![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It is a marriage of her choosing - after several refusals of other proposals, and fiery arguments with her uncle who raised her - to a man whom she loves. She has independence in a way most women of the time did not, but she still gets caught by the political and social mores of the time, (she must marry) and in the end succumbs. She also understands financial markets and asserts her economic power within her community, helping Robert Moore out financially with his Mill and creating a fund and distribution system for financial gifts to community members in need. She reads the newspaper, keeping herself informed on political and social issues. In the introduction to the Wordsworth edition that I read, Sally Minogue informs us that Brontë’s novel, Shirley, “is, according to The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, the earliest usage of ‘Shirley’ as a first name, for man or woman”(XI).īased on her sister Emily Brontë (1818-1848) who died when Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) was writing the novel, the character of Shirley Keeldar is bold, outspoken, happy, willful and independently wealthy. Before this novel, published in 1849, between Jane Eyre and Villette, Shirley was only a man’s surname. ![]()
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