Honors Program
Midway Honors
Date of Award
5-2014
Thesis Professor(s)
Dr. Judith B. Slagle
Thesis Professor Department
Literature and Language
Thesis Reader(s)
Dr. Michael Briggs, Dr. Phyllis Thompson
Abstract
Through the use of biographical materials, and three selected works from Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Bronte, parallels were found between their lives, character design, and the plot of their works. The lack of a mother figure in the lives of the Bronte sisters caused their upbringing to differ from that of other children, and as a result influenced their perspective of the world. Motherless female characters were found in each of the three novels by the Bronte sisters and in each instance commonalities were shared with the author of the work, to a degree that indicates that the lives that the sisters led, was the inspiration for the stories they created. After investigating whether or not the novels created by the Bronte sisters were influenced by the lack of a mother figure, the conclusion reached, is that this absence had an immense influence throughout their lives, and based on more than one account, helped shape the design of each of their respective works.
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Withheld
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Baker, Laci J., "Motherless Women Writers: The Affect on Plot and Character in the Brontë Sisters’ Novels" (2014). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 187. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/187
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons