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级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文









高等教育自学考试
毕业论文

Bronte sisters in the literary history



毕业学校：华南理工大学
办学单位：广东XX职业技术学院
班 级：英语10级
学 生：钟 X X
指导老师：曹老师
提交日期：2012年9月30日


华南理工大学高等教育自学考试
二○一二年六月
1




2012

2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
附表4
华南理工大学高等教育自学考试
毕业设计（论文）任务书
办学单位
学生姓名
毕业设计（论文）题
目
毕业设计（论文）目
的及成果要求
毕业设计（论文）内
容及要求
华南理工大学公开学院
指
导
教
师
姓 名
专业技术
职 务
课题来源
曹老师
正高 副高

A

B

√

中级

钟XX
Bronte sisters in the literary
history
C

D
√

This paper helps people know more about Bronte Sister on literary. It

include four part
.It
expound Bronte Sisters’ legendary life.

This article mainly introduced Bronte Sisters who
made great
contributions to
literary history. Introduce their lives , works and
Impression after reading.
（1） The history of foreign literature《外国文学史》
Zhejiang University Press 浙江大学出版社
（2） Jane Eyre 《简爱》 Charlotte Bronte （夏洛蒂·勃朗特 著）
The people's Literature Publishing House 人民文学出版社
（3） Wuthering Heights 《呼啸山庄》 Emily Bronte(艾米莉·勃朗特 著)
Shanghai Translation Publishing House 上海译文出版社
（4） Agnes Greyy 《艾格尼丝·格雷》 （安妮·勃朗特 著）
Chongqing University Press 重庆出版社
（5） http:
（6） http: 百度百科

主要参考文献
工作进度安排
1. Make the content(3 days )
2. Writing the draft（1 month）
3. Correcting the draft(3 weeks)
ing the essay(3 weeks)
本任务书于2012年 7 月 10 日发出，毕业设计（论文）应于2012年 9 月 30 日前完成，由指
导老师审阅与评 阅老师评阅后，提交毕业设计（论文
30
）答辩小组进行答辩。
指导教师 曹老师

签发 2012 年 9 月 30日
毕业设计（论文）指导小组组长 审核 年 月 日 注：1．毕业设计（论文）任务书由指导教师填写，由指导教师签发，经毕业设计（论文）指导小组组长审核 后生效。
2．“课题来源”一栏：
A．指导教师的科研课题；
B．指导教师收集的科研和生产实际中的课题；
C．学生在科学活动和工程实践中自立的课题；
D．自拟课题。
在表中相应栏内打“√”
。
2

2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
华南理工大学自考办制表




附表5
华南理工大学高等教育自学考试
毕业设计（论文）水平指导教师审阅评语书
毕业设计
（论文）题目
Comparative analysis of video software
平时成绩
（百分制）
质量成绩
（百分制）
70
65
学生姓名 钟XX 专业 英语 年级 10级
指导教师姓名


曹老师 职称 副教授 办学单位 广东XX职业技术学院
在整个毕业论文撰写过程中，该同学能在老师的严格要求下顺利完成论文的撰写 ,并主动与老师沟
通中遇到的各种问题及写作进程。
论文题目与论文的内容基本相符，结构完 整，条理清晰，基本上没有大的语法错误。从内容上看，
结构丰满，论述比较充分，论据与论点切题，作 者有自己独特的感受和观点。但仍存在问题的是少数
论点不够深刻和全面.总体而言，这是一篇合格的论 文，同意答辩！






指导教师签名 曹老师





2012 年 9 月 30 日

注：平时成绩评定依据：1、出勤 、纪律、协作精神；2、独立工作能力；3、工作勤奋及刻苦精神；
4、独立思考与主动性；5、外文资 料翻译情况（本科）。

3

2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Abstract
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family associated with the village of Haworth in
the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (born 21 April 1816), Emily (born
30 July 1818), and Anne (born 17 January 1820), are well known as poets and novelists. They
originally published their poems and novels under masculine pseudonyms, following the custom
of the times practised by female writers. Their stories immediately attracted attention, although
not always the best, for their passion and originality. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was the first to know
success, while Emily's Wuthering Heights, Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works
were later to be accepted as masterpieces of literature.
Key words: Bronte Sister, novel, literature























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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文

摘要

布朗蒂，是19世纪，来自英格兰约克郡布拉福德的西北部的小村庄的一个著 名的文
学世家。其中的三姐妹夏洛蒂，艾米莉，安妮是以她们的诗作最为著名。她们根据当
时的 传统惯例，她们以男性笔名的身份出版了诗集和小说。她们的故事很有吸引力，
即使不是最好的，但很有 他们的激情和创造力。《简爱》是夏洛蒂最为著名的作品，而之
后艾米莉的《呼啸山庄》，安妮的《女房 客》和之后的其他的一些作品被当做世界文学史上
不可多得的著作。
关键词：布朗蒂，小说，文学
























5

2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文


Contents
Abstract ........................ .................................................. .................................................. .................. 4
摘要 ...................... .................................................. .................................................. ......................... 5
Introduction ..... .................................................. .................................................. ............................ 7
Chapter1 Brief introduction of Bronte Sisters.................... .................................................. ..................... 8
1.1Charlotte Bronte .. .................................................. .................................................. ........................ 8
1.2Emily Bronte ... .................................................. .................................................. ..........................10
1.3Anne Bronte .. .................................................. .................................................. ............................13
Chapter 2 . main works of Bronte Sisters ..................... .................................................. ......................17
2.1Jane Eyre ........ .................................................. .................................................. ...........................17
2.2Wuthering Heights .......................................... .................................................. ............................ 223
2.3Agnes Grey .................................................. .................................................. .............................. 299
Chapter 3 Bronte Sisters on the influence of world literature ....................................... ...........................32
3.1Charlotte Bronte ........................................... .................................................. ................................32
3.2Emily Bronte ........................................... .................................................. ....................................32
3.3Anne Bronte ........................................... .................................................. .....................................33
Chapter 4 Impression after reading .......... .................................................. .........................................35
4.1The Independent Spirit—— Jane Eyre......... .................................................. ....................................35
4.2Love and revenge——Wuthering heights.................... .................................................. .....................35
4.3 With the reality of the struggle——Agnes Grey ...................... .................................................. .........36
Chapter 5 conclusion. .......... .................................................. .................................................. ........38
Referece .......................... .................................................. .................................................. ..............40
Acknowledgement ............. .................................................. .................................................. .............41














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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文

Intoduction
Jane Eyre is a independent character of female narrative. Emily Bronte’s’ Wuthering Heights is
on the extreme love and personality description. To these fictional worlds were the product of
fertile imagination fed by reading, discussion, and a passion for literature. Far from suffering
from the negative influences that never left them and which were reflected in the works of their
later, more mature years, the Brontë Sisters absorbed them with open arms .To most people
impressive lonely mood is Anne Bronte’s’ Agnes conclusion ,they are all talented.
In my paper here ,there will have four chapters to my view my point :Chapter one describe Brief
introduction of Bronte Sisters. Chapter two present main works of Bronte Sisters, such as Jane
Eyre, Wuthering Heights. Chapter three is that Bronte Sisters on the influence of world literature.
Chapter four is the conclusion.












