Love, power and the quest for integrity in the novels of Anne Brontë?
Date
1987
Authors
Knight, Hilary Ruth
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Abstract
Agnes Grey is a study in female powerlessness. Agnes's happy childhood is shattered by the false values adopted by her father, values originating in his very Victorian determination to exercise patriarchal power. His inability to co-exist with manifestations of female power leads to the impoverishment of the family and his complete impotence, with the result that Agnes must seek employment in a hostile world. The mortifications she undergoes emerge as a spiritual testing-ground, and ultimately she is rewarded by the happiness of marriage to Weston, a truly moral man. But, although they are very alike in virtues and principles, Agnes the woman can only endure, accomplishing nothing in the way of useful work, while Weston as a man and cleric is able to order his life in the service of God, humanity, and his future wife. It is he who restores Agnes to integrity and to the "home" central to the Victorian ideal, empowering her so that she can finally put to good use the qualities she shares with him. Anne Bronte gives no indication that she finds this state of affairs unjust, apparently contenting herself with a tale of poetic justice. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall presents a complete turnabout. Here Anne Bronte explores the dilemma of a powerless and moral woman who cannot find a truly moral man. Helen Huntingdon errs in believing she can reform the rake she has married. Whereas Agnes is rescued from her predicament, Helen must face hers head on, and act to save herself and her child. In doing so she encounters all the prejudices of patriarchal society which arise when a woman defies convention. Rejecting as worse than useless the Victorian role of "angel in the house," Helen restores the image of the angel to its original puissance as the servant of God, strong and free to act beyond the confines of mere domesticity. In this novel it is the woman who ultimately empowers the man, the woman who acts while the man remains essentially passive. Power politics can have no place in a happily integrated family; she demonstrates her contempt for the patriarchal power structure by giving away her newly-won power. It is a ·great risk , for her new husband will, by the law of the land, gain control of her person and her new wealth. But Anne Bronte intends us to understand that Helen has assessed the risks and chosen wisely-despite the very obvious flaws of her suitor Gilbert.