Agnes Grey

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1847

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-17

Chapters 18-25

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Weather and Landscape

As is common in Romantic literature, weather and landscape play an important symbolic role throughout Agnes Grey. Agnes’s upbringing in what she calls a “rugged” country parallels the more innocent, one might say unrestrained tendencies of her nature as a girl. It is established early that Agnes enjoys the outdoors and the company of animals—indicative that her human nature is in tune with outdoor nature. The relatively flat landscape around O—, where the Murrays live in Horton Lodge, dismays Agnes in its difference from what she knows, reflecting the emotional struggles she will have adapting to the very different terrain of the Murray household.

Brontë uses weather throughout the novel to set mood and foreshadow emotional experiences. When Agnes leaves home for the first time, a small ray of sun shines on the village church, while a shadow is cast over the rest of the village. This can be read in many ways: It indicates her sadness at leaving, it cements in her mind the moral value of her childhood, it shows how thoughts of her family will remain a bright spot during what is to come, and it foreshadows how Agnes’s hopes and wishes will be tested. Likewise, the cold wind when she first travels to Wellwood and the snowstorm when she arrives at Horton Lodge represent Agnes’s fears and anxieties about what she will encounter, as well as foreshadowing adversity.

In contrast, Rosalie’s debut and Agnes’s first interactions with Mr. Weston take place during spring and summer. This allows the characters, in practical terms, to walk outdoors and have chance meetings, but the sunny landscape also mirrors Agnes’s growing hopes and emerging wishes. In two cases, rain is an excuse to cast her and Mr. Weston together. Near the end, when Agnes walks alone along the seashore, the solitude and the scenery refresh her mind and spirit, readying her for her reunion with Mr. Weston. The wet sand with no other footprints on it symbolizes the new future that she is about to enter.

Flowers

As with the landscape, the use of plants and flowers within the novel reflects the emotional setting. When Agnes approaches Wellwood hall, the Bloomfield residence, she notices young trees and “mushroom poplar-groves” (13), indicating that Mr. Bloomfield has recently acquired the land and planted trees to make it look like the park of a more established and older estate, like what Agnes will later see surrounding Horton Lodge. The morning after she arrives at Horton Lodge, Agnes describes herself as a thistle seed blown about by the wind. She wonders if she will “take root and germinate” (47) in this new soil, indicating her vulnerability as well as her identification with natural elements.

The most important role that flowers and plants play is their part in courtship. When Mr. Hatfield is pursuing Rosalie, he demands a piece of myrtle that she has been carrying during their conversation, treating its conferral as a mark of favor. In contrast, Mr. Weston gifts Agnes flowers, a ritual of Victorian courtship. The Victorian period had an elaborate floriography, a language of flowers used for communication. Though Agnes makes no overt reference to such meanings, her readers might have been aware of the implication when young Tom Bloomfield, after showing Agnes his garden, presents her with a polyanthus—in the dictionary of flower language, a symbol of confidence, something the arrogant young Tom has in spades. Agnes expresses her affection for primroses, which represent “modest worth”—something that Mr. Weston recognizes in Agnes when he picks primroses for her. The bluebells he presents to her later signify not only that Mr. Weston was paying attention to Agnes’s likes and seeks to please her, but he might also be signifying constancy—telling her that she has won him, and he’ll propose as soon as he can.

Treatment of Animals

Throughout Agnes Grey, a character’s relationship with animals is used to indicate their integrity. Agnes’s affection for animals is established through her goodbye ritual before she leaves home for the first time. She feeds and strokes her pet pigeons, touching their silky backs and kissing the pair of “snow-white fantails” that are her favorite (11). She says goodbye to her kitten, reflecting that when she sees him again, he will have grown into a cat, and their young romps will be over.

Tom Bloomfield’s unpleasant character is confirmed by his antagonism toward animals, including the traps around his garden and his glee at dismembering birds when he finds them. Agnes’s mercy killing of the nestlings Tom intends to torture shows how much her conflict with the Bloomfields has shaken her beliefs and her quiet nature. Among Uncle Robson’s other distasteful qualities, he is cruel to his dogs, to the point that Agnes wishes they would bite him. Though she refers to them as “the lower creation” (36), Agnes’s care for animals is another aspect of her Christian piety, for, as she suggests to Tom, people who torture animals are wicked, and the wicked go to hell. Her extreme reaction in the case of the birds also suggests how much Agnes objects to being treated like a “lower creation” by the Bloomfields.

Nancy’s cat confirms for Agnes which of the two religious men is the superior person. Mr. Hatfield shoves the cat from his knee, but Mr. Weston pets the cat as he speaks with Nancy. Later, he rescues it from the Murrays’ gamekeeper, suggesting that he not only feels sympathy for animals in general but also understands what her pet means to Nancy. The novel also uses the companionship of animals to signal moral superiority, for instance, when Agnes takes over the care of the little terrier Snap from Matilda. Part of Agnes’s joy at meeting Mr. Weston again is noting that he rescued Snap from the rat catcher. Snap’s loyalty is the final confirmation that Mr. Weston is a worthy and compatible partner for Agnes.