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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Chpter1 Brief introduction of Bronte Sisters
1.1Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Bronte (21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an
English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë
sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are
English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the
pen name Currer Bell.
1.1.1 Early life and education
Charlotte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1816, the
third of six children, to Maria (née Branwell) and her
husband Patrick Brontë (formerly surnamed Brunty or
Prunty), an Irish Anglican clergyman. In 1820, the family
图1- 1
http: ?ct=50331
6480&z=0&tn=baiduimagedetail&
move d a few miles to the village of Haworth, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate
of St Michael and All Angels Church. Charlotte's mother died of cancer on 15 September 1821,
leaving five daughters and a son to be taken care of by her sister Elizabeth Branwell.
In August 1824, Charlotte was sent with three of her sisters, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, to the
Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire (She used the school as the basis for
Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school's poor conditions, Charlotte maintained, permanently
affected her health and physical development and hastened the deaths of her two elder sisters,
Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who died of tuberculosis in June 1825. Soon after
their deaths, her father removed Charlotte and Emily from the school.
At home in Haworth Parsonage Charlotte acted as
younger sisters— Branwell, Emily, and Anne – created their
own literary fictional worlds, and began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of
these imaginary kingdoms. Charlotte and Branwell wrote Byronic stories about their imagined
country,
created were elaborate and convoluted (and still exist in partial manuscripts) and provided them
with an obsessive interest during childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for their
literary vocations in adulthood.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Charlotte continued her education at Roe Head in Mirfield, from 1831 to 1832, where she met her
lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor.[1] Shortly after she wrote the
novella The Green Dwarf (1833) using the name Wellesley. Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a
teacher from 1835 to 1838. In 1839, she took up the first of many positions as governess to
families in Yorkshire, a career she pursued until 1841. Politically a Tory, she preached tolerance
rather than revolution. She held high moral principles, and, despite her shyness in company, was
always prepared to argue her beliefs.
Brussels
In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled to Brussels to enrol in a boarding school run by Constantin
Heger (1809–96) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Heger (1804–87). In return for board and tuition,
Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the boarding school was cut short
when Elizabeth Branwell, their aunt who joined the family after the death of their mother to look
after the children, died of internal obstruction in October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to
Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the school. Her second stay was not a
happy one; she became lonely, homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Heger. She returned
to Haworth in January 1844 and used her time at the boarding school as the inspiration for some
experiences in The Professor and Villette.
1.1.2 Novels
Jane Eyre, published 1847
Shirley, published in 1849
Villette, published in 1853
The Professor, written before Jane Eyre, submitted at first along with Wuthering Heights and
Agnes Grey, then separately, and rejected in either form by many publishing houses, published
posthumously in 1857
Emma, unfinished; Charlotte Brontë wrote only 20 pages of the manuscript, published
posthumously in 1860. In recent decades, at least two continuations of this fragment have
appeared:
Emma, by and Another Lady
attributed to Elizabeth Goudge, the actual author was Constance Savery.
Emma Brown, by Clare Boylan, published 2003
9

2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Poetry
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846)
Selected Poems of The Brontës, Everyman Poetry (1997)
1.1.3 Illness and subsequent death
In June 1854, Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate and possibly the model
for Jane Eyre's St. John Rivers. She became pregnant soon after the marriage. Her health declined
rapidly during this time, and according to Gaskell, she was attacked by
nausea and ever-recurring faintness.
the age of 38. Her death certificate gives the cause of death as phthisis (tuberculosis), but many
biographers suggest she may have died from dehydration and malnourishment, caused by
excessive vomiting from severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum. There is evidence
to suggest that Charlotte died from typhus she may have caught from Tabitha Ackroyd, the
Brontë household's oldest servant, who died shortly before her. Charlotte was interred in the
family vault in the Church of St Michael and All Angels at Haworth.
Posthumously, her first-written novel was published in 1857. The fragment she worked on in her
last years in 1860 has been twice completed by recent authors, the more famous version being
Emma Brown: A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Brontë by Clare Boylan in
2003. Much Angria material has appeared in published form since the author's death.
1.2 Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë (30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an
English novelist and poet, best remembered for her solitary
novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English
literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë
siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell.
She published under the pen name Ellis Bell.
Emily Brontë was born on 30 July 1818 in Thornton, near
Bradford in Yorkshire, to Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë.
She was the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë and the fifth of
图1- 2
http:?ct=503316480&
z=&tn=baiduimagedetail&word=Emily%2
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
six children. In 1824, the family moved to Haworth, where Emily's father was perpetual curate,
and it was in these surroundings that their literary gifts flourished.
1.2.1 Early life and education
After the death of their mother in 1821, when Emily was three years old,[3] the older sisters
Maria, Elizabeth and Charlotte were sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge,
where they encountered abuse and privations later described by Charlotte in Jane Eyre. Emily
joined the school for a brief period. When a typhus epidemic swept the school, Maria and
Elizabeth caught it. Maria, who may actually have had tuberculosis, was sent home, where she
died. Emily was subsequently removed from the school along with Charlotte and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth died soon after their return home.
The three remaining sisters and their brother Patrick Branwell were thereafter educated at home
by their father and aunt Elizabeth Branwell, their mother's sister. In their leisure time the children
created a number of fantasy worlds, which were featured in stories they wrote and enacted about
the imaginary adventures of their toy soldiers along with the Duke of Wellington and his sons,
Charles and Arthur Wellesley. Little of Emily's work from this period survives, except for poems
spoken by characters (The Brontës' Web of Childhood, Fannie Ratchford, 1941).[4] When Emily
was 13, she and Anne withdrew from participation in the Angria story and began a new one about
Gondal, a large island in the North Pacific. With the exception of Emily's Gondal poems and
Anne's lists of Gondal's characters and place-names, their writings on Gondal were not preserved.
Some
some of which were written, others enacted with Anne. One dates from 1841, when Emily was
twenty-three: another from 1845, when she was twenty-seven.
At seventeen, Emily attended the Roe Head girls' school, where Charlotte was a teacher, but
managed to stay only three months before being overcome by extreme homesickness. She
returned home and Anne took her place.[6] At this time, the girls' objective was to obtain
sufficient education to open a small school of their own.
1.2.2 Adulthood
Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School in Halifax beginning in September 1838, when she
was twenty. Her health broke under the stress of the 17-hour work day and she returned home in
April 1839. Thereafter she became the stay-at-home daughter, doing most of the cooking and
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
cleaning and teaching Sunday school. She taught herself German out of books and practised
piano.
Constantin Heger, teacher of Charlotte and Emily during their stay in Brussels, on a
daguerreotype dated from circa 1865.
Plaque in BrusselsIn 1842, Emily accompanied Charlotte to Brussels, Belgium, where they
attended a girls' academy run by Constantin Heger. They planned to perfect their French and
German in anticipation of opening their school. Nine of Emily's French essays survive from this
period. The sisters returned home upon the death of their aunt. They did try to open a school at
their home, but were unable to attract students to the remote 1844, Emily began going
through all the poems she had written, recopying them neatly into two notebooks. One was
labelled
Roper have attempted to piece together a Gondal storyline and chronology from these poems. In
the autumn of 1845, Charlotte discovered the notebooks and insisted that the poems be published.
Emily, furious at the invasion of her privacy, at first refused, but relented when Anne brought out
her own manuscripts and revealed she had been writing poems in secret as well.
In 1846, the sisters' poems were published in one volume as Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton
Bell. The Brontë sisters had adopted pseudonyms for publication: Charlotte was Currer Bell,
Emily was Ellis Bell and Anne was Acton Bell. Charlotte wrote in the
Ellis and Acton Bell
scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare
ourselves women, because... we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked
on with prejudice[.]
Although the sisters were told several months after publication that only two copies had sold,
they were not discouraged. The Athenaeum reviewer praised Ellis Bell's work for its music and
power, and the Critic reviewer recognized
utilitarian age had devoted to the loftier exercises of the intellect.
1.2.3 Death
Emily's health, like her sisters', had been weakened by unsanitary conditions at home, the source
of water being contaminated by runoff from the church's graveyard. She became sick during her
brother's funeral in September 1848. Though her condition worsened steadily, she rejected
medical help and all proffered remedies, saying that she would have
her. She eventually died of tuberculosis, on 19 December 1848 at around two in the afternoon.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
She was interred in the Church of St. Michael and All Angels family vault, Haworth, West
Yorkshire.
1.3 Anne Bronte
Anne Bronte (17 January 1820 – 28 May 1849) was
a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of
the Brontë literary family.
The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church
of England, Anne Bronte lived most of her life with
her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire
moors. For a couple of years she went to a boarding
school. At the age of nineteen, she left Haworth
working as a governess between 1839 and 1845.
After leaving her teaching position, she fulfilled her
literary ambitions. She wrote a volume of poetry with
her sisters (Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell,
1846) and in short succession she wrote two novels.
Agnes Grey, based upon her experiences as a
governess, was published in 1847. Her second and
图1- 3
http:?ct=503316 480&z=&t
n=baiduimagedetail&word=Anne%20Bront%< br>last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is mainly considered to be one of the first sustained
feminist novels, appeared in 1848. Anne's life was cut short with her death of pulmonary
tuberculosis when she was 29 years old.
Mainly because the republication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was prevented by Charlotte
Brontë after its author's death, Anne is less known than her sisters, Charlotte, author of four
novels including Jane Eyre; and Emily, author of Wuthering Heights. Anne's two novels, written
in a sharp and ironic style, are completely different from the romanticism followed by her sisters.
She wrote in a realistic, rather than a romantic style. Her novels, like those of her sisters, have
become classics of English literature
1.3.1 Early life
Anne, the youngest member of the Brontë children, was born on 17 January 1820, at 74 Market
Street in Thornton where her father was curate and she was baptised there on 25 March 1820.
Shortly after, Anne's father was appointed to the perpetual curacy in Haworth, a small town seven
13

