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WOMEN CHARCATERS IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE 

 

Parvana ALAKBAROVA 

Qafqaz University 

[e-mail] 

 

Theroleofwomen in literature has rather changedthroughtheyears,asatermoflife. Victorian literature refers to the 

literary works that were written during the reign of Queen Victoria. The Victorian era lasted from 1837 to 1901, when 

Queen Victoria reigned, although many historians believe that the Reform Act of 1832 signifies the inception of the 

Victorian era. The Victorian era served as a transition between the Romantic period and the literature of the twentieth 

century. The major Victorian writers are: Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, 

George Eliot, William Makepeace Thackeray and so on.  

 

 

Inthelate1800swomendidnotplayanimportantpartinsociety, because they had limited rights.Victorianwomendifferfrom 

contemporarywomeninthattheyweregenerallylookeduponasanornamentalmemberofthehousehold.Their 

dutieswerechieflytocook,clean,takingcareofchildrenand keeping the house in order. The only role of women was to get 

married and look after the homely chores. 

 

 

 

Compared to modern period, Victorian women didn’t have freedom to choose their life. Even the legal rights of 

married women were similar to those of children. Education played a turning role for women’s in corporation in work 

because  of  the male dominance.EducationwasconsiderablymorelimitedintheVictorianerabecauseonlymalechildrencould 

gotoschoolandgoteducationindifferent subjectswhilefemalechildrenlearned how tocook and do household. Women were not 

let attend intouniversities which were only for men. However, todayeverywoman has thepossibility toenter 

theuniversityanddevelopherstudieslikemen. 

 

Victorianliterature directs the issues of conflict among the classes as well as the burgeoning push for women's rights. 

Nevertheless, the defining peculiarity of Victorian literature is a powerful focus on morality. Heroes of Victorian literature 

are often the oppressed members of society, such as the poor. Victorian writers romanticized hard work and strong dignity. 

Characters with good ethics were usually awarded, while characters who acted poorly received their just desserts in the end. 

Victorian novels were often written with the intention of teaching a moral lesson to readers. Underthe moral rules, in 

Victorian literature characters are often teeming with passion and seduced by evil forces. However the characters of 

Victorian literature show restriction against their wild emotions, which was abandoned by the Romantic writers who came 

before, celebrating wildness and uncontrollable emotions.  

Strong,independent women characters existed in Victorian literature. Two notable examples of them are Jane Eyre 

fromCharlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre”, Mrs. Ramsay from Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse”. These characters, like the 

novels in which they exist, stand out from others in Victorian literature. They arenot unnatural, stereotypical characters, yet 

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