Clinging to Ideals

No doubt Charlotte and I would have our disagreements if she were alive today. The first might be on my choice to represent her with the idealized Duyckinick portrait completed in 1873, nearly twenty years after her death. It is based on a drawing by George Richmond, done in 1850 when Charlotte was about thirty-four years old (seen left).

But Charlotte looks so cross in the Richmond drawing. From reading JANE EYRE, I can gather she had a fine wit and probably a lively sense of humor, so I like to imagine she was not always so dire. The real Charlotte was probably somewhere between the two representations.

In fact, there is an actual portrait of Charlotte (found with thanks to the Bronte Society), to prove the case, in which she looks equally serious and pleasant. Quite lovely, actually (right). If her treatment of Jane is any indication of the way she felt about her own appearance, I can well imagine her instructing her portrait artist to be harsh and as accurate as possible. I was perhaps a little kinder to Jane Slayre, allowing her to feel pretty under Mr. Rochester's loving gaze, and to become a bit pretty as well. It's all about self-confidence, isn't it?

And let's not forget, I've written romance novels. I believe in fairy tales and happy endings, and also, apparently, in using pretty pictures to represent a woman I admire. So be it. Who really knows how Charlotte would have felt on the matter, or on the matter of my writing JANE SLAYRE? Or on her popularity over a hundred and fifty plus years after her death? She isn't here to say.