2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
miles (11 km) away. In April 1820, the Brontës moved into Haworth Parsonage, a five-room
building which became their home for the rest of their lives.
Anne was barely a year old when her mother became ill of what is believed to have been uterine
cancer. Maria Branwell died on 15 September 1821. In order to provide a mother for his children,
Patrick tried to remarry, but he had no success. Maria's sister, Elizabeth Branwell (1776–1842),
moved to the parsonage, initially to nurse her dying sister, but she subsequently spent the rest of
her life there raising the children. She did it from a sense of duty, but she was a stern woman who
expected respect, rather than love. There was little affection between her and the eldest children,
but she related to Anne, her favourite according to tradition. Anne shared a room with her aunt,
they were close which may have influenced Anne's personality and religious beliefs.
In Elizabeth Gaskell's biography, Anne's father remembered her as precocious, reporting that
once, when she was four years old, in reply to his question about what a child most wanted, she
answered:
In summer 1824, Patrick sent his eldest daughters Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily to
Crofton Hall in Crofton, West Yorkshire, and later to the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan
Bridge in Lancashire. When his two eldest daughters died of consumption in 1825, Maria on 6
May and Elizabeth on 15 June, Charlotte and Emily were immediately brought home. The
unexpected deaths distressed the family so much that Patrick could not face sending them away
again. For the next five years, the Brontë children were educated at home, largely by their father
and aunt. The Brontë children made little attempt to mix with others outside the parsonage, but
relied on each other for friendship and companionship. The bleak moors surrounding Haworth
became their playground.
1.3.2 Juvenilia
Around 1831, when Anne was eleven, she and Emily broke away from Charlotte and Branwell to
create and develop their own fantasy world, Gondal. Anne was particularly close to Emily
especially after Charlotte's departure for Roe Head School, in January 1831.[30] When
Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey visited Haworth in 1833, she reported that Emily and Anne were

different in appearance from the others, and she was her aunt's favourite. Her hair was a very
pretty light brown, and fell on her neck in graceful curls. She had lovely violet-blue eyes; fine
pencilled eyebrows and a clear almost transparent complexion. She still pursued her studies and
especially her sewing, under the surveillance of her aunt.
14

2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
she returned from Roe Head. Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a teacher on 29 July 1835
accompanied by Emily as a pupil; her tuition largely financed by Charlotte's teaching. Within a
few months, Emily unable to adapt to life at school, was physically ill from homesickness. She
was withdrawn from school by October, and replaced by Anne.
Aged fifteen, it was Anne's first time away from home, and she made few friends at Roe Head.
She was quiet and hard working, and determined to stay and get the education she needed to
support herself. Anne stayed for two years, winning a good-conduct medal in December 1836,
and returning home only during Christmas and the summer holidays. Anne and Charlotte do not
appear to have been close while at Roe Head (Charlotte's letters almost never mention Anne) but
Charlotte was concerned about her sister's health. Sometime before December 1837, Anne
became seriously ill with gastritis and underwent a religious crisis. A Moravian minister was
called to see her several times during her illness, suggesting her distress was caused, in part, by
conflict with the local Anglican clergy. Charlotte wrote to her father who took Anne home where
she remained while she recovered.
1.3.3 A book of poems
The Brontë sisters, painted by their brother, Branwell, c. 1834. From left to right: Anne, Emily
and Charlotte (there still remains a shadow of Branwell, which appeared after he painted himself
out).
In summer 1845, all the Brontës were at home with their father. None had any immediate
prospect of employment. At this time Charlotte came across Emily's poems which had been
shared only with Anne, her partner in the world of Gondal. Charlotte proposed that they be
published. Anne revealed her own poems. Charlotte's reaction was characteristically patronising:

reached an agreement. They told neither Branwell, nor their father, nor their friends about what
they were doing. Anne and Emily contributed 21 poems and Charlotte 19. With Aunt Branwell's
money, the sisters paid to have the collection published
Afraid their work would be judged differently if they revealed they were women, the book
appeared under three pseudonyms—or pen-names, the initials of which were the same as their
own.[57] Charlotte became Currer Bell, Emily, Ellis Bell and Anne, Acton Bell. Poems by Currer,
Ellis, and Acton Bell was available for sale in May 1846. The cost of publication was about
three-quarters of Anne's salary at Thorp Green. On 7 May 1846, the first three copies of the book
were delivered to Haworth Parsonage. It achieved three somewhat favourable reviews, but was a
15

2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
dismal failure, with only two copies being sold in the first year. Anne, however, began to find a
market for her more recent poetry. Both the Leeds Intelligencer and Fraser's Magazine published
her poem
Fraser's Magazine had published her poem
1.3.4 Death
Anne Bronte's grave at Scarborough
In February 1849, Anne seemed somewhat better. She decided to make a return visit to
Scarborough in the hope that the change of location and fresh sea air might initiate a recoveryOn
24 May 1849, Anne said her goodbyes to her father and the servants at Haworth, and set off for
Scarborough with Charlotte and Ellen Nussey. En route, they spent a day and a night in York,
where, escorting Anne around in a wheelchair, they did some shopping, and at Anne's request,
visited York Minster. However, it was clear that Anne had little strength left.
On Sunday, 27 May, Anne asked Charlotte whether it would be easier if she returned home to
die instead of remaining at Scarborough. A doctor, consulted the next day, indicated that death
was close. Anne received the news quietly. She expressed her love and concern for Ellen and
Charlotte, and seeing Charlotte's distress, whispered to her to
Anne died at about two o'clock in the afternoon, Monday, 28 May 1849.
Over the following days, Charlotte made the decision to
Anne was buried, not in Haworth with the rest of her family, but in Scarborough. The funeral was
held on Wednesday, 30 May, which did not allow time for Patrick Brontë to make the 70-mile
(110 km) journey, had he wished to do so. The former schoolmistress at Roe Head, Miss Wooler,
was in Scarborough and she was the only other mourner at Anne's funeral. She was buried in St.
Mary's churchyard, beneath the castle walls, overlooking the bay. Charlotte commissioned a
stone to be placed over her grave, with the simple inscription
Brontë, daughter of the Revd. P. Bronte, Incumbent of Haworth, Yorkshire. She died, Aged 28,
28 May 1849




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Chapter 2 . main works of Bronte Sisters
2.1 Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë.
It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith,
Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography
under the pen name
edition was released the following year by Harper &
Brothers of New York. Writing for the Penguin edition,
Stevie Davies describes it as an
because of its in-depth exploration of a strong female
character's
feelings.




Primarily
of the
图2- 1
http:ject2069659
bildungsroman genre, Jane Eyre follows the emotions
and experiences of eponymous Jane Eyre, her growth to
adulthood, and her love for Mr. Rochester, the byronic[1]
master of Thornfield Hall. The novel contains elements
of social criticism, with a strong sense of morality at its
core, but is nonetheless a novel many consider ahead of
its time given the individualistic character of Jane and the novel's exploration of sexuality,
图2- 2
http:?ct=503316480&z=&tn=b
aiduimagedetai l&word=Jane%20Eyre&in=20933
religion, and proto-feminism.
Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the title character.
The novel goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is
emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School,
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where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations and oppression; her time as
the governess of Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward
Rochester; her time with the Rivers family during which her earnest but cold clergyman cousin,
St John Rivers, proposes to her; and the finale with her reunion with, and marriage to, her
beloved Rochester.
Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters and most editions are at least 400 pages long. The original
publication was in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15, 16 to 26, and 27 to 38; this was a
common publishing format during the 19th century (see three-volume novel).
Brontë dedicated the novel's second edition to William Makepeace Thackeray
2.1.1 Plot summary
Young Jane argues with her guardian Mrs. Reed of Gateshead. Illustration by F. H. Townsend.
The novel begins with a ten-year-old orphan named Jane Eyre who is living with her maternal
uncle's family, the Reeds, as her uncle's dying wish. Jane's parents died of typhus. Jane’s aunt
Sarah Reed does not like her and treats her worse than a servant and discourages and at times
forbids her children from associating with her. She claimed that Jane was not worthy of notice.
She and her three children are abusive to Jane, physically and emotionally. One day Jane is
locked in the red room, where her uncle died, and panics after seeing visions of him. She is
finally rescued when she is allowed to attend Lowood School for Girls. Before she leaves, she
stands up to Mrs. Reed and declares that she'll never call her
everyone at Lowood how cruel she was to her. And says that Mrs. Reed is deceitful, as well as
her daughter Georgiana. John Reed, her son, a very rude and disrespectful, even to his own
mother, who he sometimes had called
hated by her even more than Mrs. Reed. Mr. Reed had been the only one in the Reed family to be
kind to Jane. The servant Abbot is also always rude to Jane. The servant Bessie is sometimes
scolding and sometimes nice. Jane liked Bessie the best.
Jane arrives at Lowood Institution, a charity school, the head of which (Brocklehurst) has been
told that she is deceitful. During an inspection, Jane accidentally breaks her slate, and Mr.
Brocklehurst, the self-righteous clergyman who runs the school, brands her a liar and shames her
before the entire assembly. Jane is comforted by her friend, Helen Burns. Miss Temple, a caring
teacher, facilitates Jane's self-defense and writes to Mr. Lloyd, whose reply agrees with Jane's.
Ultimately, Jane is publicly cleared of Mr. Brocklehurst's accusations.
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The eighty pupils at Lowood are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals, and thin clothing. Many
students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes. Jane's friend Helen dies of consumption in her
arms. When Mr. Brocklehurst's neglect and dishonesty are discovered, several benefactors erect a
new building and conditions at the school improve dramatically.
After six years as a student and two years as a teacher, Jane decides to leave Lowood, like her
friend and confidante Miss Temple. She advertises her services as a governess, and receives one
reply. It is from Alice Fairfax, the housekeeper at Thornfield Hall. She takes the position,
teaching Adele Varens, a young French girl. While Jane is walking one night to a nearby town, a
horseman passes her. The horse slips on ice and throws the rider. She helps him to the horse.
Later, back at the mansion she learns that this man is Edward Rochester, master of the house. He
teases her, asking whether she bewitched his horse to make him fall. Adele is his ward, left in Mr.
Rochester's care when her mother died. Mr. Rochester and Jane enjoy each other's company and
spend many hours together.
Odd things start to happen at the house, such as a strange laugh, a mysterious fire in Mr.
Rochester's room, on which Jane throws water, and an attack on Rochester's house guest, Mr.
Mason. Jane receives word that her aunt was calling for her, after being in much grief because her
son has died. She returns to Gateshead and remains there for a month caring for her dying aunt.
Mrs. Reed gives Jane a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, Mr John Eyre, asking for her to live with
him. Mrs. Reed admits to telling her uncle that Jane had died of fever at Lowood. Soon after,
Jane's aunt dies, and she returns to Thornfield. Jane begins to communicate to her uncle John
Eyre.
St. John Rivers admits Jane to Moor House.
After returning to Thornfield, Jane broods over Mr. Rochester's impending marriage to Blanche
Ingram. But on a midsummer evening, he proclaims his love for Jane and proposes. As she
prepares for her wedding, Jane's forebodings arise when a strange, savage- looking woman sneaks
into her room one night and rips her wedding veil in two. As with the previous mysterious events,
Mr. Rochester attributes the incident to drunkenness on the part of Grace Poole, one of his
servants. During the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and a lawyer declare that Mr. Rochester
cannot marry because he is still married to Mr. Mason’s sister Bertha. Mr. Rochester admits this
is true, but explains that his father tricked him into the marriage for her money. Once they were
united, he discovered that she was rapidly descending into madness and eventually locked her
away in Thornfield, hiring Grace Poole as a nurse to look after her. When Grace gets drunk, his
wife escapes, and causes the strange happenings at Thornfield. Mr. Rochester asks Jane to go
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with him to the south of France, and live as husband and wife, even though they cannot be
married. Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love for him, Jane leaves
Thornfield in the middle of the night.
Jane travels through England using the little money she had saved. She accidentally leaves her
bundle of possessions on a coach and has to sleep on the moor, trying to trade her scarf and
gloves for food. Exhausted, she makes her way to the home of Diana and Mary Rivers, but is
turned away by the housekeeper. She faints on the doorstep, preparing for her death. St. John
Rivers, Diana and Mary's brother and a clergyman, saves her. After she regains her health, St.
John finds her a teaching position at a nearby charity school. Jane becomes good friends with the
sisters, but St. John remains reserved.
The sisters leave for governess jobs and St. John becomes closer with Jane. St. John discovers
Jane's true identity, and astounds her by showing her a letter stating that her uncle John Eyre has
died and left her his entire fortune of £20,000 (equivalent to over £45.5 million in 2009,
calculated using the share of GDP). When Jane questions him further, St. John reveals that John
is also his and his sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of the inheritance, but have
since resigned themselves to nothing. Jane, overjoyed by finding her family, insists on sharing the
money equally with her cousins, and Diana and Mary come to Moor House to stay.
Thinking she will make a suitable missionary's wife, St. John asks Jane to marry him and to go
with him to India, not out of love, but out of duty. Jane initially accepts going to India, but rejects
the marriage proposal, suggesting they travel as brother and sister. As soon as Jane's resolve
against marriage to St. John begins to weaken, she mysteriously hears Mr. Rochester's voice
calling her name. Jane then returns to Thornfield to find only blackened ruins. She learns that Mr.
Rochester's wife set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the roof. In his
rescue attempts, Mr. Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane reunites with him, but he fears
