Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey: Lifting the Veil on Cruelty, part 1 by Maria Dintino

Moderator’s Note: This piece is in co-operation with The Nasty Women Writers Project, a site dedicated to highlighting and amplifying the voices and visions of powerful women. The site was founded by sisters Theresa and Maria Dintino. To quote Theresa, “by doing this work we are expanding our own writer’s web for nourishment and support.” This was originally posted on their site on November 19, 2024. You can see more of their posts here. 

Anne, the youngest of the Brontë sisters, penned two novels in her short life. The first was Agnes Grey (1847), then The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).

A sketch of Anne by her sister Charlotte.

It’s probably safe to say that Agnes Grey is the least read and appreciated of all the Brontë novels, of which there are seven. Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte’s Jane Eyre garner the most praise and attention. But Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is not far behind, and by some accounts leads the pack.

Interestingly, all the sisters’ first novels were released in the same year, under their pen names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. First was Jane Eyre in October 1847 and then Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey together as a ‘triple decker’ in December 1847, with Wuthering Heights making up the first two parts, and Agnes Grey the third.

Both Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey are considered bildungsromane, coming-of-age stories, with governesses as lead protagonists. It is quite well documented that Anne wrote her ‘governess novel’ before Charlotte did. Be that as it may, the sisters appreciated and supported one another. After Anne’s untimely passing in 1849, big sister Charlotte cleaned up the not-so-well edited first edition of Agnes Grey and published an improved second edition in 1850.

I question without answer why I waited so long to read Agnes Grey because I’ve been a fan of Anne’s for some time. Her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall led me to believe Anne was the most radical of the sisters, and after reading Agnes Grey, I’ve no doubt.

Here’s our post about Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and our posts on Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

Agnes Grey is a shockingly explicit exposé of the unfair and cruel treatment of women employed as governesses in 19th century England. Anyone who knows anything about the Brontë family and Anne in particular, recognizes from the start that the character Agnes and author Anne share much in common. They are the youngest of six, their fathers are curates who earn little, they are both employed as governesses, and the similarities continue. The fact that much (but not all) of Agnes Grey is based on Anne’s life experience renders the story even more engrossing and upsetting. Many find Agnes Grey difficult to read due to the portrayal of cruelty, especially toward animals.

Anne’s sketch of herself with her beloved dog, Flossy.

Upon publication of Agnes Grey, critics questioned the inclusion of a particularly upsetting passage, but Anne defended its necessity because of its stark truth. This powerful passage also encompasses many of the points Anne is making in the novel and reveals character Agnes’s inner strength. For although Agnes tolerates an enormous amount of unjust and hurtful treatment, this passage enables readers to see that when her core values are directly challenged, she will indeed stand her ground.

Plot-wise, the story of Agnes Grey is straightforward:  a young woman who wants to help her financially struggling family and experience more of life takes a position as governess, one of the only occupations available to her. Agnes’s first position reveals the dark reality of the life of a governess in England at that time, and her second position, although better, does little to lighten this picture. Agnes, from whose perspective the story is told, relays her experience in detail, allowing author Anne Brontë to shine a spotlight on the ill-treatment and impossible task of the governess.

The notorious passage still raising havoc with readers today is from ‘Chapter V: Uncle’ and takes place during Agnes’s first governess position with the Bloomfields. This first job lasts only nine months and then she is fired. The Bloomfields have four children, the oldest a boy named Tom who is seven, and three younger sisters. In this scene, Mrs. Bloomfield’s brother Uncle Robson is visiting. He likes to take the children a-birds’-nesting, where they find birds’ nests with hatchlings that Tom in particular can then torture. Again, the story is told from governess Agnes’s perspective:

“Mr. Robson likewise encouraged Tom’s propensity to persecute the lower creation, both by precept and example. As he frequently came to course or shoot over his brother-in-law’s grounds, he would bring his favourite dogs with him; and he treated them so brutally that, poor as I was, I would have given a sovereign any day to see one of them bite him, provided the animal could have done it with impunity. Sometimes, when in a very complacent mood, he would go a-birds’-nesting with the children, a thing that irritated and annoyed me exceedingly; as, by frequent and persevering attempts, I flattered myself I had partly shown them the evil of this pastime, and hoped, in time, to bring them to some general sense of justice and humanity; but ten minutes’ birds’-nesting with uncle Robson, or even a laugh from him at some relation of their former barbarities, was sufficient at once to destroy the effect of my whole elaborate course of reasoning and persuasion.”

Clearly, Agnes is up against it in trying to combat the belief that humans are in every way superior to animals and other creatures and that cruelty and torture are for that reason acceptable. All of her hard work to instill understanding and empathy in the children is easily erased by the likes of Uncle Robson. How does one fight such an entrenched hierarchal and patriarchal system, especially a lowly governess?

The passage continues:

“Happily, however, during that spring, they never, but once, got anything but empty nests, or eggs—being too impatient to leave them till the birds were hatched; that once, Tom, who had been with his uncle into the neighbouring plantation, came running in high glee into the garden, with a brood of little callow nestlings in his hands. Mary Ann and Fanny, whom I was just bringing out, ran to admire his spoils, and to beg each a bird for themselves. “No, not one!” cried Tom. “They’re all mine; uncle Robson gave them to me—one, two, three, four, five—you shan’t touch one of them! no, not one, for your lives!” continued he, exultingly; laying the nest on the ground, and standing over it with his legs wide apart, his hands thrust into his breeches-pockets, his body bent forward, and his face twisted into all manner of contortions in the ecstasy of his delight.”

Part 2, tomorrow