Shirley

Shirley is regarded as the novel that most strongly reflects Charlotte Brontë’s proto-feminist thinking. Its characters actively express and debate disparate views on what women should and shouldn’t be able to do, particularly in regard to education and labor. The novel’s two heroines, Caroline Helstone and Shirley Keeldar, both have men in their lives who attempt to control them to different degrees. Shirley, who has just come of age and obtained independent wealth at the beginning of the novel, is able to ignore the demands of the men around her, such as her uncle who attempts to force her into marriage. Caroline, however, does not share Shirley’s wealthy status and thus is under the control of her uncle, and she fears that she will be a burden on him for the rest of her life. From the beginning of the novel, Caroline reflects that there are three paths in life granted to a woman of her social status: marriage, becoming a governess, or becoming an “old maid.” The narrator notes that Caroline “would wish nature had made her a boy instead of a girl” (76) so she may have an occupation rather than remaining dependent and worrying about what she will do with the rest of her life.