1
Charlotte Brontë: Fictions of Empire
‘As we look back at the cultural archive, we begin to reread it not univocally but
contrapuntally, with a simultaneous awareness both of the metropolitan history that is
narrated and of those other histories against which (and together with which) the dominating
discourse acts’ (Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism). How would you implement the
sort of contrapuntal reading advocated by Said? Discuss two or more novels studied on the
module.
Contrapuntal analysis, advocated by Edward W. Said, demands a vision in which imperialism
and literature are viewed simultaneously. Reading a Charlotte Brontë novel contrapuntally is
considering how the text interacts with its metropolitan context alongside the historical
context of British imperialism. In Jane Eyre (1847) the colonial histories of the West Indies
and India intertwine with the experiences of women in the metropolis. The metropolitan
history of Shirley (1849) can be situated in relation to colonial Ireland and the famine. A
contrapuntal reading of Jane Eyre and Shirley discloses their broad global outreach and
complex affiliations with the business of empire.
By reading Jane Eyre contrapuntally an implicit engagement with the history of
African-American slavery is revealed. The metropolitan history narrated, which critiques the
gender politics of western civilisation, intertwines with the history of subjugated non-white
races. This engagement is manifested in a racial metaphor which aligns the oppression of
lower middle-class white women, represented by Jane Eyre, with the oppression of black
female slaves. At Gateshead, the orphaned and dependant Jane is ‘always suffering, always
browbeaten, always accused.’1 After one incident, Jane compares her cousin John to a ‘slave-
driver’ (JE, p.43). This accusation provokes an affray between the cousins during which Jane
is represented as a ‘rebel slave’ (JE, p.44). Her moment of ‘mutiny’ (JE, p.44) results in Mrs
Reed imprisoning Jane in the red-room, where she reflects on how her aunt ‘could really like
an interloper, not of her race’ (JE, p.48). The association of Jane with non-white races
1
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847), ed. Q. D. Leavis (London: Penguin, 1985), p.46. All further
references are to this edition and are given in the text as JE.
, 2
continues at Lowood where she encounters another form of servitude. When she is punished
for being a liar, and made to stand silently on a stool, Jane is gazed at as if she were ‘a slave
or victim’ (JE, p.99). The racial metaphor employed by Brontë, as Susan Meyer argues,
demonstrates ‘not shared inferiority but a shared experience of frustration, limitation, and
subordination’2 between the white woman and the black female slave. Jane Eyre has complex
affiliations with the historical context of the transatlantic slave trade.
A contrapuntal reading, according to Said, must ‘take account of both processes, that
of imperialism and that of resistance to it.’3 Both processes are explored in Jane Eyre, where
British imperialism is definitively condemned. Mr Rochester, for example, has made his
wealth in the slave trade. The Rochesters, according to Mrs Fairfax, have ‘been rather a
violent than a quiet race in their time’ (JE, p.137). This is demonstrated by Rochester’s
capacity to ‘be a little masterful’ (JE, p.165) over Jane. If Rochester represents imperial
authority in the text, Bertha Mason is the embodiment of resistance to it. The colonial figure
of Bertha is associated with blackness, particularly the black Jamaican antislavery rebels, the
maroons. The various violent acts committed by Bertha throughout the text characterise her as
a colonial rebel. The night before her wedding, for instance, Bertha steals into Jane’s chamber
and rips her wedding veil in two. Jane relates the figure with blackness; she recollects the
‘savage face’ (JE, p.311) and the ‘fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments’ (JE, p.311).
The destruction of the wedding veil, representing Rochester’s wealth from the slave trade, can
be interpreted as a rebellion against the institution of slavery. The ‘Jamaican Bertha-become-
black’4, as Meyer observes, is ‘the fiction’s incarnation of the desire for revenge on the part of
colonized peoples.’5 In Jane Eyre, therefore, a contrapuntal analysis considers the
perspectives of both the colonizer and the colonized.
2
Susan Meyer, Imperialism at Home: Race and Victorian Women’s Fiction (Ithaca, New York:
Cornell University Press, 1996), p.47.
