Shirley (novel)

Shirley

First edition title page
Author Charlotte Brontë
Country United Kingdom
Publication date
 1849

Shirley is an 1849 social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontë. It was Brontë's second published novel after Jane Eyre (originally published under Brontë's pseudonym Currer Bell). The novel is set in Yorkshire in the period 1811–12, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The novel is set against a backdrop of the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry.

The novel's popularity led to Shirley's becoming a woman's name. The title character was given the name that her father had intended to give a son. Before the publication of the novel, Shirley was an uncommon – but distinctly male – name and would have been an unusual name for a woman.[1] Today it is regarded as a distinctly female name and an uncommon male name.

Background

While Brontë was writing Shirley, three of her siblings died. Her brother Branwell died in September 1848, and her sister Emily fell ill and died in December. Brontë resumed writing, but then her only remaining sibling, her sister Anne, became ill and died in May 1849.[2]

Some critics believe that the character of Caroline Helstone was loosely based on Anne and it has been speculated that Brontë originally planned to let Caroline die but changed her mind because of her family tragedies.[2] However, Ellen Nussey, Charlotte's lifelong friend, claimed that the character of Caroline was based on herself. Charlotte Brontë told Elizabeth Gaskell that Shirley is what she believed her sister, Emily Brontë, would have been if she had been born into a wealthy family. Again, Ellen Nussey, who knew Emily as well as anyone outside the family, didn't recognize her in Shirley.[3] The maiden name of Mrs. Pryor is Agnes Grey, the name of the main character in Anne's first novel.[4] She was based on Margaret Wooler, the principal of Roe Head School, which Brontë attended as both student and teacher.[5]

Locations

The novel is set in and around the Spen Valley area of West Yorkshire. This area is now known as "Shirley country" to some locals. In the novel, Brairmains is based on the "Red House" in Gomersal; Mary Taylor, a friend of Charlotte, lived here. The house is now open as a museum. Fieldhead in the novel is based on the Elizabethan manor house, Oakwell Hall, which is now also a museum. The attack on Robert Moore's mill was based on the Luddite attack on Cartwright's Mill at Rawfolds, Liversedge, though it is believed also to take some inspiration from Taylor's Mill at Hunsworth. Patrick Bronte had lived in the Hightown area of Liversedge for a while, and Charlotte knew the area well.

Plot

Robert Moore is a mill owner noted for apparent ruthlessness towards his employees – more than any other mill owner in town. He has laid off many of them, apparently indifferent to their consequent impoverishment. In fact he had no choice, since the mill is deeply in debt. The mill was inefficiently run by his late father and is already mortgaged. His elder brother became a private tutor, leaving Robert to return the mill to profitability. He is determined to restore his family's honour and fortune.

As the novel opens, Robert awaits delivery of new labour-saving machinery for the mill which will enable him to lay off additional employees. Together with some friends he watches all night, but the machinery is destroyed on the way to the mill by angry millworkers. Robert's business difficulties continue, due in part to continuing labour unrest, but even more so to the Napoleonic Wars and the accompanying Orders in Council which forbid British merchants from trading in American markets.

Robert is very close to Caroline Helstone, who comes to his house to be taught French by his sister, Hortense. Caroline worships Robert and he likes her. Caroline’s father is dead and her mother had abandoned her, leaving her to be brought up by her uncle, the local parson, Rev. Helstone. Caroline is penniless, and so to keep himself from falling in love with her, Robert keeps his distance since he cannot afford to marry for pleasure or for love. He has to marry for money if he is to restore his mill to profitability.

Caroline realizes that Robert is growing increasingly distant and withdraws into herself. Her uncle does not sympathise with her ‘fancies’, and she has no money of her own, so she cannot leave, which is what she longs to do. She suggests taking up the job of a governess but her uncle dismisses it and assures her that she need not work for a living.

