Deconstructing the Victorian Governess

1. Deconstructing the Victorian Governess Historicizing Meaning in Jane Eyre

2. The Governess Narrative • Bronte’s novel is one of many books that chronicle the life and times of the Victorian governess. • Notable other examples include Thackery’sVanity Fair, Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey, and later, James’s Turn of the Screw • MANY others were classified as popular fiction and are not widely read today.

3. The Governess Narrative • Why so many governess narratives?!? (we have to go “outside the text” to answer this question) • Belsey’s model of language in practice asks us to think about how the literary text is constructed out of and participates in a series of historically situated systems of difference and meaning. • Understanding the problem of the governess is a way of laying out the complicated terrain of social meaning that Jane Eyre operated in.

4. The Problems with Governesses • In her day, the governess figure was a source of intense scrutiny, anxiety and social criticism. • These criticisms stemmed from the problems that she created in the strict values and social categories of the era. • The governess is a problem for the intersections of… • Gender ideology • Class ideology • Proper sexuality • These problems led to a variety of ambivalent representations where the governess is both a sympathetic figure AND a threat to the virtuous operation of the Victorian home.

5. Problem for Gender Norms • The gender politics of the late 18th Century and 19th Century was dominated by the values ascribed to gender by the idea of “separate spheres” • Unmarried women – “spinsters” – were universally derided as drains upon their family (who were their only means of support) and for failing to fulfill their “natural” social role.

6. Problem for Gender Norms • By around the mid-19th Century, commentators of the period begin to notice a “surplus” of “redundant” women especially in the upper and middle classes • One of the reasons for the “surplus” of available, respectable women was the colonial project – so many young men were abroad. • It has been suggested that this was one of the reasons for the rise and increasing visibility of the profession in this era – as well as its increasing social acceptance. • As one of the few positions that a socially respectable woman could inhabit outside of marriage and family, the 19th Century saw an increase in governess positions.

7. Problem for Gender Norms • Early associations with the “spinster” created stereotypes of the governess as old, dry, and ugly – a stereotype which quickly ran into conflict with the reality of the young, and still marriageable women who actually occupied the position • In addition, governesses were most often employed to instruct young upper-class girls (boys went to boarding schools) and to model correct norms of femininity. • Contradiction: how can a woman who is already disqualified from proper (married) femininity exemplify the values of that same femininity for young girls?

8. Problems for Gender/Class • The governess was essentially an employed middle-upper class woman – an unusual circumstance • Upper class in manner, but often associated with lower-classes in actual social standing • This created a certain crisis in the meaning of class: the governess was expected to resemble the upper-class in all ways but simultaneously to never mistake herself for her social betters

9. Problems for Gender/Class • Class has a gendered dimension: a middle-upper class woman who is unmarried and who, unlike the spinster, has not given up on the possibility of her own happiness, must (of course) be desperately seeking a husband • This led many to see the governess as a sly, malicious, and thoroughly inappropriate social climber out to seduce upper-class men she might encounter in her job

10. Problems for Gender/Class • In addition, the governess position gave single women an unprecedented amount of financial independence and autonomy • Stories began to appear about governesses who used their salaries to, on their days off, dress and act like upper-class women in public • These stories were used as evidence that the governess position caused these women to become disrespectful of their proper place in society – in terms of both gender and class status

11. Problems for Gender/Class/Sexuality • In the dominant upper-class imagination, the financial independence and working status of the lower-class woman was inextricably tied to stereotypes about her sexual aggression • Through this association, the governess was associated with the prostitute • This association led to criticisms that the governess was the equivalent of a prostitute that one had invited to live in your home

12. Problems for Gender/Class/Sexuality • In the home, governesses were actually placed in a very vulnerable position • They were respectable women, who nevertheless were exempt from the strict rules of proper courtship and etiquette • They could be approached simply and directly with little or no social ramifications • The governess on the other hand was bound by the rules of etiquette that were given in her role as servant and dependent – a deeply unequal situation

13. Problems for Gender/Class/Sexuality • In these ways, the governess embodied the fear of unregulated sexuality in the home • At the same time that the governess was becoming a stock figure in the novel, a whole genre of governess pornography was also being circulated • These materials often depicted the governess as the seductress who has an inappropriate amount of authority in the household

14. Back to Social Meaning… • These examples show how the figure of the governess was plurally constructed by a dense network of social meanings and subject positions. • Older categories and stock narratives are used to explain her/describe her: • The “upper-class lady” • The “spinster” • The “social climber” • The “prostitute” • Contradictions are produced at the intersection of these categories which cause a significant amount of social anxiety • This is the terrain of social meaning in which Jane Eyre participates.

15. Richard Redgrave, The Governess (1844)

16. Rebecca Solomon, The Governess (1854)