Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

Do Austen’s discussions of propriety and

impropriety tend to reinforce or question the
codes of polite society?

The life and works of Jane Austen have garnered

significant interest in the last fifty years, becoming a
staple of high school and university reading lists, giving
rise to numerous television and movie adaptations of her
novels, and engendering considerable discussion between
critics about her strengths and weaknesses as a canon of
literature. How exactly did an ordinary woman, operating
within the strict social parameters of Nineteenth-Century
England, make such a formidable and lasting impression
on the literary world? And moreover, to what extent did
her writing pave the way for her contemporaries and,
indeed, the modern female writer?

Born in the latter half of the Eighteenth-Century,

Austen witnessed the industrial revolution in full swing,
and saw her country undergo a dramatic period of
transition. The population was increasing, and becoming
increasingly mobile, which created unique opportunities
for the everyman to enter the world of trade and
commerce. Money, which had previously been the
vanguard of the upper class, was now available for the
taking, and the rising middle class were quick to get on
board. A consequence of this sudden shift in wealth
appropriation was the availability and accessibility of
books for women, which in turn gave rise to the number
of women writers, keen to take their acquired literacy to
 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

the next level.1 From the mild mannered didactics of

conduct books, to sensationalist serials in newspapers,
women were quietly but decidedly entering the literary
sphere. Austen was among them.

The female narrative had, up until now, been

vocalised through a predominantly male filter. Samuel
Richardson had carved a niche for women as virtuous
creatures in Pamlea, whilst Daniel Defoe created the
antithesis of virtue in the character of Moll Flanders in his
1722 book of the same name. Almost a century on,
Austen and her contemporaries would bring the concept
of the female narrative to the forefront, allowing their
protagonists a mind, and perhaps more importantly, a
voice of their own. In Feminism in Eighteenth-Century
England, Katharine Rogers alludes to the evolution of this
female narrative by suggesting that ‘she (Austen)
focussed on an intelligent young woman, through whose
eyes she presented women, men, and the world.’2 This is
an important observation, because it reminds us that
Austen was not just writing about women, but rather,
creating rich tapestries for these protagonists to operate
in.

Though her earlier novels, Pride & Prejudice and

Sense & Sensibility are often criticised for ‘pandering to
the patriarchal system’(Rogers p.217), Austen appears to
1 Susan Zlotnick. Women, Writing, and the Industrial Revolution. JHU Press.
(2001). Pp. 31-33

2 Katherine Rogers Feminism in Eighteenth-Century England. University of

Illinois Press . (1982). p225 (all further references to this text will appear in
parenthesis)
 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

have established her purpose with her final two offerings.

In Emma and Persuasion, Austen has created heroines
who operate outside of the usual concerns about marriage
and security. Neither protagonist is, to invert a quote from
Pride & Prejudice, ‘in want of a good husband’, and the
relationships that are forged are incidental to the story,
and not pivotal. If Austen has, up until now, obeyed the
rules of society, here is where she begins to bend them.
What’s interesting is, she achieves this through subtle
alterations to her writing style rather than sweeping
statements of feminism. The reader observes a new breed
of heroine, who appear to be almost writing the novels
themselves.

In Emma, Austen blends the idea of free indirect

speech with a first person stream of consciousness,
allowing her to shift between the conversations Emma
has with other characters in the novel, and her own
unspoken soliloquies. This blurring of thought and speech
allows Austen to create a narrative where, as Joe Bray
asserts in his article “The Source of Dramatized
Consciousness: Richardson, Austen, and Stylistic
Influence” ‘the mingling of the narrator’s voice with the
character’s consciousness allows the possibility of an
alternative, ironic, perspective on her thoughts’.3 For the
first time, Austen is providing her heroine with a genuine
freedom to comment on her surroundings. Elizabeth
Bennet is able to speak her mind as far as the limitations
of decorum will allow, and as such she is instantly

3 Joe Bray "The Source of Dramatized Consciousness: Richardson, Austen, and

Stylistic Influence." Style (1.18) (2001) pp.19-20.
 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

recognisable as a spirited and independent character.

