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Availability: Project Gutenberg various formats


General Overview

The Professor is the first novel that Charlotte Brontë completed. Rejected by the publisher who took on the work of her sisters in 1846 (Anne's Agnes Grey and Emily's Wuthering Heights) it remained unpublished until 1857, when it was published posthumously, with the approval of Charlotte Brontë's widower, Arthur Bell Nicholls, who took on the task of reviewing and editing the text.

Like Villette (1853), The Professor is based on Charlotte's experiences as a language student in Brussels in 1842. Told from the point of view of William Crimsworth, the only male narrator that she used, this work formulated a new aesthetic that questioned many of the presuppositions of Victorian society. The Professor endures today as both a harbinger of Brontë's later novels and a compelling read in its own right.

Major Themes

Religion
Throughout the novel William Crimsworth, the protagonist looks down on Catholics and "Romish wizardcraft". Charlotte Brontë pictures the two main Catholic characters as treacherous and untrustworthy. William believes that Catholic training has a negative influence on the young girls at his school.

Nationalism
Hunsden has little patriotism, in contrast to Frances, who is proud both of her native Switzerland and of England, where her mother's family came from and which she longs to see.

Crimsworth has a certain snobbery against the Flemish and is disgusted by the way they butcher the English language as he attempts to teach them.

Biographical Context

The novel is based on Charlotte Brontë's experiences in Brussels, where she studied as a language student and was a teacher in 1842. Much of the subject matter of The Professor was later reworked, from the perspective of a female teacher, into Brontë's later novel Villette.

Historical Background

The Professor was written during the Victorian era, named for the queen who ruled the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901. It was a time of economic growth through the Industrial Revolution, expansion of the British empire, and increasing democratization. During this period British society had sharp divisions between the classes. At the top were the aristocrats, the wealthiest class. They had ties to royalty and didn't need to work because their income came from land and wealth passed down through the generations. Their children were mostly educated at home by tutors or governesses. University education was open only to males; females were expected to marry. Noble parents often arranged marriages for their children to bring increased wealth, land, or prestige to the family. The presence of a new class of wealthy entrepreneurs, enriched by the Industrial Revolution, posed something of a challenge to the aristocrats. That class nevertheless remained at the top of the social ladder. Some wealthy industrialists hoped to gain status by marrying a child into a noble family. Some nobles, their estates grown less lucrative, seized the opportunity to improve their financial position through such a match.

Strict rules of behavior governed interactions between the lower classes and the aristocrats. The servants who did the work of keeping the aristocrats' manor houses and large estates in order were expected to show great deference to their employers. They were to do their work quietly and without drawing attention to themselves. Most servants had little or no education; they received very low pay and had few opportunities to better themselves. Governesses, who had some education and were entrusted with caring for the children, were treated somewhat better but nevertheless had an in-between status, both part of the family and not part of the family. Farmers, blacksmiths, and other working people were also considered lower class. The middle class included merchants, bankers, doctors, teachers, and members of the clergy.

Christianity was very important to people of all classes. The Bible was widely read and often quoted, and the village church was a central part of community life. During the 19th century, particularly during the reign of Queen Victoria, Britain was solidifying its empire, ruling over colonies in India, Australia, and the West Indies. The British generally viewed non-Europeans as having ways of life and beliefs inferior to their own, and this inspired many churchgoers to travel abroad as missionaries to convert them to Christianity.

Additional Reading:

PLEASE NOTE: these articles may contain spoilers

Why You Should Read Charlotte Brontë's The Professor

The Professor by Charlotte Brontë: A 19th Century Analysis

10 Facts About Charlotte Brontë