The Challenges of Intimacy in Bronte Fiction

Abstract

Intimacy and knowledge of others play an important role in Bronte fiction. However, these works usually contain various challenges in the face of intimacy, and, drawing on the work of sociologists Georg Simmel and Erving Goffman, this dissertation discusses the different challenges and attitudes towards intimacy that are present in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.