Where she must draw the line however, so Emma
Woodhouse crosses it, allowing her opinions to take flight
in the recesses of her mind. Furthermore, as John Hale
observes in his essay “Austen’s Emma”, ‘Austen’s free
indirect style aids in her use of irony by moving the
reader constantly between the author’s mind and her
characters’ minds’.4 The deliberate shift affords the reader
a unique intimacy with Emma’s character, allowing us to
form opinions based on her feelings, and not just her
actions:

“The hair was curled and the maid sent away and Emma
sat down to think and be miserable. It was a wretched
business indeed. Such an overthrow of everything she had
been wishing for. Such a development of everything most
unwelcome! Such a blow for Harriet! That was the worst of
all. Every part of it brought pain and humiliation of some
sort or other; but compared with the evil to Harriet, all was
light; and she would gladly have submitted to feel yet more
mistaken, more in error, more disgraced by misjudgement
than she actually was could the effects of her blunders
have been confined to herself. ‘If I had not persuaded
Harriet into liking the man, I could have borne anything. He
might have doubled his presumption to me’ but poor
Harriet!” (131-132)

The manoeuvre from speech to first person narration to

third person observation is so seamless; Austen is able to
manipulate our perceptions about the characters at any
given moment. She wants us to sympathise with Emma,
and so she tempers the audacity of her protagonist’s
actions with a subtle mixture of first-person regret and
third-person condemnation. Austen judges Emma so we

4 John K. Hale Austen's Emma. Explicator (59.3) (2001). p.123.

 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

don’t have to, and thus her own agenda is concealed

cleverly within the fictitious parameters of the story

Critics remain divided as to what this agenda

actually was. Was Austen extolling the virtues of social
mores, or pushing the boundaries of feminist discourse?
As Sarah Morrison observes in her essay “Of Woman
Borne: Male Experience and Feminine Truth in Jane
Austen’s Novels”, theorists either ‘view her as a
conservative holding the values of the landed gentry in
the late eighteenth century or as a subversive who
undercuts the very premises upon which English society
rests’.5 Perhaps the main reason for this dichotomy of
thought is Austen’s treatment of male characters. She
builds her novels around strong female characters, and it
often feels like the men in her novels are merely
incidental to the plot. As Morrison states ‘Austen
establishes the centrality of women’s experience by
deliberately and consistently marginalising the male
experience’.(Morrison p.342) In Emma, Austen even
attempts to take this one step further, and actually
prescribe certain male qualities to her eponymous
heroine. Emma’s badinage with her male counterparts is
often forceful and unmeasured, allowing her a unique
identity within the strict guidelines of social conduct. This
is certainly a bold move on Austen’s part, and it
potentially denotes a feminist persuasion in her later

5 Sarah Morrison "Of Woman Borne: Male Experience and Feminine Truth in
Jane Austen’s Novels." Criticism & Interpretation (26.4) (1994). p.337 (all
further references to this essay will appear in parenthesis)
Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

work, but to what degree is she really redefining roles for

women?

Morrison argues that Austen may not develop her

male characters as fully as their female counterparts, but
insists that men are still required to endorse ‘universal
truth reflected more clearly in women’s experience’.
(Morrison p.349) She expands this idea by suggesting that
however much Austen may consistently and deliberately
relegate the male perspective to the periphery of her text,
she remains at all times, a bastion for family values. Her
novels cannot function without the inclusion of men
simply because Austen operates, as Morrison states, ‘on
the belief that the domestic circle of family, friends and
neighbours is of predominant importance to both men
and women’. (Morrison p.347) If the cogency of Austen’s
narratives hinge on creating homogenous family units
based on the ideas of marriage and financial security, how
far is Austen really distancing herself from the conduct
books of her time?

