Passion and repression in the works of the Brontes

Date

1995-12

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Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

The word passion, as it is used in this paper, does not denote emotion, but a motivating force. Passion within Jane Eyre. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Wuthering Heights is expressed through the mode of a relationship paradigm present in the three Bronte novels. Some might call it a love triangle. The pattern in its skeletal outline consists of a strong, defiant woman caught between two men, one moody, dark, and mysterious, the other steady, reliable and conventional. The juxtaposition and interaction of the three characters within the Bronte design serve as the narrative heart of each novel. In choosing between the two men, the heroines are choosing between passion and repression of their code of conduct. The structure of the novels is the working out of the conflict.

For the novelists, passion is the overruling desire to remain true to self . While some critics have concluded that selfhood lies in the expression of the female persona, this paper tries to show that self expression is found in the code of behavior that each author set for herself as a person who just happened to be a woman.

Chapter I is a delineation of the paradigm and the common traits found in the three novels. In the successive chapters, the heroines demonstrate the purpose common to the relationship paradigm, found in the need the authors shared for companionship with a kindred spirit. The chapters are devoted to a discussion of each novel in which I conclude respectively that the need for companionship for Charlotte Bronte was met through the "master"; for Anne through the code of conduct which she zealously practiced; and for Emily through the "God within." In the last chapter, I have noted some parallels among the presentations of the paradigm and conlcuded that each novelist reveals that despite the intensity of the struggle, the heroine must choose to be true to self even at the cost of denying the need for companionship.

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