"Vive L'angleterre": Exploring the Relationship Between Britain And

“Vive l’Angleterre” Exploring the Relationship between Britain and Europe in Charlotte Brontë’s Novels Sunniva Sveino Strand A Thesis Presented to The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages University of Oslo In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the MA Degree Spring 2015 ii “Vive l’Angleterre” Exploring the Relationship between Britain and Europe in Charlotte Brontë’s Novels Sunniva Sveino Strand iii © Sunniva Sveino Strand 2015 “Vive l’Angleterre”: Exploring the Relationship between Britain and Europe in Charlotte Brontë’s Novels Sunniva Sveino Strand http://www.duo.uio.no Print: Reprosentralen, University of Oslo iv Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to explore the complex relationship Charlotte Brontë’s novels have with Europe. It will examine how religion, sexuality and morality, and language are used in order to create a British identity that is contrasted to a European one, but also how these binaries are broken down via the romantic unions of British and European characters and the appeal of certain aspects of Catholicism, European sexuality and the French language. The role of Europe has often been overlooked in favour of the British Empire in Brontë scholarship, and this thesis posits that Europe is integral to the establishment of a British national identity in Brontë’s works. Furthermore, those who have studied the author’s presentation of Europe have often limited themselves to the two novels that are set on the Continent, but I argue that much is lost in disregarding the remainder of Brontë’s works. The findings of this thesis suggest that despite the rampant Europhobia found in Brontë’s works, these novels stand out amongst their contemporaries in envisaging romantic unions between Britons and Europeans and that the British characters need something, or someone, European in order to be fulfilled. However, though the novels ask the question whether there is any room for Europe in the British national identity Brontë constructs, Britain is ultimately victorious in the battle between the two. v vi Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Erika Kvistad for her valuable feedback, attention to detail, and the help and guidance she has provided throughout my entire writing process. Thank you to Florian and my parents for proofreading and for supporting me. I am also grateful to Per for helping me with the French. Finally, to my friends and fellow students, thank you for providing me with necessary distractions and for keeping my spirits up. vii viii Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 1 Religion ............................................................................................................................. 12 1.1 The Cloistered Life: Nuns .......................................................................................... 16 1.2 Honesty, Reason and Spiritual Independence: Protestant and Catholic Principles .... 23 1.3 Approaching a Truce: Exploring the Paradox in Villette ............................................ 32 2 Sexuality and Morality ...................................................................................................... 39 2.1 Tempted by European Sexuality: William Crimsworth ............................................. 44 2.2 The European Woman ................................................................................................ 49 2.3 European Passions: Rochester and His Women ......................................................... 54 3 Language ........................................................................................................................... 63 3.1 The Superiority of English .......................................................................................... 68 3.2 French: The Language of Passion ............................................................................... 73 3.3 Language Learning ..................................................................................................... 78 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 85 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................. 89 ix Abbreviations Jane Eyre = JE Shirley = S The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, 2 vols. = L I, L II The Professor = TP Villette = V x Introduction In Villette (1853), the British protagonist Lucy Snowe, in a response to her French co-worker M. Paul’s speech about the numerous faults of the British, exclaims: “Vive l’Angleterre” (V 379). There is something paradoxical about expressing one’s love for Britain1 in French, and this outcry aptly exemplifies the kind of duality Continental Europe inhabits and its importance in the establishment of a British identity in Charlotte Brontë’s (1816-1855) novels. This paradox is central throughout Brontë’s authorship, and when reading the novels it becomes apparent that despite this kind of fervent display of British nationalism, something European nevertheless sneaks into the equation. The issue of national identity is one that is explored in depth in her novels: what makes someone British, what makes someone European, and can, or should, the two identities coexist within the same person? These are some of the questions that Brontë’s novels ask again and again, and that will be examined in this thesis. As Brontë is an established part of the British literary canon, there is a vast amount of criticism studying both her and her works. However, the way in which she engages with Europe has not been studied to a great extent, and the novels’ engagement with the British Empire and the West Indies are often the only foreign relations to be scrutinised. Furthermore, The Professor (1857) and Shirley (1849) have largely been overlooked in favour of the much more famous Jane Eyre (1847) and Villette. What I intend to do in this paper is to investigate the way in which all of Brontë’s novels engage with Europe, and the relationship between British and European identities in her novels. I will contend that Brontë’s novels harbour conflicted views of Europe, especially regarding religion, sexuality and morality, and language. Though these topics are used to differentiate British and European characters, they are also shown to have aspects that are appealing and that create the possibility for love in romantic Anglo-European relationships. Finally, though the country is not exempt from criticism as the novels in the end advocate a golden mean between two extremes, it is, however, Britain that ends up as the superior party. In Brontë’s novels, the issue of national identity is not as straightforward as one might assume from someone who grew up in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, a succession of wars between the French Empire and numerous European countries, including Britain, fought between 1803 and 1815. Derek Williams claims that the Continent Brontë presents differs from that of her contemporaries in that it is an intermediate between a 1 See pages 9-10 for an explanation on the use of the terms “British” and “English.” 1 morally corrupt place and a place in pursuit of liberty and knowledge (1). Indeed, Europe holds a dual position in the books: though anti-Catholicism, Europhobia and Francophobia are rampant in the narrative voices themselves, the Continent nevertheless also offers a space in which British and European traits can influence each other and be conciliated. All the main characters in the novels – Jane Eyre, Lucy Snowe, William Crimsworth, Caroline Helstone and Shirley Keeldar – marry someone who in one way or another is connected to Europe, something which suggests that these British characters are in need of European influences in order to get their happy ending. I will identify what, to Brontë’s mind, constitutes Britishness and sets Britons apart from the rest of Europe, and which European traits might be desirable to her British characters. I have chosen to focus on three main aspects that I believe to be the most important factors in this construction: religion, sexuality and morality, and language. Though certain characteristics serve to exhibit the superiority of the British, and the linking of undesirable Europeans traits to unsympathetic Britons leads to these characters simultaneously becoming less likeable and less British, I will argue that the novels harbour a certain fascination for Europe. I will furthermore pay particular attention to characters who are divided between the two identities, or do not seem to have a national identity at all, and I will endeavour to show the importance in the texts of having a sense of belonging. Torn between Britain and Continental Europe, the characters in Brontë’s novels play with different notions of Britishness and “Europeanness” in order to examine and explore their own allegiance, faith and sexuality. The idea for this thesis originated while researching a paper on Jane Eyre, when I found that there was very little written about the novel’s interest in Europe, whereas there was a large amount of criticism regarding the British Empire and the West Indies. Anne Longmuir points to the rise of post-colonial criticism as one of the reasons why the relationship between Britain and its Empire has been favoured over the relationship between Britain and Europe in recent

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