|
|
|
|
Shirley (novel)
|
| |
|
| |
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 1811–1812, 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 becoming a woman's name. In the novel, Shirley Keeldar, 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. Today it is regarded as a distinctly female name and an uncommon male name.
LocationsThe novel is set in a fictional part of Yorkshire. The main town of this fictional district is called Stillborough, and the area in which the novel takes place comprises the parishes of Briarfield and Nunneley.
The Keeldar family home in Shirley is called Fieldhead; Charlotte Brontë based Fieldhead on an Elizabethan Manor House called Oakwell Hall.
StyleUnlike 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. For her third novel Villette, Brontë returned to first-person narration.
ThemesThe major themes in Shirley are the explicit historical theme of industrial unrest in early nineteenth century Britain; and the implicit theme of the role of women in society.
AdaptationsThe 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 Shirley.
CharactersThe 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.
- Robert Gérard Moore - An industrialist whose textile mill is idle because of the war. Perceived as an outsider because he comes from Antwerp, even though he is a cousin of Caroline. During the novel, Robert Moore becomes the target of Luddite attacks because of his decision to install new machines in his mill.
- Louis Gérard Moore - Robert's brother, working as a tutor for Shirley's uncle.
- Caroline Helstone - A timid and uncertain, but also wise and capable young woman, the niece of Reverend Helstone and best friend of Shirley.
- Shirley Keeldar - An orphaned heiress to a fortune. A headstrong, independent and determined young woman.
Other characters in the novel include:
- Rev Matthewston Helstone - Caroline's uncle. A fierce man, who is not cruel, but still shows little affection for his niece. Marriage makes him distrustful of women in general.
- Hortense Gérard Moore - Robert and Louis's sister.
- Hiram Yorke - A local landowner.
- Joe Scott - Robert Moore's foreman at the mill.
- Mrs Pryor - Shirley's timid but wise governess, who moves to Fieldhead together with Shirley. She eventually turns out to be Caroline's long-lost mother.
- The three Curates of the three parishes - The brutish Irishman Peter Malone, the Cockney John Donne and the amiable Davy Sweeting.
r>
|
| |
|
|