One possible answer to this question is ventured

through discussion about the unique contextual layers
that exist in Emma in stark contrast to Austen’s other well
known texts. Denise Kohn’s essay “Reading Emma as a
Lesson on ‘Ladyhood’: A Study in the Domestic
Bildungsroman” gives us a new insight into Austen’s
preoccupation with propriety as ‘dealing with a woman’s
maturation, with the protagonist’s increasing awareness
 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

of herself in relationship to the bigger world.’6 Emma’s

character is constantly developing throughout the novel,
which is interesting because the opening description of
her character suggests she possesses all the endowments
a ‘lady’ of the time could hope for:

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a

comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite
some of the best blessings of existence, and had lived
nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to
distress or vex her”(E p.27).

The novel appears to satisfy the reader with a preface

that almost mirrors the happy endings of Austen’s other
heroines; who must begin their journeys with a difficulty
that must be overcome to achieve happiness. If Emma
does indeed ‘unite some of the best blessings in
existence’, could her journey throughout the novel be
seen as less an exercise in patriarchal modesty, and more
a lesson in self-awareness? The propriety Emma must
yield to is not a social pressure to marry, but rather to
learn to balance her many accomplishments with a more
developed sensitivity towards others. Her relationship
with Knightley is merely a natural progression of a slow-
burning affection they have for one another, and is not
nearly as integral to the story as the relationship Emma
embarks upon with herself.

If any doubt remains about Austen’s intentions with

Emma, Kohn is quick to remind us that whilst the plot
ends with a typical nod towards male and female co-
6 Denise Kohn "Reading Emma as a Lesson on ‘Ladyhood’: A Study in the
Domestic Bildungsroman." Essays in Literature vol. 2 (1995). p.45 (all further
references to this essay will appear in parenthesis)
 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

dependency, there is nothing conventional about the

marriage itself. Emma ‘has Knightley abdicate his seat in
his place of authority to move into [her] house, where she
has reigned supreme for many years’. (Kohn p.58) This
modern angle on an otherwise staple conclusion
corresponds with Kohn’s assertions that Emma has
fashioned her character without compromising her
independence as well as demonstrating Austen’s
progressive convictions as an author.

To claim that Austen single-handedly changed the

landscape of female literature may be a bridge too far;
however, it is fair to say that women’s writing
experienced something of a renaissance in the wake of
Austen’s published work. Deirdre Lynch devotes her book
Janeites: Austen's Disciples and Devotees to the women
(and men) writers who followed Austen’s lead, dubbing
Austen the ‘canonical foremother’7 of a new wave of
female-centric literature. Feminine discourse no longer
pivoted on the idea of social propriety, and one woman
who seized the opportunity to subvert the status quo was
Anne Brontë.

In the Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Brontë gives us Helen

Huntingdon, a woman whose blind affection for her
husband is tested to the limits, forcing her to flee her
marital home with her son and enter the world of work to
support herself. The consequence of this is a blossoming
romance with another man, who she later marries after
7 Deirdre Lynch. Janeites: Austen's Disciples and Devotees. Princeton
University Press. (2000). p.128
 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

the death of her first husband. The novel is often seen as

Helen’s psychological journey from the dark place of the
first marriage to enlightenment in the second, and much
like Austen’s Emma, hinges on the concept of female
development. As if in complete contrast to the conduct
books of the time, Brontë puts Helen’s needs above that
of her husband, creating an audacious foil for characters
like Richardson’s Pamela, whose ‘reward’ is a hasty
marriage to the person she has refused for most of the
novel. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was Brontë’s second
published novel, and having been met with harsh criticism
at the time (even failing to impress her sisters8), Anne was
never afforded the canonical status of Charlotte and
Emily. It has taken contemporary audiences to appreciate
the postmodern nuances of the novel, and to realise the
degree to which Anne Brontë progresses Austen’s
fledgling school of thought.

