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The Professor – An Analysis

Charlotte Bronte's Posthumously Published Work

May 5, 2009 Samantha Markham

The Professor is very different from Charlotte Bronte's other novels. It has a unique style, which is more realistic than her later, more dramatic and romantic, works.

The Professor is Charlotte Bronte’s first novel, but it was not published until 1857, two years after her death. The novel was rejected by several publishers, so Bronte re-worked the piece and created the novel, Villette, which resembles The Professor in many ways. Critics have always espoused that Villette is the greater of the two works.

Bronte's Influence

The novel is based on Bronte’s own experiences as a young woman in Brussels, where she went to study and teach. There she fell in love with her tutor, Monsieur Heger, however this was not reciprocated and Bronte was left heartbroken by the ordeal.

In the novel, however, Bronte distorts her own experience by reversing the romantic attachment. It is the male professor who falls for his pupil and pursues her, rather than the other way around.

Synopsis

The story tells of William Crimsworth, an orphan who has been brought up by uncaring uncles. Crimsworth is eager to achieve something with his life and so, as soon as he is of age, he goes to work for his elder brother, who owns a mill in the north of England.

His position there does not last long, however, as William’s brother, Edward, is a tyrant. So, upon the advice of an unlikely friend, William travels to Europe.

He finds employment in a boys’ school in Belgium, where he teaches English. He soon takes on extra work in a neighbouring girls’ school, too. It is not long before he embarks on a rather scandalous affair with the headmistress of the school. However, this entanglement does not last and William falls for a fellow teacher, who becomes his pupil, Frances Henri.

William is an unemotional man who is not demonstrative. So, when the love of his life is frightened by the blossoming relationship, William must act quickly to prevent from losing her.

The Style of The Novel

The novel is told in the first person, retrospectively, by William Crimsworth. It could be that Bronte chose this method of narrative because at the beginning of her career she wrote under the pseudonym Currer Bell, which was deliberately non-gender specific.

Bronte repeatedly employs the use of letters. She also frequently writes small passages and snippets of dialogue in French, which aid the reader’s comprehension of life in the Belgium. This coupled with the realism of the novel and the obvious inclusion of Bronte’s personal familiarity makes the novel very easy to read.

It is also clearly heart-felt. Bronte’s own tragic experience of love and loss has been used to great effect within the book. The Professor is perhaps an underrated novel, which if nothing else is a fascinating product of Charlotte Bronte’s development as an author.

Further critical information can be found at www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/professor-charlotte-bronte

The copyright of the article The Professor – An Analysis in British/UK Fiction is owned by Samantha Markham. Permission to republish The Professor – An Analysis in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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