Brontë, Charlotte - Terry Eagleton (Essay Date Autumn 1972)
TERRY EAGLETON (ESSAY DATE AUTUMN 1972)
SOURCE: Eagleton, Terry. “Class, Power and Charlotte Brontë.” Critical Quarterly 14, no. 3 (autumn 1972): 225-35.
In the following essay, Eagleton discusses the habit of moderation in Brontë’s novels: subversiveness matched by strict adherence to tradition, rebellion appearing simultaneously with submission, furious passion paired with firm reason.
Helen Burns, the saintly schoolgirl of Jane Eyre, has an interestingly ambivalent attitude to the execution of Charles the First. Discussing the matter with Jane, she thinks “what a pity it was that, with his integrity and conscientiousness, he could see no farther than the prerogatives of the crown. If he had but been able to look to a distance, and see how what they call the spirit of the age was tending! Still, I like Charles—I respect him—I pity him, poor murdered king! Yes, his enemies...
[The entire page is 5403 words long]
Navigate
Related Topics
