(RE)PRESENTING THE BRONTËS: A STUDY OF FEMALE REPRESENTATION THROUGH MIRRORS, WINDOWS, AND PAINTINGS IN FIVE BRONTË NOVELS

The Brontë sisters have long been recognised as what some would call proto-feminist writers. Their literary works collectively deal with the limitations of the female position and the contradictory experience of female identity in mid-nineteenth century society, and they often approach these issues in ways that have been considered rebellious or subversive. This thesis argues that a certain set of analogous images; mirrors, windows, and paintings, held a significant space in the Brontës’ literary imagination and were employed to explore both the limits and potential liberations for the female position and its representations at the time they were writing.

Despite the frequency with which mirrors, windows, and paintings abound in the Brontës’ novels, the importance of their symbolism has been given insufficient consideration. No critic has attempted a thorough analysis of these images in these works, and none have considered their relationship in a comparable study of this kind. Through close readings and the application of a feminist critical approach, drawing upon social and psychoanalytical theory where relevant, I demonstrate how these corresponding symbols were integral to the Brontës pioneering attempts at imagining new ways of seeing women in their social and narrative representations. In doing so, this thesis contributes to feminist studies on the Brontës by providing a nuanced understanding of the at times subversive, but at other times more conventional ways they depicted women’s place in patriarchal society which they expressed through the comparably conflicted symbolism of mirrors, windows, and paintings.