Bronte Research

The Role of Women in 1800s

Women in the era of the Bronte sisters had very few options. Their main purpose in life was to find a husband, have children, and then spend the rest of her life serving her family. She would be expected to keep the house and raise the children. Marriage then was a lifetime commitment - divorce was almost unheard of, and if a woman tried to leave an unhappy marriage she would be tracked down by the law and punished. If a woman remained single, she would be ridiculed and pitied by the rest of the community - something that all the Bronte women would have experienced as Anne and Emily never married, and Charlotte married late.

Lower class women were not permitted an education, and there were almost no jobs available to them - they could become a washer woman, seamstress or a servant. Higher class women sometimes received a basic education of reading, writing and basic maths, and could opt to become a governess or a ladies companion for a wealthier family, but for the most part women had to rely on men to provide for them.

Their fathers and brothers would provide for them until they married and the job fell to their husbands - which meant that if a woman's husband died she would be left with no financial security and would have to quickly remarry. Sometimes a woman would be left a small inheritance by her father, but whatever she had would belong to her husband as soon as they married.

However, at the same time women were not supposed to seem as if they were too actively seeking a husband. Being too 'forward' with men was thought to indicate bad morals - women were supposed to want to get married so that they could be mothers rather than for emotional reasons.

Up until the nineteenth century women writers were almost unheard of, and rarely taken seriously. Some women, like the Bronte sisters original plan, published their works under men's names. However, around the time the Bronte sisters were growing up, women were beginning to publish their own writing - including the now classic author Jane Austen. Most were harshly criticized, but some became so popular that they were a threat to male writers.

All of the Bronte sisters works were criticized, as seen in the play, for depicting women as three-dimensional people with feelings and desires, something that completely contrasted the way women were viewed in their society. However, that's why the Bronte sisters have remained for so celebrated for so long - and why they are still seen as three of the most revolutionary historical feminists.

Bronte Casting Week

The Play

When we found out that the play we would be performing was Bronte, by Polly Teale, I was initially excited to explore the text. I knew a little bit about Charlotte and Emily Bronte and their writings, having read and enjoyed Jane Eyre in school, so I was interested to find out more about their lives and what inspired their books.

The idea of exploring the changing role of women in the time period was also appealing to me, since the three central characters are known for challenging and combating the prejudices of the time, which is an interesting and inspiring concept. I was also interested in the idea of potentially playing such feminist roles.

As we read through act one of the play, I enjoyed reading and listening to the story, and I was drawn in to the story and the world the writer created. It was interesting to find out about the third sister, Anne, and their brother Branwell, two real life people I didn't even know existed before reading the play!

One of the biggest things that appealed to me about the play was its representation of the patriarchy in both male and female characters - the idea of women's oppression affecting Branwell to the point of insanity was a fascinating take on the time period. I also loved the idea of representing the character's own psychology through their characters on stage.


Casting

Initially, the character Charlotte appealed to me most since I had read her book already and knew the most about her. The appeal remained as I read more of her scenes. Women in history combating and struggling with the roles thrown on them have always been both interesting and inspiring to me. Her internalized rage and inner conflict were things I had never played to such extremes before, and I felt that the new role would challenge me.

Reading a scene as Jane Eyre, the protagonist of Charlotte's novel, was a key moment in the casting process, as it helped me to understand Charlotte's psychology in a new light - the constant self-oppression was put into focus.

It was helpful to read scenes from the different parts of the play with different people in the roles, as all of our stage dynamics were different and gave me new ideas. For instance, when I worked on the first scene of the play - in which modern-day actresses slowly become the characters - we came up with the idea to begin in our own voices and slowly take on the Yorkshire accents as we became the characters. With different people in the roles, we experimented with introducing the accent on different lines.

Overall, casting week was an enjoyable and enlightening experience - watching different people read different parts helped me to understand other characters and connect with them in a way I wouldn't have done had we just read the play separately and been cast immediately.  


Final Casting & Ideas

I was happy with the final issued casting - playing Charlotte in part one meant I would be playing the Charlotte at her youngest, exploring her discovery of her place in society as a woman and her love of writing, as well as her early relationship with her brother Branwell. I was also pleased to be playing Jane Eyre throughout the play, as she's a completely different character than any I've ever played before.

I also think it's interesting that I'll be playing Charlotte at her youngest and freest, and her 'good' protagonist Jane - as if she's imprinting her past and aspirations for what she 'should' be onto her heroine.

The idea of Bertha being played by all the girls in the group as a mass of tortured femininity is so fascinating, particularly as we will all be playing other parts: visually, in my opinion, it is demonstrating how there is a part of Bertha within everyone.

Having a projector showing the portrait Branwell painted of his sisters above the stage is also an interesting idea, as well as a way to remind the audience in Brecht style that they are watching a play, and that the characters they are watching really existed.

I also think that use of music could be a useful tool in the play; playing music only for flashbacks, or for the fantasy scenes that the Bronte sisters write as they are performed on stage could easily signal a change in reality or time to the audience.

First Week Acting

For our first week studying acting at South Downs College, we worked on scenes from Sam Holcroft's play The Wardrobe. The play follows a single wardrobe throughout history, from the Tudor period to the modern day, and all the different people that owned it. 

I was in two of the scenes, playing a maid in 1600s London during the plague, and performing a monologue as Dido Elizabeth Belle in the other scene. 

After going through vocal warm ups in our first voice class, and rehearsing in the theatre, we performed our scenes to the second year students.