we have brains

Charlotte Bronte: The unwitting feminist.

January 21, 2003 06:02 AM posted by : track it (0)

Mini-bio:
Charlotte Bronte grew up the daughter of a poor Irish immigrant. Her father joined the church to escape total poverty, and
was excepted into the nobility as a result of it. She was still treated poorly by her schoolmates however. Charlotte and her
two sisters, Emily and Anne, led quiet, secluded lives. Their lives were far from dull though, each sister possessed a
brilliant imagination. They wrote poetry together, "Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell" (1846), and many other works seperately.

She had brains:
Charlotte wrote the controversial (for her time) novel "Jane Eyre", the story of a young orphan who struggles through life
pursuing that ever elusive happiness. Charlotte believed everyone deserved happiness, and in her novel openly attacked the
Victorian idea that suffering made one more loved by and acceptable to God; That it wasn't too much to want to have a job
one enjoyed that earned one enough money to live. She also created a fiercely independent, witty, and resourceful female
character who gets by in life without anyone's help, much less a man's. This idea was unheard of, since a woman was
practically owned from birth to death, passing from father to husband, or finding herself on the streets. Even prostitutes
depended on the money and patronage of men to live. There were very few jobs then that were accessible to an independent
woman. "Jane Eyre" has been hailed as a feminist tract by some, passed off as a simple romance, and praised for the heroines
determination to survive. Whatever it may be, it's an empowering story for women everywhere.

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