However, Snap the dog plays his part in bringing some joy into Agnes’s life.Īgnes Grey vividly portrays the class distinctions of Victorian society, the position of women in that society from both the working and the middle classes through the first-person narrative. Things seem to get even worse after her father’s death and she has to leave the Murrays – and Edward. Although she loves Edward she is totally unable to give any indication of her feelings towards him. But surely Edward will not be deceived by Rosalie’s scheming ways? Agnes is gentle and self-effacing, never making her feelings known and it seems as though she is destined for a miserable life. Fortunately the boys are soon packed off to school and she only has to cope with sisters.īoth families are portrayed as wealthy, snobbish and totally lacking in any regard for Agnes. The only glimmer of hope comes through her friendship with Edward Weston, but even then Rosalie, the older daughter, is determined to make him fall in love with her. Her second post with the Murrays is little better – her charges are two teenage girls, who are just as spoilt as the younger children, wilful and determined to have their own way and two younger boys who are rough and unruly.
As Agnes’s mother has told her that people do not like to be told of their children’s faults she kept silent about them and despite her best efforts she failed to make any impression on them:īut either the children were so incorrigible, the parents so unreasonable, or myself so mistaken in my views, or so unable to carry them out, that my best intentions and most strenuous efforts seemed productive of no better result than sport to the children, dissatisfaction to their parents, and torment to myself. Her attempts to improve their wild behaviour by quoting Bible texts and moral instruction have no effect on the children’s behaviour. She has no authority over the children and is not allowed to discipline them much as she would like to. One of the most vivid scenes is where Agnes kills a brood of nestlings to prevent Tom Bloomfield from torturing them.Īgnes is treated like a servant, rather than as a governess. I found their brutality shocking, the more so since Anne was writing from her own experiences. In fact they are terrible children, utterly spoilt and cruel. Mrs Bloomfield tells Agnes her children are clever and very apt to learn.
The first family she works for are the Bloomfields.
Her parents had married against her mother’s family’s wishes and when their fortune was wrecked Agnes determines to help out by working as a governess. Agnes is the younger daughter of an impoverished clergyman. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, published in 1847, is a deeply moral novel about a young woman, a governess and her experiences working for two families in Victorian England.
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