that she will be repulsed by his condition. When Jane assures him of her love and tells him that
she will never leave him, Mr. Rochester again proposes and they are married. He eventually
recovers enough sight to see their first-born son.
2.1.2 Chararscte
Jane Eyre: The protagonist of the novel and the title character. Orphaned as a baby, she struggles
through her nearly loveless childhood and becomes governess at Thornfield Hall. Jane is
passionate and opinionated, and values freedom and independence. She also has a strong
conscience and is a determined Christian.
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Mr. Reed: Jane's maternal uncle, who adopts Jane when her parents die. According to Mrs. Reed,
he pitied Jane and often cared for her more than for his own children. Before his own death, he
makes his wife promise to care for Jane.
Mrs. Sarah Reed: Jane's aunt by marriage, who adopts Jane on her husband's wishes, but abuses
and neglects her. She eventually disowns her and sends her to Lowood School.
John Reed: Jane's cousin, who as a child bullies Jane constantly, sometimes in his mother's
presence. He ruins himself as an adult by drinking and gambling and is thought to have
committed suicide.
Eliza Reed: Jane's cousin. Bitter because she is not as attractive as her sister, she devotes herself
self- righteously to religion. She leaves for a nunnery near Lisle after her mother's death,
determined to estrange herself from her sister.
Georgiana Reed: Jane's cousin. Though spiteful and insolent, she is also beautiful and indulged.
Her sister Eliza foils her marriage to the wealthy Lord Edwin Vere, when they were about to
elope. She also becomes a friend of Jane's towards the end of the novel and eventually marries a
wealthy man.
Bessie Lee: The plain-spoken nursemaid at Gateshead. She often treats Jane kindly, telling her
stories and singing her songs. Later she marries Robert Leaven.
Robert Leaven: The coachman at Gateshead, who brings Jane the news of John Reed's death,
which brought on Mrs. Reed's stroke.
Mr. Lloyd: A compassionate apothecary who recommends that Jane be sent to school. Later, he
writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming Jane's account of her childhood and thereby clearing
Jane of Mrs. Reed's charge of lying.
Mr. Brocklehurst: The clergyman headmaster and treasurer of Lowood School, whose
maltreatment of the students is eventually exposed. A religious traditionalist, he advocates for his
charges the most harsh, plain, and discipline possible lifestyle—but not, hypocritically, for
himself and his family. His second daughter Augusta hereby states:
and plain all the girls at Lowood look... they look at my dress and mama's, as if they never seen a
silk gown before.
Miss Maria Temple: The kind superintendent of Lowood School, who treats the students with
respect and compassion. She helps clear Jane of Mr. Brocklehurst's false accusation of deceit, and
cares for Helen in her last days.
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Miss Scatcherd: A sour and vicious teacher at Lowood.
Helen Burns: Jane's best friend at Lowood School. She refuses to hate those who abuse her,
trusting in God and praying for peace one day in heaven. She teaches Jane to trust Christianity,
and dies of consumption in Jane's arms. Elizabeth Gaskell, in her biography of the Brontë sisters,
wrote that Helen Burns was 'an exact transcript' of Maria Brontë, who died of Consumption at
age 11.
Edward Fairfax Rochester: The master of Thornfield Manor. A Byronic hero, he is tricked into
making an unfortunate first marriage to Bertha Mason many years before he meets Jane, with
whom he falls madly in love.
Bertha Antoinetta Mason: The violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester; moved to
Thornfield and locked in the attic.
Adèle Varens: An excitable French child to whom Jane is governess at Thornfield. She has been
Mr. Rochester's ward since the death of her mother, Rochester's mistress.
Mrs. Alice Fairfax: An elderly widow and the housekeeper of Thornfield Manor. She cares for
both Jane and Mr. Rochester.
Leah: The young, pretty and kind housemaid at Thornfield, with an occasional excitable nature.
Blanche Ingram: A socialite whom Mr. Rochester temporarily courts in order to make Jane
jealous. She is described as having great beauty, but displays callous behaviour and avaricious
intent.
Richard Mason: An Englishman from the West Indies, whose sister is Mr. Rochester's first wife.
He took part in tricking Mr. Rochester into marrying Bertha, earning both of their anger. He still,
however, cares for his sister's well-being.
Grace Poole: Bertha Mason's caretaker. Mr. Rochester pays her a very high salary to keep Bertha
hidden and quiet, and she is often used as an explanation for odd happenings. She has a weakness
for drink that occasionally allows Bertha to escape.
St. John Eyre Rivers: A clergyman who befriends Jane and turns out to be her cousin. He is
thoroughly practical and suppresses all his human passions and emotions in favour of piety. He is
determined to go to India as a missionary, even if it means losing his love, Rosamond.
Diana and Mary Rivers: St. John's sisters and (as it turns out) Jane's cousins. They are poor,
intelligent, and kind- hearted, and want St. John to stay in England.
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Rosamond Oliver: A beautiful, wealthy young woman, the patron of the village school where
Jane teaches. She falls in love with St. John, only to be rejected because she will not make a good
missionary's wife.
Alice Wood: Jane's maid when she is mistress of the girls' charity school in Morton.
John Eyre: Jane's paternal uncle, who leaves her his vast fortune and wishes to adopt her at the
age of 13. Mrs. Reed prevents the adoption out of spite towards Jane.
Mr. Oliver: Rosamond Oliver's father. He is a kind and charitable old man and is fond of St.
John.
.2.1.3 Themes
This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and
adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed.
2.2 Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
is the only published novel by Emily Brontë, written between October 1845
and June 1846 and published in July of the following year. It was not printed until December
1847, after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, under the pseudonym
Ellis Bell. A posthumous second edition was edited by Charlotte in 1850.
The title of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors of the story. The narrative
centres on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine
Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and the
people around them.
Today considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights met with mixed reviews and
controversy when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and
physical cruelty. Although Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was generally considered the best of the
Brontë sisters' works during most of the
nineteenth century, many subsequent critics
of Wuthering Heights argued that it was a
superior achievement. Wuthering Heights
has also given rise to many adaptations and
inspired works, including films, radio,
television dramatisations, a musical by
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Bernard J. Taylor, a ballet, three operas (respectively by Bernard Herrmann, Carlisle Floyd, and
Frédéric Chaslin), a role-playing game, and the 1978 chart topping song by Kate Bush.
2.2.1 Plot
Opening (chapters 1 to 3)
In 1801, Mr. Lockwood, a rich man from the south of England, rents Thrushcross Grange in the
north of England for peace and recuperation. Soon after his arrival, he visits his landlord, Mr.
Heathcliff, who lives in the remote moorland farmhouse called
the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights to be a rather strange group: Mr. Heathcliff appears a
gentleman but his mannerisms suggest otherwise; the reserved mistress of the house is in her
mid-teens; and a young man appears to be one of the family, although he dresses and talks like a
servant.
Being snowed in, Mr. Lockwood stays the night and is shown to an unused chamber, where he
finds books and graffiti from a former inhabitant of the farmhouse named Catherine. When he
falls asleep, he has a nightmare in which he sees Catherine as a ghost trying to enter through the
window. Heathcliff rushes to the room after hearing him yelling in fear. He believes Mr
Lockwood is telling the truth, and inspects the window, opening it in a futile attempt to let
Catherine's spirit in from the cold. After nothing eventuates, Heathcliff shows Mr Lockwood to
his own bedroom, and returns to keep guard at the window.


