An Extract from "Jane Eyre"

I resisted all the way: a new thing for me, and a circumstance which greatly strengthened the bad opinion Bessie and Miss Abbot were disposed to entertain of me. The fact is, I was a trifle beside myself; or rather out of myself, as the French would say: I was conscious that a moment's mutiny¹ had already rendered me liable

open rebellion against authority

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to strange penalties¹, and, like any other rebel slave, I felt re­solved, in my desperation, to go all lengths.

"Hold her arms, Miss Abbot: she's like a mad cat."

"For shame! for shame!" cried the lady's-maid. "What shocking conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your benefac­tress's son! your young master!"

"Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?"

"No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep. There, sit down and think over your wickedness."

They had got me by this into the apartment indicated by Mrs. Reed, and had thrust me upon a stool: my impulse was to rise from it like a spring; their two pair of hands arrested me in­stantly.

"If you don't sit still, you must be tied down," said Bessie. "Miss Abbot, lend "me your garters; she would break mine directly."

Miss Abbot turned to divest a stout leg of the necessary liga­ture². This preparation for bonds, and the additional ignominy³ it inferred⁴, took a little of the excitement out of me.

"Don't take them off," I cried; "I will not stir."

In guarantee whereof, I attached myself to my seat by my hands.

"Mind you don't," said Bessie; and she had ascertained that I was really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Abbot stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubt­fully on my face, as incredulous of my sanity.

"She never did so before," at last said Bessie, turning to the abigail⁵.

"But it was always in her," "was the reply, "I've told Missis often my opinion about the child, and Missis agreed with me. She's an underhand little thing: I never saw a girl of her age with so much cover⁶."

Bessie answered not; but ere⁷ long, addressing me, she said, —

"You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poorhouse."

I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to me — my very first recollections of existence included hints of the same kind. This reproach of my dependence had become a vague sing­song in my ear: very painful and crushing, but only half intelligible. Miss Abbot joined in, —

¹ penalty fpenalti] — punishment for breaking- a law or rule

² a thing that ties up

³ dishonour

⁴ implied, suggested

⁵ a maid-servant

⁶ pretence; disguise

⁷ before

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"And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the Missis Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it is your 'place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them."

"What we tell you is for your good," added Bessie, in no harsh voice; "you should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, you would have a home here; but if you become passionate and rude, Missis will send you away, I am sure."

"Wuthering Heights" (1847). Emily Bronte has only one novel, "Wuthering Heights" ['wA&arirj 'haits] — her prose-poem. She did not live to find herself famous. Now the book is regarded as one of the most remarkable novels in English literature. The book is strange. On the one hand the plot is full of mystery. On the other hand the novel is very concrete: the time of the action, the land­scape, geography and climate are realistic. The author of the book makes no distinction between the supernatural and the natural. Both work together to serve her artistic purpose. The mystery and the supernatural are used as romantic elements in the original study of violent characters.

E. Bronte's characters and actions may seem incredible but they convince us. They are unique, and their violent emotions are in­volved with the Yorkshire moors where the action takes place. The moors are varying to suit the changing moods of the story, and they are beautifully described in all seasons.

As we begin to read the novel the action is already approaching its end. We see the drama of the occupants of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross ['OrAjkras] Park through the eyes of Lockwood and Nelly Dean. Lockwood has rented Thrushcross Park from Heathcliff ['hi:8klif], Nelly is an old family servant. The other main characters are:

the Earnshaws

the Unions

living at Wuthering Heights

living at Trushcross Park

their son their foster son their their son their daughter

daughter

Hindley Heatchliff Catherine Edgar Isabella

l ' married to ^f

I ■ i .—, _ ^ 4.

, married to «

„..,_.., , _ „___ .___

his son their daughter their son

Hareton Catherine (Cathy) Union

! married to *

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The action is centred round Heathcliff. Nelly tells* his story of love and revenge to Mr. Lockwood, who in his turn addresses the reader. Mr. Lockwood is also an eyewitness of some events. Within Nelly's account of the fates of the Earnshaws and the Lin-tons there are incorporated other narratives in the first person, those of Catherine, Heathcliff, Isabella, Edgar and others.