Austen was able to temper her stories of love and

marriage with glimpses of unhappy or unsuitable
marriages. Alongside the central partnership of Elizabeth
Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice for example,
exists the miserable union of Charlotte Lucas and Mr.
Collins, as well as the hasty and improper nuptials of
Lizzie’s younger sister Lydia to a the rogue Wickham.
Austen may have relished the creation of happy family
units, but she was not afraid to expose the pitfalls of a
marriage without mutual love and understanding.
Unfortunately, with Lizzie and Darcy’s narrative taking
8 In Charlotte Brontë’s biographical account of her two sisters, she wrote: "The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall," by Acton Bell, had likewise an unfavourable reception.
At this I cannot wonder. The choice of subject was an entire mistake.”
 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

centre stage towards the end of the novel, we are not

allowed to see the development of the numerous unhappy
partnerships lurking in the shadow of the fortunate
couple. Brontë builds on this idea and, instead of
beginning her novel about a young woman looking for
love and marriage, opens with a woman whose marriage
is falling apart. The turbulence between husband and wife
culminates in Helen slamming the door shut on Arthur,
which in the introduction to the Penguin edition of the
novel, Twentieth-Century author May Sinclair refers to as
‘the first that was ever so slammed in English fiction’.9

Propriety is no longer Helen’s chief concern as she

attempts to forge a life for herself and her child away
from the unhealthy environment of her husband’s
domain. This would have been completely at odds with
Nineteenth-Century decorum, and may indeed offer some
clues as to why the novel was so poorly received. Sharpes
Magazine condemned the book vehemently, labelling it
“unfit for perusal [. . .] we will not believe a woman would
have written such a work.”10, whilst The Rambler simply
dubbed it an “unhealthy representation of the vilest
phases of human life”11 As Brontë asserts in the preface of
the novel’s second edition however, “I wished to tell the
truth [. . .] and if I can gain the public ear at all, I would

9 May Sinclair. Introduction to the 2003 Penguin Edition of The Tenant of

Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. p.4
10 Unknown. "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë." Sharpe’s London
Magazine (no.7) , (1848). p.182
11 Unknown. “Mr. Bell’s New Novel.” Rev. of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by
Anne Brontë." The Rambler (no.3) (1848). p.66
 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

rather whisper a few wholesome truths therein than much

soft nonsense”12.

What’s interesting about Brontë’s characterisation

of Helen however is that she does not necessarily create
her in the image of a typical heroine. She is quick to alert
us to the fact that Helen married Arthur against the
advice of her relatives, and despite being aware of his
flaws, was eager to position herself as ‘the angel in the
house’ in a bid to reform him. She plays a significant part
in her own downfall by acting in accordance with her own
sense of duty, and suffering the consequences of living
with a man who can neither be altered nor restrained. Her
gradual realisation of her predicament affords her the
logic to remove herself from her Arthur’s clutches, and
her heroic status is achieved through her life away from
the marital home. The problem for Victorian readers is
that by leaving her husband, Helen does not become a
‘fallen woman’, but rather, flourishes in her new
independency. Her relationship with Gilbert develops over
time, and is the result of a mutual appreciation of each
other rather than Helen’s need to be his ‘angel’. When the
pair finally marry, Gilbert moves into the home Helen has
inherited, and with more than a passing nod to Austen’s
Emma, Brontë defies conventional propriety and eschews
the ideology of Victorian marriage in favour of stark and
honest realism.

12 Anne Brontë. Preface to the 2003 Penguin Edition of The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall. p.6
 Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann

What Jane Austen and Anne Brontë discuss about

propriety in their texts is far less important about what
they discuss beyond it. Their protagonists act according to
their conscience rather than compromising their
happiness for the sake of social morality. At the end of
Emma, we know our heroine has more to learn, and that
the rest of her life will serve as that journey towards
enlightenment. We also leave Helen Huntingdon in The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall to carry on her own personal quest
for happiness, hoping for, but not presuming, a happy
ending. More importantly, we observe the struggle of the
authors; women who contributed to the literary sphere as
we know it, by portraying these realistic female
characters with a risky but necessary disregard for social
conduct. The Bridget Jones13 and Carrie Bradshaw14 figures
we look to today, have much to thank our Nineteenth-
Century authors for. Writers who used the limited
education and choices available to them to announce to
the world of literature that women think, feel, reason and
grow.

Bibliography

Austen, J.. The Complete Novels of Jane Austen: Seven Great

English Classics . Penguin. (1996)

13 Main character from Helen Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones’s Diary

14 Main Character from Candice Bushnell’s novel Sex and the City
Austen & The Brontës: Critical Essay Daibhid MacCann