Abstract:

Patricia Beer's view of the significance of costume in Charlotte Brontë's novels points the way to a further analysis of the representations of ambivalent gender identity, and even of the staging of a recurring masquerade, in which woman's aspirations to develop a masculine persona are projected; but while the masks allow the secret dream of androgyny to surface, they also confirm its limited, if not altogether delusory nature.

Keywords: JANE EYRE; SHIRLEY; VILLETTE; COSTUME; MASQUERADE; TRANSVESTISM; GENDER IDENTITY; PATRICIA BEER

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1179/147489309X431539

Affiliations: 1: Honorary Professor of English Literature at the Université Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, France