65 pages • 2 hours read
Agnes Grey
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Essay Topics
Charlotte Brontë wrote of her sister, in the preface to Agnes Grey’s second printing, that Anne was the “milder and more subdued” of the sisters; she was “self-denying, reflective, and intelligent,” with a “constitutional reserve and taciturnity” (160). Consider the character of Agnes Grey in light of these qualities, particularly her impulses toward modesty, reserve, and self-sacrifice. What benefits might Anne be arguing that a young woman might derive from these virtues? Does Agnes demonstrate any drawbacks in these qualities?
Note the uses that Brontë makes of landscape and weather throughout Agnes Grey and make an argument for how the author uses these, successfully or otherwise, to foreshadow emotional events and create an internal landscape. How does the author use natural settings to comment on or reveal interior emotions?
Compare Agnes Grey with the other daughters in the novel: Mary Ann Bloomfield and Rosalie and Matilda Murray. What argument is the author making for the qualities or behaviors that a young woman should possess? How does she suggest that certain attitudes may help or hinder a young woman in achieving personal happiness?
Trace the novel’s argument about the value of education and the role of parents in influencing a child’s character. Examine how characters like Tom Bloomfield are influenced by his paternal figures and how Rosalie is shaped by her mother. You might also examine the ways Matilda takes after her father. What is Brontë saying about the ways to inculcate good character in children and her reasoning for what “spoils” a child?
Charlotte Brontë attests that Anne was a “very sincere and practical Christian” (159). Discuss the importance of Christian values throughout the book as they are demonstrated in their exercise—or lack thereof—by the various characters.
Choose another of Anne Brontë’s works—either her second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, or the early poetry collected in Tales of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal (Oxford World’s Classics, 2010) and trace Anne’s evolution as an author. You might likewise choose to watch a film adaptation such as To Walk Invisible. Discuss the themes and conflicts that are of particular interest to Anne Brontë in terms of her life and/or other work.
Read Jane Eyre, which also features a governess protagonist, and compare how each work portrays the work and challenges of being a governess. How do the characters of Jane and Agnes develop or change as a result of their struggles? What might their trials say about the governess’s role more largely?
Examine Agnes Grey as a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, and trace how Agnes evolves (or, perhaps, does not evolve) through her various encounters and trials. What lessons does Agnes learn by the end?
Compare the attitudes to courtship and marriage displayed by Rosalie Murray and Agnes Grey. How do the differences in class impact each woman’s attitude about the value of marriage? What does each woman hope to gain? Discuss what the novel seems to be saying by the contrast of Rosalie’s disappointment and Agnes’s happiness in the end. You may discuss these purely in terms of the novel, or set their attitudes in terms of broader Victorian ideals concerning femininity and domesticity.
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