Charlotte Brontë, Autobiography, and the Image of the Hero
Abstract Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was one of the many real-life heroes, probably the pre-eminent one, in Charlotte Brontë's life and works. He was a masculine type that attracted her, as both woman and writer, from a very early age; but she was not alone in her admiration of what Carlyle called 'the great ones of the earth'. The paper argues that Charlotte's response to historical characters like the Duke of Wellington is not only part of a cultural dynamic of hero-worship that provided a ready context for 'veneration' but is also part of the complex self-fashioning that we all experience in the process of identity formation. Wellington and his various mutations can be traced in her writing from the juvenilia to Shirley in particular, and can be seen as an evolving critique on the hero. They also reflect an important element of Charlotte Brontë's personal narrative and indicate the way hero-worship helped to mould her ambition, her love of politics and her idea of integrity.
Napoleonic Periodicals and the Childhood Imagination: The Influence of War Commentary on Charlotte and Branwell Brontë’s Glass Town and Angria
The impact of the Napoleonic Wars was keenly felt by Charlotte and Branwell Brontë in their post-war juvenilia (1829‒39). Their imaginary worlds of Glass Town and Angria were primarily based on the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte. The siblings used post-Waterloo accounts in periodicals to reshape and reanimate the relationship between these two military heroes. Examining the characteristics imprinted on Wellington and Bonaparte by the contemporary press, this article argues that the Brontës’ writings provide important commentary on the worship of soldier figures in the periodical press and its enduring influence on early nineteenth-century popular culture.
Recovery and verification of memories of childhood sexual trauma.
Fifty-three women outpatients participated in short-term therapy groups for incest survivors. This treatment modality proved to be a powerful stimulus for recovery of previously repressed traumatic memories. A relationship was observed between the age of onset, duration, and degree of violence of the abuse and the extent to which memory of the abuse had been repressed. Three out of four patients were able to validate their memories by obtaining corroborating evidence from other sources. The therapeutic function of recovering and validating traumatic memories is explored.