The action of the novel may be divided into two parts. One part concerns the fates of Hindley, Catherine, Heathcliff, Isabella and Edgar. The other is the story of their children. Nelly and Heathcliff are the binding link between them.

Nelly remembers how Mr. Earnshaw brought Heathcliff home. He had picked him up in the streets of Liverpool. Nobody knew to whom the baby belonged. He was "dark almost as if it came from the devil". Heathcliff became the favourite of Mr. Earnshaw, though he himself had two children, Hindley and Catherine. Catherine was a'beautiful golden-haired girl, Heathcliff looked like a gipsy. Both were violent children, children of rock, heath and tempest. After Mr. Earnshaw's death Hindley ill-treated his foster-brother be­cause his father had loved film more than his own children. The two boys became deadly enemies. When Catherine and Heathcliff grew up they fell in love. Their love was strange. They were so alike that they seemed one soul. As Heathcliff was poor, Catherine married the rich Edgar Linton. That drove Heathcliff to be "hell-like in heart and misery". He felt that life had turned against him, he was a victim of social injustice. Heathcliff left the district and after some time returned rich. He decided to revenge himself on the Lintons and the Earnshaws, to win their property and to degrade them as he himself had been degraded.

The second part of the action shows Heathcliff as the revenger. To revenge himself on the Lintons he married Isabella and made her life a torture. Catherine died leaving a daughter Cathy. Heath­cliff was in despair. He went to the churchyard and began to undig her grave. He wanted to see her once more. Suddenly he seemed to feel Catherine breathing at his ear. A sense of relief flew through his every limb. Catherine was with him on the earth, not in the cold grave. Her imaginary presence remained with him for eigh­teen years. In every object he was surrounded with her image. Isabella ran away and gave birth to a boy whom she called Linton. After her death Heathcliff took Linton to Wuthering Heights. He did not care for the sickly and weak child but when the boy grew up Heathcliff forced young Cathy to marry him, now a cowardly egoist and capricious tyrant. Soon Linton died, and Heathcliff got the property of his son and his daughter-in-law, therefore Cathy is penniless now. Her life at Wuthering Heights is terrible, but she does not give in. Hindley's son, Hareton, becomes her friend and defends her. In order to revenge himself on Hindley Heath­cliff has treated Hareton so badly that now he is almost a brute. Cathy's love for him rescues the young man. At the end of the

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book we see Cathy teaching Hareton his letters, good manners and correct English. They both are not afraid of Heathcliff any more. Soon Heathcliff dies. He is buried beside Catherine. At last he is joined with her. But they have no peace. People say they have seen them both "walk" the earth at night.

An Extract from "Wuthering Heights"

(Catherine's conversation with Nelly)

.. "That will do to explain my secret as well as the other. I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now, so he shall never know how I love him; and that not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.¹'

'Ere this speech ended I became sensible of Heathcliff's presence. Having noticed a slight movement, I turned my head and saw him rise from the bench and steal out noiselessly. He had listened till he heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him, and then he stayed to hear no further.

"I want to cheat my uncomfortable conscience, and be con­vinced that Heathcliff has no notion of these things. He has not, has he? He does not know what being in love is?"

"I see no reason that he should not know, as well as you," I returned; "and if you are his choice, he'll be the most unfortunate creature that ever was born. As soon as you become Mrs. Linton, he loses friend, and love, and all. Have you considered how you'll bear the separation, and how he'll bear to be quite deserted in the world? Because, Miss Catherine "

"He quite deserted! we separated!" she exclaimed, with an ac­cent of indignation. "Who is to separate us, pray? .. Not as long as I live, Ellen — for no mortal creature. Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing before I could consent to for­sake Heathcliff. Oh, that's not what I intend — that's not what 1 mean! I shouldn't be Mrs. Linton were such a price demanded! He'll be as much to me as he has been all his lifetime. Edgar must shake'off his antipathy, and tolerate him, at least. He will, when he learns my true feelings towards him. Nelly, I see now, you think me a selfish wretch; but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff

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and I married, we should be beggars? Whereas, if I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother's power."

