The Image of Women in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This essay focuses on the image of women in the nineteenth century specially the Image of low middle –class females and the way they were presented and judged. It also discusses the progress from silence to speech in the novels with a special focus on the progress of speech of the female protagonists in two nineteenth century novels which are Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847) and Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1857). Studying these novels gives a clear image of women in that era and how they were presented and treated; it also shows how different authors can give different images according to their gender and the role they play in society.

Keywords: Image of Women, Nineteenth Century, Bildungsroman Romance, Gothic Fiction, Social Criticism