Shirley

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1849

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-18

Chapters 19-25

Chapters 26-30

Chapters 31-37

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Hollow’s Mill

Hollow’s Mill on the Fieldhead estate is one of the primary settings of the novel and a symbol of progress and the effects of the Industrial Revolution. The failing textile mill acts as an ideological and literal battleground for the local factory workers and businessmen of Yorkshire. At the beginning of Shirley, Robert locks himself inside the mill as he awaits the delivery of new machinery, separating himself from the outside world and those who want to do him harm. After his machines are destroyed, Robert meets with the perpetrators and other workers he has laid off at the mill, having the ringleader arrested and rejecting the pleas of one of his most honest workers. The mill is a symbol of Robert’s own frustration and his closed-minded attitude at this point. The mill becomes a literal battlefield when two hundred men try to break in and destroy it, in turn destroying many of Robert’s prized machines. Yet Robert cares for the mill above all else and is prepared to take on these men once they break through the gates. Moreover, Robert has great plans for the mill once the business starts improving and once he and Shirley, the owner of the land, become in-laws (i.e., his brother becomes his landlord). When the narrator comes to the mill years after the events of the novel take place, she sees “the manufacturer’s day-dreams embodied in substantial stone and brick and ashes” (611). It is clear to her that the mill is thriving, yet by including the desolation of the once-green countryside of Shirley’s land, Brontë shows both the good and the bad of the Industrial Revolution. There is no denying that the mill faces change throughout the novel, yet Brontë leaves the legacy of its progress deliberately open, challenging the reader to decide.

Labor

Labor is a motif that recurs throughout the novel, often highlighting issues of class and gender. The novel begins with disputes on labor occurring at Hollow’s Mill, with Robert weighing the benefits of using machines over human labor. Robert’s machines are seen by many of the townspeople as evil and direct opponents to the workers as they have already put many of them out of work and caused great poverty and suffering, despite saving Robert money. Despite Robert facing poverty himself, the great difference between him and his workers that he cannot understand is that the labor he has done is completely disparate from that of the workers. The narrator describes the working people of Yorkshire as people “whose sole inheritance was labour, and who had lost that inheritance—who could not get work, and consequently could not get wages, and consequently could not get bread—they were left to suffer on, perhaps inevitably left” (30). This makes explicit how much the workers depend on the jobs they can do in the place where they live: Unlike people of Robert’s class, they do not have alternative opportunities and choices when the mill stops being profitable.

The labor of women is a major concern in the book, Caroline wishes to do something—even something she knows she would not enjoy like being a governess—with her life. The lack of opportunities for labor is highlighted, yet women also perform labor throughout the novel. Shirley is nearly as concerned about the business of the mill and its finances as Robert is, and the effort she puts into her charity project is overshadowed by the men who want to take charge of it. There are a handful of depictions of working women, such as Fanny and Eliza who work at the rectory, and Mrs. Pryor who warns Caroline against the dangers of becoming a governess and also works to nurse Caroline through her illness. Hortense makes an effort to keep her home warm and hospitable and also helps with Caroline’s education. Although the women in the novel have few opportunities to work outside the home, Brontë includes plenty of depictions of the other equally meaningful forms of labor women perform, often without compensation or recognition. It is often through these forms of labor that a deeper welfare of the characters is fostered.

The Rectory

Like the Hollow, the Briarfield rectory where Helstone and Caroline live is a symbolic setting, particularly as it applies to Caroline. Caroline has spent the last 10 years of her life at the rectory and feels she will have to stay there the rest of her life. It is controlled by her uncle, whom she does not hate but feels no love from, and consequently, the place feels as cold and empty as the relationship between uncle and niece. The most Gothic-style setting in the novel, the rectory is a symbol of Caroline’s confinement. Unlike when she walks through the countryside to the Hollow’s Cottage or sprawling Fieldhead, Caroline feels trapped within the walls of the rectory just as she feels trapped by her place as a woman and her uncle’s control over her and her future. When she is heartbroken, she believes above all else she needs a change of scene yet Helstone will not let her leave home. She is terrified of the “long, slow death [...] in Briarfield rectory” (387) that Rose Yorke predicts for her and fears she might die if she does not have change. Yet the rectory also haunts her and reminds Caroline of the past. A portrait of Helstone’s deceased wife hangs near those of her father and Helstone, and Caroline is forced to see the similarities between her cruel father and her uncle on a daily basis. When Mrs. Pryor reveals she is Caroline’s mother, she alludes to the grave of her father that lies only a few feet outside of her window, and Caroline even fears that the house is haunted. Not only a place of religion, the rectory also acts as a prison for Caroline, symbolizing her forced confinement as a woman with few opportunities for a future.