"My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries and I watched and felt each from the beginning¹. My great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, / should still continue to be. And if all else remained and he were annihil­ ated¹ the universe would turn to a mighty stranger — I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods; time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks be­ neath — a source.of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind — not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of our separation again. It is im­ practicable, and "

ELIZABETH GASKELL

(1810—1865)

Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson ['sti:vnsn] is known to the world as Mrs. Gaskell ['geeskal]. She was the daughter of a clergy­man, a gentle, tactful, religious and philanthropic woman. Eliza­beth married young and lived a confined life at Manchester during the first period of the Industrial Revolution and together with her husband, a clergyman by profession, made a study of the condi­tions of Manchester workers. She reflected their life in her first novel "Mary Barton" (1848). Her other novels are as follows: "Ruth" (1853), "Cranford" (1853), "North and South" (1855), "Sylvia's Lovers" (1863), "Wives and Daughters" (1866). We are indebted to Mrs. Gaskell also for the "Life of Charlotte .Bronte", which is one of the best biographies. Elizabeth Gaskell admired innocence, industry and a warm heart. She had a talent to express what she thought and felt with humour, pathos and poetry and combined social criticism with melodrama. The artistic quality of Mrs. Gaskell's novels is not even. "Cranford", for example, is a simple and humorous study of life in a provincial town. "Mary Barton" and "North and South" treat of industrial and political conflicts.

¹ destroyed completely 96

"Mary,J3arJ:on" (1848), as a pathetic picture of working-class life in Manchester in the hungry years of 1839—1841 won praise from many progressive writers. Mrs. Gaskell was horrified by the bad conditions in which the poor lived. She filled pages of her book with the description of ragged and starving workers and their families and showed their struggle with the pitiless employers. In the preface to the book its author writes: "I had always felt a deep sympathy with the careworn men, who looked as if doomed to struggle through their lives in strange alternations between work and want, tossed to and fro by. circumstances."

Mrs. Gaskell believed that good employers and social reforms could improve the terrible conditions of the workers. Then perfect understanding, confidence and love would exist between them and their masters.

The main hero of the novel is John Barton. He is a weaver, "a thorough specimen of a Manchester man" and a chartist. He was born of factory workers, and lives among the mills in the dirty and gloomy town. His features are strongly marked and their expression is extreme earnestness and enthusiasm, resolute either for good or evil. John Barton hates the rich and is always ready to help other workers who are poorer and more miserable than his family. The suffering of the workers is unendurable. But they believe the government knows nothing of their misery. A pe­tition is framed and signed by thousands of workers. Ljfeworn, anxious and hungry men are the delegates to convey the petition to the government. One of them is John Barton. The government rejects the petition. The workers' disappointment is great. The in^ justice and desperation in the factory workers turns into revenge upon the rich' whose fortunes they have helped to build up and who often mock at them. The Manchester weavers decide to kill their employer's son, Harry Carson. Lots are cast, and it is John Barton who is to do it.

Elizabeth Gaskell is against violence and harshness. She shows that John Barton repents of what he has done. "He acted to the best of his judgement, but it was a widely-erring judgement.. He was actuated by no selfish motives, his class, his order was what he stood by."

John has a daughter, Mary. She loves a young worker, Jem Wilson, but for a time was carried away by Harry Carson. Jem is arrested in charge of murder: his gun has been found near the place where Harry lay dead. He might have killed Harry out of jealousy. Mary knows that the murderer is her father. But to save Jem would mean to betray her father. In the end she finds a way how to prove Jem's innocence. He is let free. John Barton con­fesses to Harry's father that he had murdered his son. His own misfortune makes Mr. Carson understand the causes that drove the weaver to desperation and crime, and he forgives him.

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