Relics, Orphans and Gender Roles

More recent theses with Brontë-related content:

Reading as Relic: Innovative Mourning Techniques in Aurora Leigh, Villette, and the Life of Charlotte Brontë
by Natalie Louise Pope, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2019

I examine three Victorian texts from within a 5-year period: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s verse-novel Aurora Leigh, Charlotte Brontë’s Villette, and Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Life of Charlotte Brontë. In reading each of these texts, I interrogate the possibility for textual materials and documents to function as relics and significant objects in the cultivation of productive mourning. I situate this analysis within the rich body of work on relic culture of the Victorian period, as well as affect and media theory of the twenty-first century and, most importantly, consider new possibilities for “reliquary acts” in reading and writing depicted in narratives of the 1850’s. Reading and writing in each text offer productive, active, and highly generative outlets to loss and death.

Orphans in the Victorian Era in Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist
by Kateřina Vyoralová, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, 2018

The thesis analyses the position of orphans within the British Victorian society in two famous novels - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. The thesis introduces three key themes: social class, social environment, and gender, which are the primary focus of the analysis. The main objective of the thesis is to establish the major differences and similarities between the novels, more precisely between their protagonists Jane and Oliver. Furthermore, the novels and their protagonists are also compared to the real life of orphans in the Victorian era, which is described in the theoretical background of the thesis. Both of the novels are tales of social progress of the main character and both authors emphasize that by making good choices in life, even the most miserable little orphans might have their happily ever after fairy-tale ending. The historical-cultural research will show that lower-class orphans themselves in the Victorian era during which the novels became popular had it much worse.

Gender Role in the Victorian Era a Case Study of Charlotte Bronte's The Professor
bt Abdessatar, Boukhezna, Aida Naoual; University of El-Oued, 2019

The present research deals with the gender roles during the Victorian Era and the literature produced during the period that reflects the social status of women in the patriarchal society. In The Professor, Charlotte Brontë highlights the female journey towards the independence and equality. The study under investigation aims at investigating the gender roles during the Victorian Era and the way women tended to reject the limitation of their role to housewives and mothers. To reach this objective, we conducted an analytical study depending on two different theories, feminism and gender role theories namely; biological and structural. Thus, the gender role presented through the protagonist’s eyes challenges the Victorian imposed roles, but it still did not make women free and independent.