The Brontës and Religion Quotes

“No heroine in Charlotte and Anne Bronte's fiction omits this duty, even in times of danger and perturbation of mind; but most of them also live through moments when the greatest mercy they can hope for is to be saved from utter despair. Jane Eyre in the coach on her flight from Thornfield, Caroline Helstone in the valley of the shadow, Lucy Snowe isolated with the 'cretin' in the Rue Fossette, Agnes Grey pining for Mr Weston, and Helen Huntingdon brutally ill-treated and humiliated - all of them turn to God for help in their efforts not to sink altogether under the burden of their distress. Not the least of the troubles is their awareness of the sinfulness of giving up hope. Authors of religious manuals repeatedly warned their readers not to 'yield for a moment to Satan's temptations to despair. If you do not strive, you know you must be lost.' No wonder human endeavours were felt to be unequal to the task of vanquishing the combination of acute suffering and the threat of spiritual ruin if one were to allow oneself to be crushed by it.”
― Marianne Thormählen, The Brontës and Religion

“Pere Silas in Villette marshals his forces with considerable skill and subtlety. Although he claims to be momentarily taken aback by the young woman to whom his customary set of routine responses does not apply, he soon divines her weak spots and engineers his temptations accordingly. Lucy's passionate nature, frustrated and mortified in her loneliness and desperate for kindness and affection, is one of his three targets. Another is her aesthetic sensibilities, which he hope to impress by way of the splendours of Roman Catholic worship. Finally, she has an extraordinarily active intellect allied to an ascetic, somewhat morbid streak and a conspicuous absence of any talent for contentment. Such people rarely attain serenity in life by their own efforts, and Pere Silas holds a key to that state: soothed by a carefully prescribed routine of good works, just arduous enough to keep her strictly occupied without exhausting her, her searching, irritable mind will surely find peace.”
― Marianne Thormahlen, The Brontës and Religion

“It will be clear from instances like these that Jane and Helen withstand temptation not because they are 'good girls', to quote Winnifrith's designation for Agnes Grey, reluctantly complying with now-outmoded rules for virtuous behaviour. They resist because failure to do so would be a betrayal of the Creator who is to them, as to so many of their contemporaries, the very fount of love.”
― Marianne Thormählen, The Brontës and Religion

“To Lucy Snowe, 'Romanism' is 'a great mixed image of gold and clay', and the latter quality is particularly evident in the bartering deals where material comforts and peace of mind are acquired at the expense of spiritual liberty. The horrors of this exchange are articulated with a warmth which springs directly from the hatred of oppression that informs all the Bronte novels.”
― Marianne Thormählen, The Brontës and Religion

“For a century and a half, people have wondered what factors - genetic and environmental - were especially significant in the evolution of the Bronte genius. Part of the answer lies, I believe, in the physical, emotional, intellectual and religious freedom accorded to the exceptional talents that developed in Haworth Parsonage. It was a freedom allied to an ethos of labour and effort, informed by affection for fellow humans and by personal commitment to a religion which not only allowed for, but demanded, the engagement of the passions. It would be hard to think of a more favourable climate for creative imagination and intelligence to mature in at that time, and it was very much a product of that time.”
― Marianne Thormählen, The Brontës and Religion

“Such an attitude presupposes confidence in one's own power to search for and recognize the truth, as well as trust in the truth to be good when one finds it. Where the Brontes are concerned, these feelings are obviously rooted in Christian faith. For centuries, Christian thinkers have placed the heart of truth in God, maintaining that the unfettered and sincere pursuit of the former will lead to the latter. In Charlotte Brontes novels especially, truth and freedom are as intimately associated as in John 8:32: 'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' The quester assured of this connexion has nothing to fear.”
― Marianne Thormählen, The Brontës and Religion