Caroline cheers up a great deal, however, when she meets Shirley. Shirley is a landowner, an independent heiress whose parents are dead and who lives with Mrs. Pryor, an old governess. Shirley is lively, cheerful, full of ideas about how to use her money and how to help people, and very interested in business concerns. Caroline and Shirley soon become close friends. They dislike social hypocrisy and wish they could do something significant with their lives. As Caroline gets closer to Shirley, she notices that Shirley and Robert are becoming good friends too, which makes her think that they will end up marrying. Shirley likes Robert, is very interested in his work, and is concerned about him and the threats he receives from laid-off millworkers. Both good and bad former employees are depicted. Some passages show the real suffering of those who were honest workers and can no longer find good employment; other passages show how some people use losing their jobs as an excuse to get drunk, fight with their previous employers, and incite other people to violence. Shirley uses her money to help the poorest but she is also motivated by the desire to prevent any attack on Robert, a motive that makes Caroline both happy and unhappy.

One night, Mr. Helstone convinces Shirley to stay with Caroline while he spends the night with an old friend who has recently come to town. Caroline and Shirley realize that an attack on the mill is imminent. They hear Mr. Helstone's dog barking and realize that a group of rioters has come to a halt outside the rectory. They overhear the rioters talking about entering the house, but are relieved when they decide to go on. The women go the mill together to warn Robert but they are too late and have to hide nearby. Robert is already prepared however and he mounts a counter-attack. He defeats the attackers, the encounter being witnessed by Shirley and Caroline from their hiding place.

Hortense invites Caroline over one evening to keep her company while Robert is away. Hortense argues with the maid, Sarah, about some jelly, and Caroline decides to leave. She goes upstairs to get her things, and hears Robert's overseer Joe Scott announce a Mr. Moore into the house. Hortense drags Caroline into the parlour and Caroline is confused by her formality. A moment later, Robert enters the room, and Caroline realizes that the first Mr. Moore is Louis Moore, Robert's brother, and tutor to Henry, Shirley's cousin.

After this incident, the whole neighbourhood is convinced that Robert and Shirley shall wed. The anticipation of this causes Caroline to fall sick. Mrs. Pryor comes to look after her, and realizes that Caroline is pining. Every Tuesday, Caroline sits by the window, no matter how weak or tired, to try to glimpse of Robert on his way to the market. Mrs. Pryor learns the cause of Caroline’s sorrow but is helpless; she continues her vigil in the sick room even as Caroline worsens daily.

Caroline hears from Hortense that Robert has left for London for no apparent reason. Caroline has lost even her weekly glimpse of him, and she feels that she has ‘nothing left to live for’ since there is no-one who cares whether she lives or dies. Mrs. Pryor then reveals to Caroline that she is Caroline's mother. She had abandoned her because Caroline looked exactly like her father – the husband who tortured Mrs. Pryor and made her life miserable. She had little money; when her brother-in-law offered to bring up the child, she accepted it, took up a family name of Pryor and went off to become a governess. Caroline now has a reason to live – her ‘mamma’. She begins to recover slowly, since she knows that she can go and live with her mother.

Shirley's uncle and aunt come to visit her. The uncle joins Shirley in her office work (administering her land and investments). They bring with them their daughters, their son, and their son's tutor. He is Louis Moore, Robert’s younger brother, who had taught Shirley when she was younger. Caroline is puzzled by Shirley’s behaviour towards Louis – the friendly girl who treats her servants as her own family is always haughty and formal with Louis and never seems to forget that he is a lowly tutor with no money of his own. Two men fall in love with Shirley and woo her, but she refuses both because she does not love them. Her uncle is surprised by this behaviour and wants her to marry someone respectable soon. A baronet, the most prominent nobleman of the district, falls in love with Shirley. She likes him too, though she does not respect him and does not want to marry him. The neighbourhood, however, is certain that she will not refuse so favourable a match. The relationship between Shirley and Louis, meanwhile, remains ambivalent. There are days when Louis can, with the authority of an old teacher, ask Shirley to come to the schoolroom and recite the French pieces that she learnt earlier. On other days, Shirley ignores Louis, not speaking to him although they have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same table. However, when Shirley is upset, the only one she can confide in is Louis. When a supposed 'mad dog’ bites Shirley and makes her think that she is to die early, no one except Louis can make her reveal what it is that makes her so sad. Shirley makes him promise that if she is dying of rabies, and to be put to death because of the terrible suffering in the last stages of the disease, it must be his hand that delivers that final injection.

