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Women Characters in the Novels by the Brontë Sisters
In this novel as a complete contrast to Catherine can be mentioned Isabella Linton that is Catherine’s sister-in-law and later also Heathcliff’s wife. The two women’s parallel positions and characters allow the readers to see their differences with greater clarity. Catherine represents wild and passionate nature, but Isabella at the same time represents culture and civilization. Isabella is a weak woman because when she understands that the marriage with Heathcliff has been a mistake and that he did it because of the hate to Edgar, she did not run away from him although she could do it. She was proud and did not exactly want to admit her mistake to her brother because she felt very ashamed.
As it was mentioned before, the Victorian era was a very significant period because of the remarkable changes in the politics and because of the fact that women gained more rights and now were taken in as equals to the men. In this period of time also many important literal works were created and among them such works as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights by Charlotte and Emily Brontë. These works represented strong women characters who wanted to be equal with men, to be something more than just a housekeeper and a good wife to her husband. These women were personalities with their own opinions and characters. It should be mentioned that Jane Eyre was one of those novels that aimed at young female readers in which an adolescent woman attempts to gain maturity and ascendency over the terms of her world. Though Jane does not announce to the world that she is trying to begin any type of feminist movement that arose in this period of time, her actions and decisions nevertheless could set a model for any forward-thinking woman in the mid-nineteenth century.
Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights has become one of the most widely read novels in the English language.
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Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) was perhaps the more gifted of the two sisters, and her best-known works are Jane Eyre and Villette. Charlotte Brontë was publishing Jane Eyre just as First Wave Feminism was beginning to develop. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is an orphan's struggle to gain economic stability and respect in a time when personal freedom and self-reliance was difficult for women. Jane becomes a governess for the intelligent and troubled Mr. Rochester with whom she falls in love. The novel is a first-person narrative of the title character called Jane Eyre. The novel goes through five stages of events: Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends but also suffers different difficulties; her time as the governess of Thornfield Manor, where she falls in love with her employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End (or Moor House) and Morton, where her cold clergyman-cousin St John Rivers proposes to her; and her reunion with Mr. Rochester and marriage to her beloved. This novel is considered to be partly autobiographical because the main character Jane Eyre can be viewed as a parallel to the author herself - a woman who was strong.