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Contextualising Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey: Religion and Social Reform…

- - - - The reception of Agnes Grey. Negative elements of the context that had negative impact on the its reception:
        
        publication with Wuthering Heights and comparison with it.
        
        publication shortly after Jane Eyre and comparison with it.
      - The reception of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
        
        Positive aspect: recognition of its power and success to gain attention and praise and its role in proving Anne Brontë’s merit.
        
        Negative aspect: condemnation and accusation of crudity and coarseness. (however, the shocking effect it engendered is positive in terms of proving that Anne was not ignored nor neglected in that moment of her career)
      - The confusion and controversy about the Brontës works and identities: element of the context that affected Anne's literary reputation and initiated the comparative approach in dealing with the sisters and their work.
    - - Charlotte’s Attitude and her Initiation of the Second Wave of Response to Anne Brontë:
      - Mrs Gaskell’s Biography of Charlotte Brontë: her account on Anne and its impact on Anne's reputation as a writer.
      - Tendencies of Criticism Following Mrs Gaskell’s Biography of Charlotte Brontë
        
        echoing Charlotte's and Gaskell's estimates of Anne
        
        considering that Anne's talent did not have enough time to be revealed since she died young
        
        autobiographical interpretation that discredit her talent
        
        comparative analysis
    - - phases of this wave
        
        1950s to early 1980s: Harrison, Stanford, Gérin.
        
        since 1980s: Fresh Beginning
        
        Wave of reappraisal of Anne Brontë influenced by New Historicism led mainly by Marianne Thormählen.
        
        Other contributions
        
        Wave of feminist reappraisal of Anne Brontë
    - - Total neglect and misconceptions
      - Small recognition but with persistent misrepresentation and lack of appreciation and true evaluation of her literary talent and achievement.
      - Ambivalence
      - Reappraisal "out of the shadow"
  - - - Dynamics of the relationship:
        
        Distance (a gulf which was never bridged)
        
        Anne is omitted, misunderstood, minimised and often forgotten by Charlotte
    - - Phases of the relation
        
        1 "Twins"; initiation of Anne's writing career with collaboration with Emily: Gondal; following Emily's lead; refuge and comfort.
        
        2 Anne's independence: Anne's creation of an independent identity; experience; different mindset; journey of development and growth.
    - - Significance of this recognition
        
        Rather than being seen as failing imitations of her sister's works, Anne's works are in fact establishing their own standards to be judged with.
        
        Anne's works are valued for their own merits.
        
        Anne does not have to fulfill the standards of the other Brontë novels; her standards are her own, and they challenge her sisters' standards.
      - Reason's for Anne’s Criticism of her Sisters’ Works:
        
        To voice her thoughts freely finding in writing a channel of expression that allows her to assume agency for her voice.
        
        To provide an alternative world view for what her sisters' provided in their works.
        
        To prove her independent identity and distinct outlook.
      - Her criticism includes
        
        Romanticism (of violence, male protagonists, relation) and provides realism as an alternative
        
        Outlook on religion, morality, values and worldview.
    - - Significance of this recognition: Seeing the whole picture and refuting the claims of Anne's inferiority and the misconception that Agnes Grey is an imitation of Jane Eyre:
      - Aspects of Agnes Grey’s Influence on Jane Eyre in which Anne was an innovator
        
        First-person female narrator
        
        Plain female protagonist
        
        Governess story
  - - - Consequences:
        
        Simplistic interpretations, confining restrictive reading
        
        hindering the appreciation of Anne's motives, overlooking deeper aspects.
      - Aspects of the claim: The problem of relating criticism to biography
      - Alternative:
        
        Appreciation of biographical elements without oversimplification. Going beyond narrow interpretations to appreciate more complex motives.
        
        Some of Anne's purposes behind using similar aspects to her life:
        
        verisimilitude, reliance, and reliability in the narrative to give it power.
        
        realism as a response to the romantic tendencies in her previous writing shared with Emily.
        
        seeking truth
      - Basis of the claim: Similarity between aspects of her life and fiction
    - - Characteristics of her achievement
        
        Ability to voice her thoughts freely using writing to translate desires into tangible means of influence.
        
        Ability to free herself from the hegemony of Emily and declare her literary independence and unique identity.
        
        self- scrutiny and study of personal development.
      - Purpose behind writing and publishing
        
        Her interest in self-development and change. Writing as a means to reflect that development, expose and study it.
        
        Addressing society’s problems and trying to reform it through truthful exposition.
        
        Seeking to prove individuality her autonomous identity as an author.
        
        Proving that art should instruct and entertain through realism.
      - Unique identity as a writer
        
        Innovation and uniqueness of technique and subject matter in her novels.
        
        Presenting social criticism through her writing.
        
        Her conviction of religion as a means of change.
        
        Her focus on self-development and continuous change and improvement until reaching mental, spiritual, emotional fulfilment.
        
        Her use of realism in order to tell the truth as it is without embellishing.
        
        Her wish for her art “to be taken as hers and on its own terms”
      - Distinctive features of her fiction.
        
        Combining a moral end and artistic aims through a realistic representation.
        
        Grounding her arguments in religion.
        
        Emphasis on spiritual development: cultivation of the spirit to reach self-command.
        
        Use of structural imagery.
- - - - Anne Brontë’s Interaction with her Context Influences her Motive to Write
        
        Anne Sees Writing as a Religious Duty
        
        Anne Sees Writing as a Way to Take Part in Religious, Theological Debate
      - The Bible as Anne Brontë’s Guide in her Writing Endeavour
      - Anne’s Religious Convictions and Social Criticism: Anne Brontë’s Reform Project in her Writing is Influenced by her Interaction with her Context.
    - - Presenting the Religious Landscape
      - Evangelicalism
      - Similarities and Common Points between Wesleyan Methodism, Calvinism, and Evangelicalism
      - Differences between Calvinism and Evangelicalism
    - - Influences that Helped Shape Anne Brontë’s Religious Convictions
      - Spiritual Crisis at Roe Head
      - The Function of Religion and Spirituality in Anne’s Life
  - - - Stage 1: Agnes’s Upbringing in a Religious Household
      - Stage 2: Agnes’s Encounter with a New life
      - Stage 3: Experience of Spiritual Alienation and Overcoming it
      - Stage 4: Establishing an Ideal Religious Household