Jane Eyre and Helen Huntingdon: Making their Ways to Domestic Happiness

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Pisuda Promsuttirak

Abstract

This paper examines the narratives of Charlott Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Ann Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in terms of the female protagonist’s progress towards their domestic happiness. Both novels end with the positive future prospect for the heroines after their marriage. However, in addition to this common feature, this study finds that the protagonists share quite similar vital experiences as the narrative progresses. As these experiences operate as the way by which the protagonists attain their domestic joy and as the stimulators of such ending, the paper will discuss in detail the experiences in terms of the heroines’ self-assertion and moral struggle, the influence of death on life, and the heroines’ contributive actions.

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Author Biography

Pisuda Promsuttirak

Pisuda Promsuttirak is Lecturer of English at School of Humanities and Tourism Management, Bangkok University. She obtained her first degree in English from the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University and an MA in English Literature from University of Leeds, UK.

References

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