Agnes Grey begins with one form of societal
subjugation overpowering another; the difference in social class between
Mr Grey and his wife is presented as having more significance than the
patriarchal backdrop of the 19th
century. Mr Grey is presented as a somewhat insecure figure, constantly
seeking the reassurance of his wife with regard to the life he has
provided her with. Agnes, the character-bound narrator talks of a father
who ‘often unduly vexed himself with thinking
of the sacrifices his dear wife had made for him; and
troubled his
head with revolving endless schemes for the augmentation of his little
fortune’. Bronte’s choice to use the voice of a character-bound narrator
allows her to present her father’s emotional
neediness as a testament to his good character rather than a lack of
consideration for his ‘dear wife’ who must endure him. The writer creates
sympathy for the father through her choice of language. The word ‘dear’
in relation to 'wife, although used by the character-bound narrator, offers an insight into Mr Grey’s attitude
to his wife, justifying his emotional neediness with his pure
intention which is to better wife's quality of life. Personification is emploted when Bronte refers to how Mr Grey ‘troubled his head’,
presenting his head as an almost separate person or entity
which must bear his troubles. Such language depicts Mr Grey as a
frustrated, helpless figure, immediately evoking sympathy. Little is
said however, of the effect Mr Grey’s self-torment is having on his
wife’s emotional well-being who ‘in vain’ ‘assured him
she was quite satisfied’.
It could be argued that Bronte combines metaphorical
language with the use of prelude to implicitly deliver a verdict on the
class divide present in Mr and Mrs Grey’s marriage. At the beginning of
Chapter One, The Parsonage which starts with
Bronte’s character’s self-conscious contemplation of whether her
history is interesting enough to recall she comments on how it may be
hard to find the ‘treasure’ in some histories to the extent ‘that the
dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the
trouble of cracking the nut’. The sudden stark contrast between ‘treasure’ and ‘dry kernel’ could be interpreted as a
prelude to the perceivable class division in Mr and Mrs Grey’s marriage.
Literary interest in the archetype of a man who is emotionally reliant on his female counterpart has not waned since the 19th
century with postmodern writers
dedicating novels to such issues. Virginia Woolf’s novel 'To the
Lighthouse', for instance, explores the very archetype present in Anne
Bronte’s 'Agnes Grey' through the character of Mr Ramsay. However, Woolf’s
presentation of the emotionally needy husband is
far from Anne Bronte’s sympathetic 19th
century depiction. The main difference between the two writers is
Woolf’s emphasis on the feelings of the archetype’s female counterpart;
in other words, the character of Mrs Ramsay. Woolf uses a simile to
describe Mrs Ramsay’s counselling of her husband ‘as a nurse carrying a
light across a dark room assures a fractious child’. The comparison made
between Mrs Ramsay’s role as a wife and a nurse,
promotes the idea that Mrs Ramsay’s domestic role is one that
incorporates labour and toil, presenting the archetype of the
emotionally needy husband as selfish and oppressive. Furthermore, the
association of Mr Ramsay’s neediness with that of a ‘child’ further
degrades the archetype by reminding the readership that it is in fact a
grown man who is exhibiting the characteristics of a child; an
observation that exposes the hyperbolic undertones of Woolf’s simile and
thus her disapproval.
Although Bronte and Woolf’s attitudes differ, the
writers are united in their use of hyperbolic language. However, whilst Woolf uses
hyperbole to deliver her negative opinion on the male archetype, Bronte
uses the same device to show how Mrs Grey ‘would
rather live in a cottage with Richard Grey than in a palace with any
other man in the world’. The contrasting imagery created by ‘cottage’ and
‘palace’ echoes Bronte’s earlier contrast between ‘treasure’ and ‘dry
kernel’, a form of repetition that establishes
Mrs Grey as a devoted wife but at the same time emphasises that the
inherent class division does indeed have inevitable consequences. This sets the scene nicely for a novel that explores the social
subjugation governesses from family’s such as Agnes’ are exposed
to.
From such analysis, ‘Agnes Grey’ appears to be more
preoccupied with the social mistreatment of women from a certain social
class while Woolf’s novel is an exploration of a woman’s domestic
situation, social class being a little consequence
or significance. The different, though similar, themes can be
attributed to the context of each novel. Despite the rise of liberal
thinkers before and during the Victorian period, the rights of women
were largely ignored with writers such as Mary Wollaston,
author of 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women', being rare and perceived as radical. Agnes Brown, therefore, is understandably more concerned
with social class than women’s rights. On the other hand, Virginia
Woolf’s lifetime encompassed the first wave of feminism,
a liberal movement synonymous with her name to this day, making ‘To the
Lighthouse’ much more focused on the role of women.
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