Position of women in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and George's Eliot's The Mill on the Floss

This thesis explores the position of women in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and George's Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss. The rigid gender and class standards of the nineteenth century England restrain their intellectual and emotional needs. In order to stay true to themselves, these heroines must fight social norms and pay the price of being different. The struggles depicted in these novels are based on real-life position of women of that time. There is a constant clash between their desires and obligations, accompanied by the lack of understanding from their environment. George Eliot and Brontë sisters chose the literary form of Bildungsroman to track the emotional, physical and intellectual development of their heroines and present their internal as well as external conflicts. Jane Eyre, Catherine Earnshaw, Cathy Linton and Maggie Tulliver are all affected by the families and surroundings they were born into, by their innate character traits, physiognomies, social class, romantic interests, education and expectations placed upon them. Their independence and right to happiness are limited. Predominately defined by their gender and class, these heroines cannot do much to change their status. Having limited rights to work and education, the only way they can somewhat affect their position is marriage. Other factors, such as inheritance and class belonging, are not under their control. By not strictly adhering to the social norms, these heroines represent a disruption to the natural order of things. Standing out from their surroundings due to their intellect and passion, they represent a different form of womanhood. Rather than imitating gender patterns around them, they create their own. They do not represent a perfect wife material and their behaviour questions the world they live in. However, their goal is not to change the entire society, but to create better lives for themselves. In order to keep their true nature alive, their position in society must depart from the standards