeal of such child protagonistslies in their rejection of the obligatory, but anticlimactic, exchange of freedom for security that underpins the realist bildungsroman???s social contract, a rejection attractive to the reader precisely because it is unrealisable in reality. Finally, the thesis compares this radical child with the Gothic monster. While the monster is punished for its subversion, the radical child???s counterplot enables it to enact most of its subversive desires unpunished. The conservative English bildungsroman thus becomes a more effective way of representing asocial energies than the more obviously radical Gothic genre, which openly displays its anti-democratic sentiments.

This dissertation explores the ambiguous nature of the social criticism in Charlotte Brontë’s novels — Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette and The Professor — particularly pertaining to patriarchal ideology and its associated power relations. I shall explore how, through her novels, Brontë sought to redefine subjectivity and the feminine ideal, and in so doing, reconfigure patriarchy’s gender norms and its ideologies which were oppressive to women. However, Brontë’s varying contestation of and acquiescence to female Victorian stereotypes, along with her equivocal representation of ideology, identity, gender, and the self, undermine her efforts to create a new model of womanhood and female empowerment. Nonetheless, through Brontë’s intimate depiction of her characters’ struggles between their desires and patriarchal prescripts, she offers a novel, more indirect and significant challenge to the patriarchal status quo. In this way, Brontë’s social criticism is confined by her conservatism. / English Studies

This thesis is a study of the presentation of the orphan child in eighteenth and early nineteenth century English literature, and focuses on William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. It is concerned with assessing the extent to which the orphan children in each of the works are liberated from familial and social constraints and structures and to what end. Chapter One examines the major thematic concern of the extent to which the motif of the orphan child represents a wronged innocent, and whether this symbol can also, or alternatively, be presented as a revolutionary force that challenges society's status quo in Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. Chapter Two considers the significance of the child "lost" and "found", which forms the explicit subject of six of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience and explores the treatment of these conditions, and their differences and consequences for the children concerned. Chapter Three focuses on Charlotte Bronte's depiction of the orphan in Jane Eyre, which presents two models of the orphan child: the protagonist Jane, and Helen Burns. The chapter examines these two models and their responses to orphan-hood in a hostile world where orphans are mistreated by family and society alike. Chapter Four determines whether the orphan constitutes a subversive threat to the family in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and also explores the notion that, although orphan-hood often entails liberation from adult guardians, it also comprises vulnerability and exposure. The thesis concludes by considering the extent to which orphan-hood can involve a form of liberation from the confines of social structures, and what this liberation constitutes for each of the three authors.

This dissertation explores the ambiguous nature of the social criticism in Charlotte Brontë’s novels — Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette and The Professor — particularly pertaining to patriarchal ideology and its associated power relations. I shall explore how, through her novels, Brontë sought to redefine subjectivity and the feminine ideal, and in so doing, reconfigure patriarchy’s gender norms and its ideologies which were oppressive to women. However, Brontë’s varying contestation of and acquiescence to female Victorian stereotypes, along with her equivocal representation of ideology, identity, gender, and the self, undermine her efforts to create a new model of womanhood and female empowerment. Nonetheless, through Brontë’s intimate depiction of her characters’ struggles between their desires and patriarchal prescripts, she offers a novel, more indirect and significant challenge to the patriarchal status quo. In this way, Brontë’s social criticism is confined by her conservatism. / English Studies / M.A. (English Literature)

Three of the most notable English women authors, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot, explore similar themes of the individual, particularly the young woman, in relation to a hierarchical, patriarchal society, more specifically a crumbling paternalist society. My focus is on three Victorian novels' representations of society's transformation from a paternalistic nature to one of greater individualism; and in particular, I explore how women defined for themselves positions of power within these structures. So this study is twofold, one on representations of gender and the other of class; for the two are inseparable in discussing power relationships of Victorian women. Austen, Bronte, and Eliot understood and, to some degree, accepted the pervasive paternal values. Their novels, however, do not advocate radical social change; rather, their heroines willingly turn to domesticity. I aim to argue that each author, although dissatisfied with aspects of society, did not desire to radically alter women's role within society. The fictitious lives they created became both a representation and a critique of the ideologies surrounding them. The texts of Emma, Jane Eyre, and Middlemarch are representative of traditional social norms and yet question some of the culture's dominant codes, especially in relation to paternalism and gender. What strikes me about these novels is that although the female characters are limited by society, they are not ineffectual. Rather the authors portray women in control of their lives and able to make choices for themselves within the framework of society. My research includes social, philosophical, and political attitudes of the decades in which each novel was written, as well as personal philosophies held by Austen, Bronte, and Eliot in relation to gender and class and the influence of these philosophies in their art. Finally, my reading of the texts explicates evidences of the culture's and author's attitudes in relation to paternalism and gender.