As soon as the sun rises, Mr Lockwood is escorted back to Thrushcross Grange by Heathcliff.
There, he asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of the family from the Heights.
2.2.2 The Childhood of Heathcliff (chapters 4 to 17)
Thirty years prior, the Earnshaw family lived at Wuthering Heights. The children of the family
are the teenaged Hindley and his younger sister, Catherine. Mr. Earnshaw travels to Liverpool,
where he finds a homeless dark- skinned boy whom he decides to adopt, naming him
Hindley finds himself robbed of his father's affections and becomes bitterly jealous of Heathcliff.
However, Catherine grows very attached to him. Soon, the two children spend hours on the
moors together and hate every moment apart.
Because of the domestic discord caused by Hindley's and Heathcliff's sibling rivalry, Hindley is
eventually sent to college. However, he marries a woman named Frances and returns three years
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later, after Mr. Earnshaw dies. He becomes master of Wuthering Heights, and forces Heathcliff to
become a servant instead of a member of the family.
Several months after Hindley's return, Heathcliff and Catherine travel to Thrushcross Grange to
spy on the Linton family. However, they are spotted and try to escape. Catherine, having been
caught by a dog, is brought inside the Grange to have injuries tended to while Heathcliff is sent
home. Catherine eventually returns to Wuthering Heights as a changed woman, looking and
acting as a lady. She laughs at Heathcliff's unkempt appearance. When the Lintons visit the next
day, Heathcliff dresses up to impress her. It fails when Edgar, one of the Linton children, argues
with him. Heathcliff is locked in the attic, where Catherine later tries to comfort him. He swears
vengeance on Hindley.
In the summer of the next year, Frances gives birth to a son, Hareton, but she dies before the year
is out. This leads Hindley to descend into a life of drunkenness and waste.
Two years pass and Catherine has become close friends with Edgar, growing more distant from
Heathcliff. One day in August, while Hindley is absent, Edgar comes to visit Catherine. She has
an argument with Nelly, which then spreads to Edgar who tries to leave. Catherine stops him and,
before long, they declare themselves lovers.
Later, Catherine talks with Nelly, explaining that Edgar had asked her to marry him and she had
accepted. She says that she does not really love Edgar but Heathcliff. Unfortunately she could
never marry Heathcliff because of his lack of status and education. She therefore plans to marry
Edgar and use that position to help raise Heathcliff's standing. Unfortunately, Heathcliff had
overheard the first part about not being able to marry him and runs away, disappearing without a
trace. After three years, Edgar and Catherine are married.
Six months after the marriage, Heathcliff returns as a gentleman, having grown stronger and
richer during his absence. Catherine is delighted to see him although Edgar is not so keen.
Edgar's sister, Isabella, now eighteen, falls in love with Heathcliff, seeing him as a romantic hero.
He despises her but encourages the infatuation, seeing it as a chance for revenge on Edgar. When
he embraces Isabella one day at the Grange, there is an argument with Edgar which causes
Catherine to lock herself in her room and fall ill.
Heathcliff has been staying at the Heights, gambling with Hindley and teaching Hareton bad
habits. Hindley is gradually losing his wealth, mortgaging the farmhouse to Heathcliff to repay
his debts.
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While Catherine is ill, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella. The fugitives marry and return two months
later to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff hears that Catherine is ill and arranges with Nelly to visit
her in secret. In the early hours of the day after their meeting, Catherine gives birth to her
daughter, Cathy, and then dies.
The day after Catherine's funeral, Isabella flees Heathcliff and escapes to the south of England
where she eventually gives birth to Linton, Heathcliff's son. Hindley dies six months after
Catherine. Heathcliff finds himself the master of Wuthering Heights and the guardian of Hareton.
2.2.3 The Maturity of Heathcliff (chapters 18 to 31)
Brontë Society plaque at Top Withens
Twelve years later, Cathy has grown into a beautiful, high-spirited girl who has rarely passed
outside the borders of the Grange. Edgar hears that Isabella is dying and leaves to pick up her son
with the intention of adopting him. While he is gone, Cathy meets Hareton on the moors and
learns of her cousin's and Wuthering Heights' existence.
Edgar returns with Linton who is a weak and sickly boy. Although Cathy is attracted to him,
Heathcliff wants his son with him and insists on having him taken to the Heights.
Three years later, Nelly and Cathy are on the moors when they meet Heathcliff who takes them to
Wuthering Heights to see Linton and Hareton. He has plans for Linton and Cathy to marry so that
he will inherit Thrushcross Grange. Cathy and Linton begin a secret friendship.
In August of the next year, while Edgar is very ill, Nelly and Cathy visit Wuthering Heights and
are held captive by Heathcliff who wants to marry his son to Cathy and, at the same time, prevent
her from returning to her father before he dies. After five days, Nelly is released and Cathy
escapes with Linton's help just in time to see her father before he dies.
With Heathcliff now the master of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Cathy has
no choice but to leave Nelly and to go and live with Heathcliff and Hareton. Linton dies soon
afterwards and, although Hareton tries to be kind to her, she retreats into herself. This is the point
of the story at which Lockwood arrives.
After being ill with a cold for some time, Lockwood decides that he has had enough of the moors
and travels to Wuthering Heights to inform Heathcliff that he is returning to the south.
2.2.4 Ending (chapters 32 to 34)
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In September, eight months after leaving, Lockwood finds himself back in the area and decides to
stay at Thrushcross Grange (since his tenancy is still valid until October). He finds that Nelly is
now living at Wuthering Heights. He makes his way there and she fills in the rest of the story.
Nelly had moved to the Heights soon after Lockwood left to replace the housekeeper who had
departed. In March, Hareton had an accident and has been confined to the farmhouse. During this
time, a friendship developed between Cathy and Hareton. This continues into April when
Heathcliff begins to act very strangely, seeing visions of Catherine. After not eating for four days,
he is found dead in Catherine's room. He is buried next to Catherine.
Lockwood departs but, before he leaves, he hears that Hareton and Cathy plan to marry on New
Year's Day. Lockwood passes the graves of Catherine, Edgar and Heathcliff, pausing to
contemplate the peaceful quiet of the moors.
2.2.5 Characters
Heathcliff: Found, and presumably orphaned, on the streets of Liverpool, he is taken to
Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw and reluctantly cared for by the rest of the family. He and
Catherine later grow close, and their love becomes the central theme of the first volume; his
revenge and its consequences are the main theme of the second volume. Heathcliff is typically
considered a Byronic hero, but critics have found his character, with a capacity for self-invention,
to be profoundly difficult to assess. His position in society, without status (Heathcliff serves as
both his given name and surname), is often the subject of Marxist criticism.[6]
Catherine Earnshaw: First introduced in Lockwood's discovery of her diary and etchings,
Catherine's life is almost entirely detailed in the first volume. She seemingly suffers from a crisis
of identity, unable to choose between nature and culture (and, by extension, Heathcliff and
Edgar). Her decision to marry Edgar Linton over Heathcliff has been seen as a surrender to
culture, and has implications for all the characters of Wuthering Heights. The character of
Catherine has been analysed by many forms of literary criticism, including: psychoanalytic and
feminist.
Edgar Linton: Introduced as a child of the Linton family, who resides at Thrushcross Grange,
Edgar's life and mannerisms are immediately contrasted with those of Heathcliff and Catherine,
and indeed the former dislikes him. Yet, owing much to his status, Catherine marries him and not
Heathcliff. This decision, and the differences between Edgar and Heathcliff, have been read into
by feminist criticisms.
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Ellen
each generation of both the Earnshaw and Linton families. She is presented as a character who
straddles the idea of a 'culture versus nature' divide in the novel: she is a local of the area and a
servant, and has experienced life at Wuthering Heights. However, she is also an educated woman
and has lived at Thrushcross Grange. This idea is represented in her having two names,
Ellen—her given name and used to show respect, and Nelly—used by her familiars. Whether
Nelly is an unbiased narrator and how far her actions, as an apparent bystander, affect the other
characters are two points of her character discussed by critics.
Isabella Linton: Introduced as part of the Linton family, Isabella is only ever shown in relation to
other characters. She views Heathcliff as a romantic hero, despite Catherine's warning her against
such a view, and becomes an unwitting participant in his plot for revenge. After being married to
Heathcliff and abused at Wuthering Heights, she escapes to London and gives birth to Linton.
Such abusive treatment has led many, especially feminist critics, to consider Isabella the
trueconventional 'tragic romantic' figure of Wuthering Heights.
Hindley Earnshaw: Catherine's brother who marries Frances, an unknown woman to the family,
and only reveals this when Mr. Earnshaw dies. He spirals into destructive behaviour after her
death and ruins the Earnshaw family with his drinking and gambling.
Hareton Earnshaw: The son of Hindley and Frances, initially raised by Nelly but passed over to
in effect Joseph and Heathcliff. The former works to instill a sense of pride in Earnshaw heritage,
even though Hareton has no right to the property associated with it. The latter strives to teach him
all sorts of vulgarities as a way of avenging himself on Hareton's father, Hindley. Hareton speaks
with a similar accent to Joseph and works as a servant in Wuthering Heights, unaware of his true
rights. His appearance regularly reminds Heathcliff of Catherine.
Cathy Linton: The daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton, she is a spirited girl,
though unaware of her parents' history. Edgar is very protective of her and as a result she is
constantly looking beyond the confines of the Grange.
Linton Heathcliff: The son of Heathcliff and Isabella, he is a very weak child and his character
resembles Heathcliff's, though without its only redeeming feature: love. He marries Cathy Linton,
but only under the direction of his father, whom he discovers only as he enters his teens.
Joseph: A servant at Wuthering Heights who is a devout Christian. He speaks with a very thick
Yorkshire accent.
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Lockwood: The first narrator of the novel, he comes to rent Thrushcross Grange from Heathcliff
to escape society but finally decides he prefers company rather than ending up as Heathcliff. He
narrates the book until Chapter 4 when the primary narrator, Nelly, then takes over.
Frances: A generally amiable character, her marriage to Hindley is unrevealed until Mr Earnshaw
dies.
Kenneth: A doctor in the nearby village of Gimmerton.
Zillah: A servant to Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights in the time after Catherine's death.
2.2.6 Relationships map

