An Appalling Wish to Emancipate: Work as a Common Thread Towards the Middle-Class Woman’s Emancipation

Abstract

During the Victorian era, a time of pronounced economic growth but also of great instability, a large number of women found themselves facing unexpectedly precarious financial situations. Work, a vital element towards the survival of the individual, proved crucial for the empowerment of the Victorian middle-class woman. In a society where an independent woman was rather atypical, Anne Brontë’s female characters are noteworthy examples of women who used work as a path towards emancipation. The governess and the abused wife both appear to embody a universe of women who experienced ill-treatment, something everyone knew about, but not everyone chose to discuss.