Husband-Hunting

Husband-Hunting

“Husband Hunting” from the Miscellany section of “Harper’s Weekly” is an excerpt from Jane Eyre a novel written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847. This excerpt refutes that women should live their lives for men. The author shows that women should show their emotion and live as they please and if a man mistakes their emotion for wanting to find a mate, it is the man’s foolishness. The author, Charlotte Bronte had a very difficult childhood and found happiness through writing. She therefore developed Jane Eyre (the main character in Jane Eyre) to have a very similar childhood filled with devastation and abuse (Barratt). Jane Eyre, in her later life through Charlotte Brotte’s novel, develops a strong passion for feminism and believes that woman should live for themselves despite other’s judgements (Owsley). This is interesting as it shows how women were depicted in the 1850’s. Women were supposed to only live for men which is shown in the excerpt as it says, “do not, therefore, be too much afraid of showing yourself as you are”. This illustrates how women were only supposed to do and act how men expected them to and not how they truly wanted to. Henry James in “Washington Square” also depicts women very similarly. For example, Catherine lived her life to please her father or Morris. Catherine, like most women, were expected to be domestic, not leave the parlour (James 45) and to become responsible wives (James 97). Catherine ends the novel, though, living her life “as it were” (James 171) and finds strength and power in being a woman. Both Jane Eyre and Catherine realized that women can be self-reliant and they must not live their lives in order to find a man to please, an increasingly appealing idea among women in the late 1850’s.

Charlotte Bronte

Bronte, Charlotte. "Husband-Hunting." Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization [New York] 6 Jan.1958, Miscellany: n. pag. Print

Harper's Weekly

September 16, 2015

Laura Watters

1958