图2- 4
Key:
black line: son or daughter of; if dotted it means adoption
red line: wedding; if double it means second wedding
pink line: love
blue line: affection
green line: hate
light yellow area: active heroes
violet area: external observers
2.3 Agnes Grey
Agnes Grey is the debut novel of English author Anne Brontë, first published in December 1847,
and republished in a second edition in 1850. The novel follows Agnes Grey, a governess, as she
works in several bourgeois families. Scholarship and comments by Anne's sister Charlotte Brontë
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suggest the novel is largely based on Anne Brontë's own experiences as a governess for five years.
Like her sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre, it addresses what the precarious position of governess
entailed and how it affected a young woman.
The choice of central character allows Anne to deal with issues of oppression and abuse of
women and governesses, isolation and ideas of empathy. An additional theme is the fair treatment
of animals. Agnes Grey also mimics some of the stylistic approaches of bildungsromans,
employing ideas of personal growth and coming to age, but representing a character who in fact
does not gain in virtue.
The Irish novelist George Moore praised Agnes Grey as
English letters,
critics have made more subdued claims admiring Agnes Grey with a less overt praise of Brontë's
work than Moore.
2.3.1 Plot summary
Agnes Grey is the daughter of a minister, whose family
comes to financial ruin. Desperate to earn money to
care for herself, she takes one of the few jobs allowed
to respectable women in the early Victorian era, as a
governess to the children of the wealthy. In working
with two different families, the Bloomfields and the
Murrays, she comes to learn about the troubles that face
a young woman who must try to rein in unruly, spoiled
children for a living, and about the ability of wealth and
status to destroy social values. After her father's death
Agnes opens a small school with her mother and finds
happiness with a man who loves her for herself. By the
end of the novel they have three children, Edward,
Agnes and Mary.
图2- 5
2.3.2 Themes
Social instruction
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Throughout Agnes Grey, Agnes is able to return to her mother for instruction when the rest of her
life becomes rough. F.B. Pinion identifies this impulse to return home with a desire in Anne to
provide instruction for society. Pinion quotes Anne's belief that
instruction
is...[so that] right and wrong will be clear in a discerning reader without sermonizing.
discussion of oppression of governesses, and in turn women, can be understood from this
perspective.
Oppression
Events representative of cruel treatment of governesses and of women recur throughout Agnes
Grey.[ Additionally, Brontë depicts scenes of cruelty towards animals, as well as degrading
treatment of Agnes. Parallels have been drawn between the oppression of these two
groups—animals and females—that are
treatment of animals reflected on the character of the person.[11] This theme of oppression
provided social commentary, likely based on Anne's experiences. Twenty years after its
publication Lady Amberly commented that
governess and shall read it through again when I have a governess to remind me to be human.
Animals
Beyond the treatment of animals, Anne carefully describes the actions and expressions of animals.
Stevies Davies observes that this acuity of examination along with the moral reflection on the
treatment of animals suggests that, for Anne,
human protection.
Empathy
Agnes tries to impart in her charges the ability to empathise with others. This is especially
evident in her conversations with Rosalie Murray, whose careless treatment of the men who love
her upsets Agnes.
Isolation
Maria H. Frawley notes that Agnes is isolated from a young age. She comes from a
heritage
become a governess, she becomes more isolated by the large distance from her family and further
alienation by her employers. Agnes does not resist the isolation, but instead uses the opportunity
for self- study and personal development.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Chapter 3 Bronte Sisters on the influence of world literature
3.1 Charlotte Bronte
In view of the success of her novels, particularly Jane Eyre, Charlotte was persuaded by her
publisher to visit London occasionally, where she revealed her true identity and began to move in
a more exalted social circle, becoming friends with Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Gaskell, and
acquainted with William Makepeace Thackeray and G. H. Lewes. She never left Haworth for
more than a few weeks at a time as she did not want to leave her ageing father's side. Thackeray’s
daughter, the writer Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie recalled a visit to her father by Charlotte:
…two gentlemen come in, leading a tiny, delicate, serious, little lady, with fair straight hair, and
steady eyes. She may be a little over thirty; she is dressed in a little barège dress with a pattern of
faint green moss. She enters in mittens, in silence, in seriousness; our hearts are beating with wild
excitement. This then is the authoress, the unknown power whose books have set all London
talking, reading, speculating; some people even say our father wrote the books – the wonderful
books… The moment is so breathless that dinner comes as a relief to the solemnity of the
occasion, and we all smile as my father stoops to offer his arm; for, genius though she may be,
Miss Brontë can barely reach his elbow. My own personal impressions are that she is somewhat
grave and stern, specially to forward little girls who wish to chatter… Every one waited for the
brilliant conversation which never began at all. Miss Brontë retired to the sofa in the study, and
murmured a low word now and then to our kind governess… the conversation grew dimmer and
more dim, the ladies sat round still expectant, my father was too much perturbed by the gloom
and the silence to be able to cope with it at all… after Miss Brontë had left, I was surprised to see
my father opening the front door with his hat on. He put his fingers to his lips, walked out into
the darkness, and shut the door quietly behind him… long afterwards… Mrs. Procter asked me if
I knew what had happened… It was one of the dullest evenings [Mrs Procter] had ever spent in
her life… the ladies who had all come expecting so much delightful conversation, and the gloom
and the constraint, and how finally, overwhelmed by the situation, my father had quietly left the
room, left the house, and gone off to his club.
3.2 Emily Bronte
In 1847, Emily published her novel, Wuthering Heights, as two volumes of a three-volume set
(the last volume being Agnes Grey by her sister Anne). Its innovative structure somewhat
puzzled critics。The Climb to Top Withens, Yorkshire, gh it received mixed reviews
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
when it first came out, and was often condemned for its portrayal of amoral passion, the book
subsequently became an English literary classic. In 1850, Charlotte edited and published
Wuthering Heights as a stand-alone novel and under Emily's real name. Although a letter from
her publisher indicates that Emily was finalizing a second novel, the manuscript has never been
found.
3.3 Anne Bronte
A year after Anne's death, further editions of her novels were reprinted but Charlotte prevented
re-publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. In 1850, Charlotte wrote damningly
it hardly appears to me desirable to preserve. The choice of subject in that work is a mistake, it
was too little consonant with the character, tastes and ideas of the gentle, retiring inexperienced
writer.
Brontë bandwagon. Anne's novel was daring for the Victorian era with its depiction of scenes of
mental and physical cruelty and approach to divorce. The consequence was that Charlotte's
novels, and Emily's Wuthering Heights, continued to be published, launching these two into
literary stardom, while Anne's work was consigned to oblivion. Anne was only 28 when she
wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; at a comparable age, Charlotte had produced only The
Professor.
A view has been that Anne is a mere shadow compared with Charlotte, the family's most prolific
writer, and Emily, the genius. This occurred to a large extent because Anne was very different, as
a person and as a writer, from Charlotte and Emily. The controlled, reflective camera eye of
Agnes Grey is closer to Jane Austen's Persuasion than to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The
painstaking realism and social criticism of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall directly counters the
romanticised violence of Wuthering Heights. Anne's religious concerns, reflected in her books
and expressed directly in her poems, were not shared by her sisters. Anne's subtle prose has a fine
ironic edge; her novels reveal Anne to be the most socially radical. Now, with increasing critical
interest in female authors, her life is being re-examined, and her work re-evaluated. A
re- appraisal of Anne's work has begun, leading to her acceptance, not as a minor Brontë, but as a
major literary figure in her own right.
Agnes Grey was popular during Anne Brontë's life, despite the belief of critics at the time that the
novel was marred by 'coarseness' and 'vulgarity.' The novel lost some of its popularity after
Brontë's death due to disfavour of its perceived moralising. There has, however, been a recent
increase in examination by scholars of Agnes Grey and Anne Brontë herself.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
In Conversation in Ebury Street, the Irish novelist George Moore provides a commonly cited
example of these newer reviews, overtly praising the style of Anne in the book. F.B. Pinion
agreed to a large extent that Agnes Grey was quite a masterwork. However, Pinion felt that
Moore's examination of the piece was a little extreme and his
have blinded him to the persistence of her moral purpose




























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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Chapter 4 Impression after reading
4.1 The Independent Spirit—— Jane Eyre

without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop
of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I
am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!--I have as much soul as you,--and full as much heart!
And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for
you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the
medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;--it is my spirit that addresses your
spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,--as we are!
This paragraph of words that is Jane Eyre said to Mr Rochester.
This is a story about a special and unreserved woman who has been exposed to a hostile
environment but continuously and fearlessly struggling for her ideal life. The story can be
interpreted as a symbol of the independent spirit. Jane Eyre as a native, kind-hearted,
noble-minded woman who purses a genuine kind of love. She represents those middle-class
working women who are struggling for recognition of their rights and equality as a human being.
The vivid description of her intense feelings and her thought and inner conflicts brings her to the
heart of the audience.
The work is one of the most popular and important novels of the Victorian age. It is noted for its
sharp criticism of the existing society. For example, the religious hypocrisy criticism of charity
institutions such as Lowood School where poor girls are trained.
Jane Eyre is charming. Because she dares to struggle. At last, she wins her love ,marriage and
dignity. She is all female glory.
4.2 Love and revenge——Wuthering heights
When I first read Wuthering heights ,I had been Deeply attracted.
Wuthering heights is a love and revenge story, which tells about two families and an intruding
stranger .A beggar boy, who named heathcliff in Liverpool's streets were good earnshaw picked
up, home, and the adoption of XinDeLei earnshaw son and daughter Catherine live together,
XinDeLei hate heathcliff and his sister likes heathcliff, earnshaw died, XinDeLei into a
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
householder, heathcliff's servant and tenants treated when, deprived him of the right to education,
abuse, half of indignities. Meanwhile, and Catherine heathcliff because the disposition and
interest the consistent and become the best of friends and hazy love. The sons of rich gentry
adjacent to Catherine linton courtship, frequently visited, Catherine said unto him a good and
decided to marry him, heathcliff's anger and flee. Three years later married Catherine linton.
Heathcliff is rich, and back exact revenge. Because of his wife and XinDeLei stained with the
habit of drinking and gambling, heathcliff entice him further fall easily occupied all his house,
and his son into an illiterate and abetting rogue. Heathcliff married by fraudulent means sister
Isabella linton for his wife, she married every abuse. Catherine ailments in small daughter
Catherine, who died after next, isabelle in recognizing heathcliff's face also leave him, and gave
birth to sons xiao. Later, his son was dead, Isabella column to heathcliff from his hand, and with
little love Catherine tempt him. In linton critically ill, he took little Catherine, design with his son
forced her to marry, Lin's swallowed linton, all the house of his revenge plan was completed. Lin,
small Catherine's died shortly after the meal with XinDeLei son has love. Harry, Meanwhile,
Catherine heathcliff is the ghost of coil to splutter, sleep, he from harry diet and small Catherine's
eyes saw Kathleen's eyes reluctant to obstruct their love, in depression and insanity die. At last,
Lockwood departs but, before he leaves, he hears that Hareton and Cathy plan to marry on New
Year's Day. Lockwood passes the graves of Catherine, Edgar and Heathcliff, pausing to
contemplate the peaceful quiet of the moors.
The novel is riddle which means different things to different people. Form the social point of
view, it is a pool nobody. As a love story ,this is one of the most moving; the passion between
Heathcliff and Catherine proves the most intense, the most beautiful and at the same time the
most horrible passion ever to be found possible in human beings.
In general, Wuthering heights is a love and revenge story.
4.3 With the reality of the struggle——Agnes Grey
The story is about a governess, who struggles with the reality.
Agnes Grey is the daughter of a minister, whose family comes to financial ruin. Desperate to earn
money to care for herself, she takes one of the few jobs allowed to respectable women in the
early Victorian era, as a governess to the children of the wealthy. In working with two different
families, the Bloomfields and the Murrays, she comes to learn about the troubles that face a
young woman who must try to rein in unruly, spoiled children for a living, and about the ability
of wealth and status to destroy social values. After her father's death Agnes opens a small school
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
with her mother and finds happiness with a man who loves her for herself. By the end of the
novel they have three children, Edward, Agnes and Mary.
Cates Baldridge describes Agnes Grey as a novel which
bildungsroman
reasons. Baldridge says that the early emphasis on the bourgeois upbringing of Agnes allows the
presuppositions of the reader that the transformative bourgeois class will develop an ideal person
of virtue. However, Agnes stalls in her development because of the corrupted nature of the
household in which she is employed and the ineffectiveness of the moral transformation, become
a static member of the bourgeois, ambivalent to the Victorian value of moral transformation in
virtue.
Agnes Grey is a great book about a Noble women.
















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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Chapter 5 conclusion.
The lives of the Bronte sisters has been the subject of public interest. Charlotte was born in 1816,
Emily in 1818 and Anne in 1820.

Charlotte who lived the longest was seen as the most talented of the sisters. Her mother died in
1821 leaving her six children in the care of their aunt. Charlotte's two elder sisters died only four
years later. At the rectory, Charlotte would have little to do but read and write and occasionally
walk on the moors The loneliness experienced by Charlotte was

clearly sharp. So it is less shocking that in her early teens she wrote at least 23 complete ―novels‖
(they were of little or no

real value). She attended Roe Head school betwee
n 1831 and 1832, and then taught at the same school later in the decade. From 1839 to 1842 she
worked as a governess

Meanwhile, Emily attended Roe Head in 1835 but returned to the rectory due to homesickness.
Like her elder sister she became a governess. She seems to have been the most introspective (内
省的) of the sisters, having very few friends. Nevertheless, she was a tough woman, controlling a
fierce dog with her bare hands.

Anne, the youngest sister also attended Roe Head school in 1837. She also became a governess,
actually for some time longer than her elder sisters. Anne found material for Agnes Grey (1847)
in the spoilt children of her employers.

By 1847, the three sisters had each written a novel. Emily produced Wuthering Heights Anne
Agnes Grey. Both were criticized by the press, Emily's novel especially for its supposedly morbid
outlook and inappropriate subjects. Nevertheless, history and particularly the great success of the
novels have vindicated them. Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre at this time and it was immediately
successful.

In 1848, Emily died in December with Anne following less than a year later. Charlotte continued
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to write and produced Shirley (1849). Her final novel Villette appeared in 1853. Her marriage
in 1854 to A. B. Nicholls was followed only months later by her death from tuberculosis.
In
brief
,
they have made contributions to the literature is very big.






























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References
（4） The history of foreign literature《外国文学史》
Zhejiang University Press
浙江大学出版社
（5） Jane Eyre 《简爱》

Charlotte Brontë （夏洛蒂·勃朗特 著）
The people's Literature Publishing House 人民文学出版社
（6） Wuthering Heights 《呼啸山庄》
Emily Bronte(艾米莉
·勃朗特 著)

Shanghai Translation Publishing House 上海译文出版社
（4）
Agnes Greyy
《艾格尼丝·格雷》 （安妮·勃朗特
Chongqing University Press 重庆出版社
（5） http:
（6） http: 百度百科
























著）

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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Acknowledgement
I am greatly thank a number of people , without their help this thesis could not be completed .
First of all , I must thank my adviser Miss Cao .She gives me some helpful suggestinons
Without her help, this paper haven’t completed .
Secondly, I must thanks my friend , Palace , who helps me collect materials and collect my
thesis’ form.
In the end, I must express my thanks to my family who haven shown
patience
and understanding
to entire period of this work..
Especially
my Dad, he supports me theoretically , encourage me
spiriually.


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