FEMINISM IN EARLY ENGLISH FICTION: A STUDY OF JANE AUSTEN AND BRONTE SISTERS

Abstract

Writing in the nineteenth century posed several challenges for women and they had to overcome several odds in order to express themselves. It was not easy and women had the daunting task of defying the norms, yardsticks, and marginality to which they had been subjected to in society. But excluded from social, political, and economic activities, writing remained perhaps the only way through which they could assert their individuality. Writing provided them with an opportunity to carry out a literary rebellion against the deliberate marginality which they faced both as women and as writers. Be it Jane Austen or the Bronte Sisters, the awareness and criticism of the defects prevalent in the social system pertaining to the women of the age were quite visible in all of their works. In her novels, Jane Austen presented the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England and spoke with such clarity and truth of the relevant issues of her age concerning women that the universal appeal of those issues make them and the novels important even today. So, too, the novels of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte were regarded among the greatest and most varied in nineteenth century literature. The Bronte Sisters stand unparalleled in English fiction for no three sisters have distinguished themselves so prominently as world-class writers. In creating the heroines that they did, Austen and Brontes presented both the social, intellectual, and passionate aspects of womanhood. But at the same time they allowed their heroines control over the passionate side of her with an aim at their independence. Austen novels were about the importance and making ofa good marriage from the nineteenth century woman's point ofview. Her novels were centred on the theme of love and marriage and how the wrong reasons and compulsions to marry could affect a IV woman's life for ever. No doubt, her novels were the novels of social manners; but beneath the surface she was in fact talking about her own time, about problems facing women then. One may think as to how marriage could be an ultimate issue for a modern woman, for a feminist; but during Austen's time marriage was the only choice a woman had. There she could have no say unless, of course, she had an inheritance and family to fall back upon and could be independent and secure even without marriage like Emma Woodhouse. But even in such a case, she faced the danger of being labeled as an old maid and be pitied upon for her loneliness. In her novels Austen makes a comic presentation of the integral relation between money, love, and marriage and their relevance to the social scenario of the age, and how everything in turn would go on to affect a woman's life. But underneath the comedy she had certain very honest and specific observations to make, not only about the social scenario pertaining to women but also about human nature and relationships as such. Jane Austen was in fact a forerunner of feminism, but hers was not an overt feminism. She does not force her ideas or preach like many other writers of today, but despite this her influence remains profound. In all her novels, she again and again presents her heroines as strong and thinking individuals, making their own decisions, even though those decisions were within the bounds of the conventions of the time. Austen's writings were not exactly aimed towards a revolutionary social change, yet they showed a marked shift from the conservative social ideology of the day in context with the heroines and their relationships. In allowing them integrity, independence, a right to their own decisions, and the will to stick by what they believed in, Austen showed a marked departure from the social conservatism towards a limited social change. During the Victorian period, women writers were judged against a social rather than a literary yardstick. It was thought imperative for them to be modest, religious, chaste, and sensitive in their writings just as they themselves were supposed to be. But many Victorian women-writers such as the Bronte Sisters took exception to the rule and resisted the imposition of non-literary restrictions upon their work. They were toughminded, candid, and forthright in their writings. The Bronte texts were feminist to the very core, if one analyses them keeping in mind their social and historical context. The fact that these highly passionate, bold, irreverent, often angry, sometimes normal yet most of thetime unpredictable novels, were penned by three unmarried sisters, created quite a furore in the literary circles. The very contradiction posed by the aggressiveness in their writings and their very own retiring lives called for much shock, speculation, and interest towards them and their works. Their works, aimed at reflecting and reshaping the nineteenth century 'cultural positioning' and anxieties related to women, their role in society, their aspiration and fears, and their craving for identity and independence, were revolutionary for the age. The Bronte women stood for and asserted notions of female individuality and self-respect, and underwent a relentless struggle aimed at achieving emotional satisfaction. The Bronte Sisters were no doubt great creative writers. And though many may say that their novels projected an unattractive vision of the world, then they were interested in and spoke of the longings and passions, cravings and desires of the female heart, and in doing so they presented a true but bleak scenario concerning the position of women in the nineteenth century England. The revolutionary mid-century Bronte genre did not in any way identify with either the outlook or the subject matter of Austen novels. They were critical of Austen's writings, especially Charlotte who found the atmosphere in her novels as stifling. But despite the obvious coolness and attitude with which the later English novelists looked at and spoke of Jane Austen, one cannot take away the fact that they owed much to Austen as their predecessor. For though the times and issues did vary from the time of Austen to

the Brontes and so also the outlook with which these writers dealt with such issues, what remained unchanged was the fact that they were women related issues and problems. And these problems were addressed both by the Austen and the Brontes in their novels, only difference being the attitude, manner, and intensity with which they treated the issues. Vision may have been different for either but not the commitment towards feminism.