Charlotte Brontë: Fictions of Empire
‘As we look back at the cultural archive, we begin to reread it not univocally but
contrapuntally, with a simultaneous awareness both of the metropolitan history that is
narrated and of those other histories against which (and together with which) the dominating
discourse acts’ (Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism). How would you implement the
sort of contrapuntal reading advocated by Said? Discuss two or more novels studied on the
module.
Contrapuntal analysis, advocated by Edward W. Said, demands a vision in which imperialism
and literature are viewed simultaneously. Reading a Charlotte Brontë novel contrapuntally is
considering how the text interacts with its metropolitan context alongside the historical
context of British imperialism. In Jane Eyre (1847) the colonial histories of the West Indies
and India intertwine with the experiences of women in the metropolis. The metropolitan
history of Shirley (1849) can be situated in relation to colonial Ireland and the famine. A
contrapuntal reading of Jane Eyre and Shirley discloses their broad global outreach and
complex affiliations with the business of empire.
By reading Jane Eyre contrapuntally an implicit engagement with the history of
African-American slavery is revealed. The metropolitan history narrated, which critiques the
gender politics of western civilisation, intertwines with the history of subjugated non-white
races. This engagement is manifested in a racial metaphor which aligns the oppression of
lower middle-class white women, represented by Jane Eyre, with the oppression of black
female slaves. At Gateshead, the orphaned and dependant Jane is ‘always suffering, always
browbeaten, always accused.’1 After one incident, Jane compares her cousin John to a ‘slave-
driver’ (JE, p.43). This accusation provokes an affray between the cousins during which Jane
is represented as a ‘rebel slave’ (JE, p.44). Her moment of ‘mutiny’ (JE, p.44) results in Mrs
Reed imprisoning Jane in the red-room, where she reflects on how her aunt ‘could really like
an interloper, not of her race’ (JE, p.48). The association of Jane with non-white races
1
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847), ed. Q. D. Leavis (London: Penguin, 1985), p.46. All further
references are to this edition and are given in the text as JE.
, 2
continues at Lowood where she encounters another form of servitude. When she is punished
for being a liar, and made to stand silently on a stool, Jane is gazed at as if she were ‘a slave
or victim’ (JE, p.99). The racial metaphor employed by Brontë, as Susan Meyer argues,
demonstrates ‘not shared inferiority but a shared experience of frustration, limitation, and
subordination’2 between the white woman and the black female slave. Jane Eyre has complex
affiliations with the historical context of the transatlantic slave trade.
A contrapuntal reading, according to Said, must ‘take account of both processes, that
of imperialism and that of resistance to it.’3 Both processes are explored in Jane Eyre, where
British imperialism is definitively condemned. Mr Rochester, for example, has made his
wealth in the slave trade. The Rochesters, according to Mrs Fairfax, have ‘been rather a
violent than a quiet race in their time’ (JE, p.137). This is demonstrated by Rochester’s
capacity to ‘be a little masterful’ (JE, p.165) over Jane. If Rochester represents imperial
authority in the text, Bertha Mason is the embodiment of resistance to it. The colonial figure
of Bertha is associated with blackness, particularly the black Jamaican antislavery rebels, the
maroons. The various violent acts committed by Bertha throughout the text characterise her as
a colonial rebel. The night before her wedding, for instance, Bertha steals into Jane’s chamber
and rips her wedding veil in two. Jane relates the figure with blackness; she recollects the
‘savage face’ (JE, p.311) and the ‘fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments’ (JE, p.311).
The destruction of the wedding veil, representing Rochester’s wealth from the slave trade, can
be interpreted as a rebellion against the institution of slavery. The ‘Jamaican Bertha-become-
black’4, as Meyer observes, is ‘the fiction’s incarnation of the desire for revenge on the part of
colonized peoples.’5 In Jane Eyre, therefore, a contrapuntal analysis considers the
perspectives of both the colonizer and the colonized.
2
Susan Meyer, Imperialism at Home: Race and Victorian Women’s Fiction (Ithaca, New York:
Cornell University Press, 1996), p.47.
