Another creed no one ever taught them: re-visioning theological ideas for women in Charlotte Brontë's novels

Abstract

This dissertation examines the redefinition of Victorian women’s creed and quest for selffulfilment based on their Protestant faith in three selected texts by Charlotte Brontë, namely Jane Eyre (1847), Shirley (1849), and Villette (1853). This involves the interrogation of Brontë’s representation of her female protagonists’ subversion of the discriminatory theological ideologies and practices of patriarchal Christianity during the Victorian era. The core aim of this dissertation was to debunk the widespread misconception of Brontë’s fiction as anti-Christian. Therefore, the argument in this thesis is that, although Brontë has been labelled an anti-Christian writer who opposes Christianity, my analyses of her novels reveal that Brontë distinguishes between patriarchal ideologies and the Christian creed. It also evinces that her criticisms are directed not at Christianity in its entirety, but specifically at the patriarchal and misogynistic theological principles that subjugated women within the religious spheres of the Victorian society. Therefore, rather than labelling Brontë’s subversiveness as anti-Christian, my argument in this thesis is that it is more logical to understand that her defiant stance was propelled by an innate zeal to instigate feminist reform–one which would liberate women who have been forced into a subordinate pre-Reformational position under patriarchal Christianity. By imbuing her female characters with a burning passion for transformation, Brontë engages in her own Reformation and seeks religious autonomy for herself and her female characters. To achieve its aim, the research employs Taylor's secularisation theory as a theoretical framework to gain an in-depth understanding of Brontë's work. Since Taylor’s secularisation theory is instrumental to the comprehension of changes in the condition of belief, it is suited to the unravelling of the process through which women, who had been excluded from the new social imaginary since the Reformation, consequently became determined to redefine their own beliefs and creed. This study establishes that, despite the exclusion of women from the pulpit and theological discourse in the Victorian era, Brontë boldly expresses her theological ideas for women through the female characters in her novels. Based on her Protestant faith, Brontë demonstrates the process of her female protagonist’s quest for her vocation with independent religious conviction in Jane Eyre. As an extension of this aspiration, in Shirley, she redefines existing theological and patriarchal ideas foisted on Victorian women who have been excluded from theology and the pulpit through the audaciousness of her female protagonists, Shirley and Caroline. Similarly, instead of adhering stoically to the prevailing misogynistic hermeneutics, she reinscribes new hermeneutics that affirm women’s religious autonomy and social participation. By creating a new imagination of Eve as the mighty mother figure, she demystifies the myth of Eve as the source of iv original sin. Through this re-envisioning of the image of Adam’s counterpart and the remodelling of the relationship between God and humans through the metaphor of the groom Messiah and his beloved bride, Brontë subverts the patriarchal quality of the Father/son model. In Villette, she further proposes her own creed, which differs from that of secularised Christianity. She cautions against the development of the Protestant faith, which affirms everyday life into an exclusive humanism that leads to the pursuit of human flourishing only. On the contrary, she presents a creed that affirms the transcendent world. Consequently, this thesis concludes that, despite the disparaging criticisms against Charlotte Brontë for her dissenting feminist vision, her authorial excellence proves that women’s quest for spiritual autonomy and self-fulfilment in ordinary life are not mutually exclusive.