Tristan, although expressing sympathy for the prostitutes, still feels disturbed by the lives and actions of the prostitutes of the time. She writes, “To brave death is nothing; but what a death faces a prostitute! She is betrothed to sorrow, committed to abjection!- Physical tortures incessantly repeated, moral death all the time, and scorn for herself!” (Tristan)

Prostitutes are perpetually placed in a state of despair, knowing that they are acting against God, committing sin, and shunned by mankind.

Despite this, Tristan heavily blames society for a prostitutes’ place in the world. Their place was created by a division of class as well as a separation of gender. These women were offered no eduction, and even those who were educated had very limited job options. Due to this, Tristan believes that prostitutes could not be deemed immoral for actions that were out of their control.

Thomas Hood, in his poem “Bride of Sighs” expresses this same sympathy for prostitutes. This view is similar to that of Tristan, but rather than blaming society and class differences, Thomas Hood associates the issue of prostitution with a lacking of family and close loved ones.

He blames the men for mistreating the prostitutes, rather than treating them as women, as humans. He writes, in lines 15-20,

Touch her not scornfully;

Think of her mournfully,

Gently and humanly;

Not of the stains of her,

All that remains of her

Now is pure womanly.

Thomas Hood feels great sympathy towards the prostitute, the subject of his poem, who ultimately kills herself by drowning. He wishes for the men who find her to treat her dead corpse with the same gentleness that he speaks of earlier in the poem.

Both Thomas Hood and Flora Tristan note that prostitutes are part of the lower class, and that prostitutes are without a home.. Thomas Hood, however, blames this lacking of a home (lacking of a family) for the desolate & lonely life of a prostitute, where Tristan blames class differences.

The piece from Fraser’s Magazine published in 1844 writes greatly of the necessity of becoming a governess. The job in itself is not ideal, in any way, but necessary. It writes, “There was such an overplus of single women that the old order of things was subverted. Women must have bread to eat as well as men. If they have no husbands to toil for them they must fin food for themselves. They found, if they would not sink in the scale, they must work with their heads, and not with their hands. Must! oh the ruthlessness of necessity,” (569)

As the article goes on, the magazine continues to show the reader the complex life of a governess. These women, although women, were now working women. Their roles as women had therefor shifted from unpaid domestic life and child rearing, to paid domestic roles and child rearing. The role as a governess stemmed from lower-class women who seemingly had no other option but to work. Being women, the only work deemed suitable was child-rearing and teaching.

These women were intelligent, yet isolated. The magazine piece speaks heavily upon this on page 573. If the children needed not to be attended to, the governess was forced to remain solemn in the school room, thus isolating her from the world around her.

The piece heavily criticizes the life of a governess, to the extreme.

I would argue that Bronte argues on the opposing side of this magazine piece, even pushing for the idea of women become governesses. According to Bronte, a job as a governess is seen as an opportunity for a woman to work, a good opportunity at that.

Jane is excited about her job as a governess, and again, sees this as an opportunity for her to show her strengths. Bronte writes, “My heart really warmed to the worthy lady as I heard her talk; and  i drew my chair a little nearer to her, and expressed my sincere wish that she might find my company as agreeable as she anticipated, ” (Bronte 164).

Bronte goes on to portray the life of a governess as a wonderful experience for Jane, thus not focusing on the isolated aspect, or many of the negative aspects that the magazine addressed.

Works Cited

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard Nemesvari. Toronto: Broadview, 1999. Print.

“Hints on the Modern Governess System.” Fraser’s Magazine November 1844: 567-577. Print