During the first half of the 19th century the governess became an important figure, both in literature and in life, because they were part of a small group of women who were middle-class, independent, educated and single, in a society where the great majority of women of their class either married or stayed at home. Governesses occupied an ambiguous place in society, neither part of the families who employed them nor one of the servants.
They were sometimes mistreated by their employers or the children they were supposed to teach, and often disregarded. Their salary was enough to maintain the appearance of respectability but not much more. The governesses in literature were heroines because they faced these hardships on their own and in many cases triumphed over them. That was the case with all three Bronte sisters who had served times in that profession, as had Mary Wollstonecraft who went on to become the most articulate advocate for sexual equality of her time. However, the governesses were also a threat to their society and their employers because they were unmarried and with few prospects of finding a husband, and therefore were not bound by the same rules as most women of their day.
Kathryn Hughes’s study of the Victorian governess shows how problematic a governess’s position in an upper- or middle-class household could be, especially when seen from a mother’s perspective. In those days sons stayed at home until they married, so for them the unattached governess would present an obvious attraction; and since the governess did not have the protection afforded by her own family, nor the restraints imposed by their presence, she would be vulnerable to their advances.
There was a real fear that a governess would destroy the family she served by being “the first to lead and to initiate into sin” those she was supposed to educate (qtd. in Peterson 14). Not only that, but a young and attractive governess might seduce the head of the household by “delicate and unnoticed flattery” especially when the wife “was homely, or occupied with domestic cares, opportunity was found to bring forward attractive accomplishments, or by sedulous attentions to supply her lack of them” (qtd. in Peterson 15). Employers tended to avoid attractive governesses for these reasons, but the threat was ever-present and accentuated by the most popular novels of the day.
The most obviously threatening character among the governesses in literature is Becky Sharp in William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. There is never any doubt about Becky’s intentions. She comes from an impoverished, unstable background, and is determined to use her education to gain entry into high society where she can meet and marry a wealthy man. When she meets her friend Amelia Sedley’s brother, Joseph, she immediately starts a flirtation with him that flusters the shy, overweight man to the point of panic. That is not only unconventional behavior but cynical manipulation; but the narrator excuses Becky’s behavior by saying
If Miss Rebecca Sharp had determined in her heart upon making the
conquest of this big beau, I don’t think, ladies, we have any right to
blame her; for though the task of husband-hunting is generally, and
with becoming modesty, entrusted by young persons to their mammas,
recollect that Miss Sharp had no kind parent to arrange these delicate
matters for her, and that if she did not get a husband for herself,
there was no one else in the wide world who would take the trouble off
her hands. (Thackeray 15)
In other words, the rules do not apply to a woman who must make her own way. The married women of that time, as well as the women hoping to make a good marriage, were bound by the strictest rules in Great Britain’s history, as Thackeray shows in this novel but Becky is a free agent, amoral and pragmatic. She has no compunction about using acquaintances as stepping stones and almost succeeds in marrying Amelia’s brother but as soon as that plan fails she goes after Sir Pitt Crawley.
She marries his son instead and throughout the novel uses her beauty, talents and charms to improve her lot, either by helping her husband advance himself or getting the admiration she needs. She is duly punished toward the end of the novel, and yet it is clear that Thackeray preferred her to Amelia, her conventional friend. There is little doubt that Victorian women who followed the adventures of Becky kept a close eye on their governesses forever after.
Less obviously a threat but a very real one just the same is Jane Fairfax, the prospective governess in Jane Austen’s Emma. Just as Becky has her counterpart in Amelia, so Jane is paired with Emma Woodhouse’s former governess, Mrs. Weston. Mrs. Weston is one of the lucky governesses who worked in a household where the patriarch was ineffectual and tutored a girl who was intelligent, receptive and loving.
Best of all, just as her charge became a woman she married a wealthy businessman. Jane Fairfax, on the other hand, was adopted by the Churchill family and raised and educated to make her own way in the world as a governess, a prospect she hates. She comes to Emma’s village of Highbury to spend time with her relatives before taking up her first position, a visit which is the cause of many rumors including that she had an affair with a Mr. Dixon and was therefore sent away. Jane is beautiful, elegant and accomplished, but destined to trade her intellect for the pittance a governess receives. In that situation, a woman might do anything to escape her destiny.
That point is not lost on the women of Highbury. The Reverend Elton’s new bride, the former Augusta Hawkins, makes it her mission to find Jane a position as governess anywhere but in Highbury. Emma, the most sociable of women as a rule, avoids Jane and even spreads ugly rumors about her because she sees her as more than just a rival but as superior to herself in some ways. Beneath it all there is the sense that Jane does not have to play by the same rules as the village’s inhabitants; but while that seems an unfair advantage before everyone learns of her secret engagement to Frank Churchill, it seems unfair afterward. As Emma says, “If a woman can ever be excused for thinking only of herself, it is in a situation like Jane Fairfax’s. Of such, one may also say that ‘The world is not theirs, nor the world’s law’” (Austen 345). However, such generosity only comes to Emma once she is sure of Mr. Knightley’s affections and the threat has been neutralized.
Jane Eyre is the best-known governess in literature and although she is a plain, unassuming little woman she is more than a match for Blanche Ingram, the woman who had her heart set on marrying Mr. Rochester. While Blanche is beautiful, elegant and well-connected, and Jane has none of those qualities, it is Jane’s intellect and character that make her a threat. Blanche and her mother recognize that, and do their best to nullify that threat by denigrating governesses as “a tribe … half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous” (Brontë 130).
Jane does not consciously plan to overthrow her rival but she does blame Rochester for what she regards as a preoccupation with physical beauty. In order to discipline herself for daring to hope he might overlook her physical shortcomings, she draws a portrait of Blanche and one of herself, and puts them side by side to judge herself as she imagines Rochester does. This helps her to regain her self-control and to distance herself from Rochester, and as it turns out that is exactly what she had to do in order to bring him closer.
Jane’s behavior is guided by her reason which, in turn, is shaped by her education and experience. This is what makes her such a threat to polite society, Rochester included. She may be faced with the prospect of remaining a spinster all her life but she will not compromise her own standards, at least not after almost succumbing to Rochester when she agrees to marry him. When the existence of his mad wife is made public she leaves him even though she still loves him. Her intellectual integrity will be rewarded but only after she and Rochester have gone through a variety of ordeals that make him her equal, not just physically and financially but also spiritually.
The lesson for the Victorian women who made this book a best-seller is that a governess might be plain but the fact that she is educated and has developed her faculties may make her more attractive than a society woman or, for that matter, one who is “occupied with domestic cares.”
The example set by these women raised the awareness of middle-class Victorian women of the inequities of their society even as they may have increased their reluctance to bring a governess into their home. The high water mark for governesses in literature was 1847 when Vanity Fair, Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey were published. It may not be a coincidence that “In the mid 1800s several organizations were established to find better employment for governesses. These organizations also provided temporary housing, insurance, and annuities for the aging governess” (Cluesman). After that the governess played less of a part in literature. They were soon replaced by the New Woman and the suffragette movement, both of whom took up the cause of women in society, thus posing a threat of their own.
Works Cited
Anonymous. “Emma.” Web.
Austen, Jane. Emma. New York: Modern Library, 2001.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. London: Penguin Books, 1984.
Carissa Cluesman. “A Historical View of the Victorian Governess.” Web.
Hughes, Kathryn. The Victorian Governess. London: Hambledon, 1993.
Peterson, Jeanne. “The Victorian Governess.” Suffer and Be Still. Ed. Martha Vicinus. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1972.
Thackeray, William Makepeace. Vanity Fair. London: Penguin Classics, 2003.