Charlotte Bronte` wrote this letter to her sister in reference to her job as a governess. She endured inequality, inadequate paid, and rudely treatment. Charlotte was very unhappy with her position and felt the need to talk to someone.
In her letter, she tells about the beautiful countryside and the grounds surrounding her employers’ home, but never having time to explore them. “But, alack-a-day! There is such a thing as seeing all beautiful around you…
and not having a free moment or a free thought left to enjoy them in” (560). The children are with her constantly and are unmanageable. She can not chastise them for fear of losing employment. Their mother has no campaign plan to get familiar with Charlotte and strives to squeeze an enormous quantity of cheap labor from Charlotte. From her attitude, Charlotte knows she is not cared for. She has learned high society is not her kind of life. A private governess has no existence until work has to be done. “is not considered as a living and rational being except as connected with the wearisome duties she has to fulfil” (560). The father is amicable and does not issue any orders concerning the children.
Charlotte is socially separated from the world. She uses her letters as means of communication and combats from loneliness.
It would have been hard for me to continue in employ with someone that did not respect me. I know that a job is important to your livelihood, but in the case of Charlotte she was not allowed to do her job. She is the governess, but not allowed to discipline the children. Her job was more along the line of being the mistress maid. After being a servant during dinner parties, she also lost all interest in being a part of Society. The women role of hostess was of little importance. Her mistress lacks the knowledge or interest to succeed. This was the life of the middleclass working woman.
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Bianca,
ReplyDeleteSome good insights into how Brontë's letters reveal the problematic life of a governess. You also select some appropriate quotations to help demonstrate those problems; you do not effectively introduce or analyze those quotations. though.
Bianca,
ReplyDeleteGood points in this blog. Did you notice how Charlotte would actually advocate being a housemaid over a governess even though a governess is thought of as more prestigious? I think this is because a governess has all the manners and awareness of an upper class woman, but still has lower class status. I think that that would be so hard. I am now seeing the connection between this and Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion where Eliza is turned into a Lady through her language, but that doesn’t make her an upper class woman. Social classes were such an impediment at the time… I feel bad for the women of the Victorian period.