Gardens, Emotional Expressions and Reading

Some recent Brontë-related dissertations:

Down the Garden Path: The Gardens and Natural Landscapes of Anne and Charlotte Brontë
Segura, Laura S.
University of Louisiana at Lafayette, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017

Victorian culture was constantly engaging with nature and garden imagery. In this thesis, I argue that the literary gardens of Anne and Charlotte Brontë function as a trope that enables an examination of nineteenth-century social concerns; these literary gardens are a natural space that serve as a “middle ground” between the defense of traditional social conventions and the utter disregard of them. In Agnes Grey (1847), Jane Eyre (1847), and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) the female characters have significant encounters within the gardens and outdoor spaces; Agnes, Jane, and Helen venture into these environments and emerge changed—whether by experiential knowledge or from the temptation of social and moral transgression. In AG, Anne Brontë uses the image of the garden and natural landscapes, in order to explore Agnes’s education within her governessing experience. In JE, the garden functions as a space that appears to offer Jane a reprieve from the Gothic terror of the house, yet it actually extends that influence. The entire estate is a literal boundary point for Jane in her life, but it also represents the metaphorical barrier between Jane and potential social transgression—one that she must navigate because of her romance with Rochester. In Tenant, the house, the garden, and the landscape symbolize Helen’s identity, as the widowed artist Mrs. Graham, an identity that only exists during her time at Wildfell. Helen’s identity as a professional female artist living in a wild landscape accentuates Gilbert’s sexual desire towards her. Anne Brontë critiques Victorian marriage and class expectations through Helen’s final circumvention of social rules. In these novels, the scenes in the gardens and natural landscapes serve as a way for these authors to engage with the complexities of “The Woman Question” through the characterization of the governess and the artist.

Analyzing the Emotional Expressions in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
by Eman Nizam Al-Ju’beh
Hebron University, Palestine, 2017

This paper examines and analyzes the emotional expressions in Charlotte Brontë‘s Jane Eyre. The purposes of this study are to examine the common features which influence people‘s behaviors, and to examine the different pragmatic functions of some imperative, declarative, and interrogative sentences in Jane Eyre. Therefore, the study aims to answer the questions: What are the common features that influence people‘s behaviors? What are the pragmatic functions for some declarative, interrogative, and imperative sentences? Thus, this descriptive qualitative study explores the novel to answer these questions. Moreover, the researcher tried to analyze the expressions depending on her reading and analysis of most of the emotional utterances in the novel. Social Psychology is used which is related to CDA. What is shown in this paper is that one‘s personality, wealth, background, social, economic, and politic status impact his/her reactions and utterances. In addition, the researcher used the Speech Act Theory to reveal different pragmatic functions for the same utterance. The researcher found out that a question could be asked not to elicit information but to express gratitude or threat. In the end of the study, the researcher provided pedagogical implications of the novel along with recommendations for researchers and teachers.

Reading Charlotte Bronte Reading
Madhumita Gupta, University of Nebraska, 2018

This essay considers the significance of undirected childhood reading on an author’s mind and the reason some authors reference specific real books in their fiction. I argue that independent reading (as against schooling or formal education), and the direct and indirect references to certain books in Jane Eyre were deliberate, well-thought-out inclusions for specific purposes at different points in the story. When a title pointedly says Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, it is probable that a significant part of the author’s life has seeped into her creation which makes it essential to consider the relevant parts of her life to analyze my claim. To do this, this essay considers the childhood reading in the Brontë family and focuses on some of the Bronte siblings’ favorite readings, which happened to be popular in the Victorian era. It then considers their powerful impact on Charlotte Brontë’s mind. After briefly considering the general attitude towards the reading woman in the era and how the Brontë family was different in that regard, this essay considers the long-lasting impact of Arabian Nights and Thomas Bewick’s The History of British Birds on Jane Eyre. Both books were the Brontë children’s favorite readings and had a significant impact on their writings from the juvenilia to the novels that they wrote as adults. By referring to these books in Jane Eyre Brontë was paying a tribute to the act of reading and to those specific books. While acknowledging that there are always multiple influences on a writer’s mind, I will be considering the impact of Arabian Nights and Bewick’s The History of British Birds as two major influences on Jane Eyre because these issues have not been theorized as much as some other aspects of Brontë’s work. The Eastern link and debt to the Arabian Nights is especially interesting to me as an Indian.