Agnes Grey

From the opening pages, Agnes Grey regards education as less a matter of imparting knowledge than of shaping character. When Agnes first contemplates becoming a governess, she assumes that she does not require experience overseeing children but can simply draw on her own memories as a guide. She sees the work as a moral charge to shape her pupils, aiming to “make Virtue practicable, Instruction desirable, and Religion lovely and comprehensible” (10). Throughout the story, Agnes’s struggles as a governess have less to do with factual instruction than with convincing her students to adhere to her standards of behavior and ethics.

The Bloomfield children are a challenge not only because they have not had a governess before—at seven, Tom is too young for school; at six, Mary Ann has only just left the nursery, and young Fanny is only four—but also because they have not been taught to be obedient. The novel suggests that compliance is an essential element of education and character formation. Agnes’s concern is not so much that the children are ignorant, though she is surprised that Mary Ann can barely read, but that they refuse to learn or accede to her authority. They prove willful in choosing their entertainment, and Agnes is left to follow along or, worse yet, follow their instructions, which she considers “reversing the order of things” (19). She had imagined herself being a teacher and guide, a benevolent benefactor; she is instead regarded as a servant, with no respect shown for her skills.

The narrator hints that Mrs. Bloomfield is to blame for not correcting or supervising her children’s behavior. Instead, Mrs. Bloomfield undermines Agnes’s authority, chides her for making the children upset, and fails to insist on decorous behavior with guests; she “had the sense to be shocked and annoyed” by her children’s behavior with others but did nothing to change the situation (39). All of this suggests that the mother is chiefly responsible for raising docile and well-behaved children, while the governess can only cajole; she can only be effective with parental support. Teaching pushes Agnes to confront a dilemma in her own beliefs; while she wishes to guide through affection and setting a good example, she reflects that in dealing with Tom, a “few sound boxes on the ear” or “a good birch rod” might be more effective (22). She does not see corporal punishment as necessarily evil, only that she wishes not to resort to it. What “spoils” children, Agnes suggests, is being allowed to be willful and selfish

The connection between education and character is further borne out by the Murray girls. The boys are sent to school at 10 with the only preparation of a slight grasp of Latin. For the girls, however, as Mrs. Murray makes clear, their education is preparation for a desirable marriage. Thus, Matilda is set to music and drawing when she would rather be riding or playing with her dogs. Agnes makes no reference at all to the subjects she tries to teach the Murray girls but instead refers to how she gets stuck finishing Rosalie’s sewing or art projects and is expected to be their companion when they leave the house. Agnes detests being left to follow behind on their walks, just as she wishes she could lead her pupils in their education, earning admiration as well as respect.

Mrs. Murray believes the governess is there to execute her wishes; she does not take an interest in her children herself but rather chides Agnes for Matilda’s tomboyishness and letting Rosalie wander in the hopes of being approached by a suitor. Due to her mother’s neglect, Rosalie has become superficial and vain, lacking interest in intellectual subjects that might improve her moral understanding as well as her mind. Agnes finds Matilda nearly as ungovernable as the boys, raw clay that refuses to be shaped: “As an animal, Matilda was all right, full of life, vigour, and activity; as an intelligent being, she was barbarously ignorant, indocile, careless and irrational” (52). Both Mrs. Murray and Agnes share the belief that a girl’s intelligence and education should make her an agreeable partner, only Mrs. Murray is more concerned with “ornamental attainments” (52), while Agnes is concerned with moral character.

Beyond artistic accomplishments, the novel doesn’t critique women’s education as far as subjects go; instead, in Agnes’s happiness at being Edward’s companion and educating her own children, Brontë appears to support the idea that a woman’s education should prepare her for successfully executing domestic tasks—an example which Mrs. Grey further shows. As such, while it might have opened readers’ eyes to the difficulties of working as a governess, Agnes Grey does not challenge conventional Victorian thinking that it is a man’s place to have a career or income and a woman’s place to adorn the domestic sphere with intelligence, artistry, and grace.