A Stranger Within the Gates: Charlotte Bronte and Victorian Irishness

This text investigates Bronte’s Irish heritage and the way it is reflected in her literature. It illuminates the relations of England and Ireland, looks at the literary background of the family, and analysis Bronte’s juvenile and more mature pieces to reveal her use of Irish nouns, characters and narrative. The use of mask and theatre in Jane Eyre is discussed as an anti-colonial construct within the Victorian novel. This work aims to be a study of the Victorian novel and the Irish experience.