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Charlotte Bronte's Novels: The Artistry Of Their Construction, Anne Wonders Passel

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Charlotte Bronte is a conscious artist, avare of the demand of the novel form. In her four novels she demonstrates her understanding of the principles of organic unity. Each novel is based on a different pattern, but each achieves unity and coherence through the author's conscious use of structure, language, and theme.

The Professor (written in 1846-1847, published posthumously in 1857), though highly structured, seems the least expertly handled of her novels. Overly romantic, it holds rigidly to a predetermined three-part division, a triple emphasis which the author carries to the extreme. Her conscious attention to structure, however, indicates that …