The Industrial Brontës

Advocates for Women’s Equality in a Turbulent Age

The Industrial Brontës cover

The Industrial Brontës

Advocates for Women’s Equality in a Turbulent Age

Description

A 2023 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title
This book addresses the ways in which Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë took advantage of the rapid change of their time unleashed by the Industrial Revolution in order to illustrate the inequalities women faced in the Victorian Age. It historically contextualizes all seven novels, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Shirley, Villette, and The Professor, in order to investigate the themes of marriage, education, class, and work. Specifically, the author examines the ways the Brontë sisters decenter marriage, call for equality in education, expose the inherent dignity of humans despite class differences, and demonstrate the ways in which increased work opportunities empowered women. Ultimately, the author argues that the Brontë sisters’ call for female empowerment was symptomatic of the age, and one that is realized in the latter half of the Victorian Age and beyond.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Section I: Decentering Marriage
Chapter 1: Subverting the Separate Spheres Doctrine
Chapter 2: Resisting Control and Maintaining Agency
Chapter 3: Rejecting Marriage as a Means to an End
Section I: Conclusion
Section II: Education as the Answer
Chapter 4: The Pitfalls of the Education of a Victorian Male
Chapter 5: A Call for Equal Education
Section II Conclusion
Section III: Challenging Class Assumptions
Chapter 6: The Governess's Paradox
Chapter 7: Transcending Class in Wuthering Heights
Chapter 8: Class Compromise in Shirley
Section III Conclusion
Section IV: Work as an Equalizer
Chapter 9: Subverting Gender Roles
Chapter 10: Work as Empowering
Chapter 11: The Dignity of Work
Section IV Conclusion
Conclusion
Epilogue
Bibliography
About the Author

Product details

Published Mar 20 2023
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 1
ISBN 9781978786059
Imprint Lexington Books
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

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