Robert returns one dark night, first stopping at the market and then returning to his home with a friend. The friend tells him that it is widely speculated that Shirley is to marry a rich man and asks him why he left when it seemed so sure that Shirley loved him and would have married him. Robert replies that he had assumed the same, and that he had proposed to Shirley before he left. But Shirley had at first laughed, thinking that he was not serious, and cried when she discovered that he was. She had told him that she knew that he did not love her, that he asked for her hand not for her but for her money and this decreased her respect for him. When Robert had argued that Shirley had shown concern for him, been open with him from the very beginning and discussed his business matters at length with him, she had said that she had esteem and affection for him, but not love and now even that esteem and affection were in danger. Robert walked away from that room filled with a sense of humiliation, even as he knew that she was right – that he had ignored his affection for Caroline and sought out Shirley primarily for her money. This self-disgust drove Robert away to London and he realized there that restoring the family name was not as important as self-respect and he had returned home, determined to close the mill if he had to, and go away to Canada and work hard and make his fortune. Just as Robert finishes his narration, his friend hears a gunshot and Robert falls from his horse – the laid-off workers are finally avenged.

The friend takes Robert to his own home and looks after him, and after a turn for the worse, Robert slowly gets better. A visit from Caroline revives him but she has to come secretly, hiding from her uncle and his friend and his family. Robert soon moves back to his house and persuades his sister that the very thing the house needs to cheer it up is a visit from Caroline. Robert asks for Caroline’s forgiveness and tries to tell her what had happened with Shirley, but she stops him and tells him that she has forgiven him and does not need to know any more. She also predicts that Shirley is in love too, and that she is not ‘master of her own heart’.

When Shirley refuses the baronet’s offer of marriage, her uncle is enraged and argues with her. He then decides to leave Stillborough. This means that Louis will have to leave too, which emboldens him enough to make his declaration – he proposes to Shirley, despite the difference in their relative situations. Shirley agrees to marry him, though she has moments of indecision and panic at the thought of giving up her independence.

At first, Caroline is to be the bridesmaid for Shirley, but Robert proposes and she accepts him.

The novel ends with Caroline marrying Robert and Shirley marrying his brother, Louis.

Illustration by T.H.Robinson

Style

Unlike Jane Eyre, which is written in the first person and narrated by the title character, Shirley is narrated by an omniscient but unnamed third-person narrator (see Narration). For her third novel Villette, Brontë returned to first-person narration.

Adaptations

The novel has only been filmed once to date, in 1922. The silent adaptation was done by A. V. Bramble, and Carlotta Breese starred as the title character.

In March 2014, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 10-episode dramatisation by Rachel Joyce in the station's 15 Minute Drama slot. Narrated by Lesley Sharp, the series starred Joanne Froggatt as Caroline and Jemima Rooper as Shirley.[6]

Critical reception

Coming soon after Jane Eyre, which was extremely successful, Shirley originally received a muted reception from critics.[2]

Characters

The four central characters are studies in contrast: the two friends Caroline Helstone and Shirley Keeldar, and their loves, the brothers Robert and Louis Gérard Moore.

Other characters in the novel include:

References

  1. ↑ "...she had no Christian name but Shirley; her parents, who had wished to have a son, finding that, after eight years of marriage, Providence had granted them only a daughter, bestowed on her the same masculine family cognomen they would have bestowed on a boy, if with a boy they had been blessed..." Shirley , Chapter XI
  2. 1 2 3 Ed. Denise Evans and Mary L. Onorato. (2004). ""Brontë, Shirley Charlotte: Introduction." Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism.". Retrieved 2007-10-07.
  3. ↑ Brontë, Charlotte (2008). Margaret Smith, Herbert Rosengarten, Janet Gezari, ed. Shirley. England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954080-8.
  4. ↑ Mrs. Pryor mentions her name was "Miss Grey". In Chapter XXIV her first name is revealed. Shirley, Chapter XXI.
  5. ↑ Brontë, Charlotte (2006). Jessica Cox, Lucasta Miller, ed. Shirley. England: Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-143986-0.
  6. ↑ "Shirley". 15 Minute Drama. BBC. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
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