Enduring the Torturing Shears

 A new and Brontë-related undergraduate thesis:

Enduring the Torturing Shears: Gardens and Novel Conventions in the Brontës' Novels

Grace Mattingly

Undergraduate Thesis, The University of Mississippi

This thesis is a literary analysis of the use of gardens and garden imagery in Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights to subvert Victorian novel conventions. This work is part of the larger conversation of how female authors in the literary canon express dissatisfaction with or resistance to Victorian social mores. This thesis is divided into three chapters, each focusing on one novel, and it primarily evaluates how gardens are employed by the Brontës to challenge plot and genre conventions. The work examines concerns surrounding the Victorian marriage institution, female autonomy, and imperialism.