A Quiet Smile, Gentle Subversion: Humour and Nineteenth-Century Women’s Writing in Britain

Abstract

This thesis explores the deployment of diverse humour devices in five nineteenth-century novels and novellas by British women writers: Jane Austen’s Persuasion (1817), Charlotte Brontë’s Villette (1853), Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford (1853), George Eliot’s ‘The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton’ (1857), and Margaret Oliphant’s Miss Marjoribanks (1866). It argues that these women writers employ humour not merely for comic effect but as a subversive tool to challenge the patriarchal norms that restrict women’s autonomy and agency. Through humour, these authors discuss issues surrounding marriage, career, and personal philosophy within the confines of the domestic sphere, presenting their critiques in a gentle yet subversive manner.

By integrating feminist criticism with humour studies and engaging in close textual analysis, this thesis sheds new light on the narrative strategies and characterisation of these works, revealing the authors’ nuanced perspectives on women’s identity and agency. Austen uses keen irony in Persuasion to expose the paradoxes of persuasibility and constancy, thereby questioning the legitimacy of the feminine virtues of submission and constancy. Charlotte Brontë’s Villette offers a more introspective and psychological exploration of the heroine’s inner life by referring to the wit and repartee of the heroine, contrasting her active pursuit of agency and selfhood with the blindness or arrogance of the male protagonists. Gaskell, in Cranford, draws on carnival culture to highlight the strength and resilience of elderly women in a seemingly frivolous tone, situating them at the centre of the narrative. Eliot in ‘Amos Barton’ mocks social structures that constrain both men and women, depicting the decline of Barton’s masculinity and the endurance of Mrs Barton, whose quiet strength actually sustains the family. Oliphant in Miss Marjoribanks presents a formidable female protagonist whose humour and intelligence – manifested in her use of repeated catchphrases – enable her to achieve her ambition and challenge Victorian expectations of womanhood. All these literary works contribute to a nuanced and multifaceted understanding of humour devices and their function to provide a deliberate and sophisticated critique of gender injustices.

This thesis advances current scholarship by providing a more precise definition and categorisation of humour in women’s writing, emphasising the diversity of their humorous expressions in the socio-cultural context of nineteenth-century Britain. It contributes to the intersection of humour studies and feminist criticism by demonstrating how humour, while retaining its comic nature, functions as a gentle but subversive tool for critiquing gender inequalities across these texts.