Sanam Shahedali

Professor Ms. Firouzeh Ameri, PhD

Gender Roles in Alice Munros Amundsen and Charlotte

One can cry out

This essay will provide a comparative analysis between Alice Munros Short Story
Amundsen (2012) and Charlotte Bronts novel Jane Eyre (1847) in order to achieve a view of
conflicting gender roles in these two works. A careful examination of the leading female
characters in the aforementioned works yields fascinating insight into the differences and
similarities between their perceived inner worlds as they struggle in and out of a space marked
by various limitations and opportunities provided for them by the forces of society, nature, and
instinct.
Amundsen, a short story which appears in the short story collection Dear Life (2012)
written by the Canadian Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro, is a first-person retrospective narrative
focused on a young woman, Vivien Hyde, who travels from Toronto to a remote place called
Amundsen in a Canadian province to work as a teacher in a tuberculosis sanatorium for children.
Vivien starts a relationship with Dr. Fox, her employer and the local surgeon, but the relationship
does not lead to a marriage as she has hoped. Dr. Fox changes his mind minutes before the
ceremony and sends the heartbroken Vivien back to Toronto. The story is set against the
backdrop of World War II, and although Amundsen, with its freezing cold weather and its TB
sanatorium, is far from the war zone, the atmosphere of disease and death adds to the pressing
mood of gloom and stagnation in the story. Composed almost two centuries earlier by the
excellent English writer Charlotte Bront, Jane Eyre is a novel in Bildungsroman genre that
traces the emotions and experiences of its female character, Jane Eyre, from her unhappy
childhood to her adulthood as a governess and her eventual marriage to Mr. Rochester, her
employer, whom she is in love with. Like Amundsen, Jane Eyre is narrated in first person from
the perspective of the main female character. In order to provide a better ground for a
comparative analysis, in the present essay, the analysis of the character of Jane Eyre will be
examined since the time she starts her work as a governess and not before that phase - towards
the end of the novel when she is married to Mr. Rochester. Both narratives trace the passions and
conflicting emotions of a young woman who wishes to be united in marriage to a moody and
mysterious male character with a higher social status than herself, i.e. her employer. The most
notable point in comparing these two works lies in how these female characters deal with various
social and emotional forces that assail them from every direction as they struggle through and
between their own individual identities and the identities that are imposed upon them by the
outside world which is out of their control.
Amundsen starts with a description of Vivien Hydes journey by train to the
tuberculosis sanatorium located in Amundsen, a town far away from Toronto, where she has been
living apparently with her grandparents. The concept of a journey undertaken by the young
character is important since it signifies not only a journey from one physical location to another,
but a metaphorical journey in which she will explore and even challenge her own emotions
and perceptions (aduniuk 39). A description of how the young and inexperienced Agnes Grey
feels on her way to the place where she is to work as a governess reveals the significance of her
journey as a symbol of an exploration of a new world and its foreshadowing of the cold and
dreary life that expects her as a governess:
As we drove along, my spirits revived again, and I turned, with pleasure, to the
contemplation of the new life upon which I was entering. But though it was not far past
the middle of September, the heavy clouds and strong north-easterly wind combined to
render the day extremely cold and dreary; and the journey seemed a very long one, for, as
Smith observed, the roads were very heavy; and certainly, his horse was very heavy too:
it crawled up the hills, and crept down them, and only condescended to shake its sides in
a trot where the road was at a dead level or a very gentle slope, which was rarely the case
in those rugged regions; so that it was nearly one oclock before we reached the place of
our destination. Yet, after all, when we entered the lofty iron gateway, when we drove
softly up the smooth, well-rolled carriage-road, with the green lawn on each side, studded
with young trees, and approached the new but stately mansion of Wellwood, rising above
its mushroom poplar-groves, my heart failed me, and I wished it were a mile or two
farther off. For the first time in my life I must stand alone: there was no retreating now. I
must enter that house, and introduce myself among its strange inhabitants. (A. Bront)
The concept of setting off on a journey to a new place with the promise of new
experiences and opportunities proves as significant for both young women in the two narratives
under examination here. Interestingly, the title of Munros short story and the name of the city to
which its protagonist is traveling is reminiscent of Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer of
Polar Regions. Like the Norwegian explorer, Vivien is setting off to explore new regions on the
levels of both her inside world and the outside one. The same is true for Jane Eyre who ruminates
at great length about her prospects and her emerging anxieties and hopes as she travels on a
misty night on the roads that she describes as heavy (C. Bront 178). Since there is little
space in a short story for such detailed descriptions, Munro uses symbolic and suggestive
language in order to convey similar feelings and the result proves to be even more effective. As
she is waiting in the station, Vivien smells the raw meat that a woman near her is carrying
(Munro 1). Later on, the meat woman tells a couple of women who get on the train that it was a
raw day (Munro 2). When the driver of the train calls out San short for sanatorium Vivien
is confused, thinking that he is calling a mans name Sam. As the train moves on its path,
Vivien experiences another moment of bewilderment as a group of raucous men want to board
the train. In her agitation, Vivien imagines that the vehicle will run away from them because of
the noise they are making (Munro 1). In fact, it is Vivien, the raw and inexperienced character,
who wants to run away from any encounter with the opposite sex. Just as Jane, Vivien is a virgin
who is about to discover the hitherto unexplored realms of her passion and desire. Vivien and
Jane are raw human beings on the verge of encountering raw and wild emotions.
The disparity of the fates of Jane and Vivien is foreshadowed in the manner of their
arrival and the way they are received. In Amundsen, the weather is freezing cold. The air is like
ice and the frozen lake is not level but mounded along the shore, as if the waves had turned
to ice in the act of falling. (Munro 2). Vivien imagines that she likes the place, mostly because,
in her artificial perception, she thinks its like being inside a Russian novel (Munro 7) as she
informs Dr. Fox, her employer, in a failed attempt to sound smart and sophisticated. Instead of
relying on her own original judgement, Vivien takes refuge in stereotypes and ready-made
formulas, especially when she wants to encounter and impress new people. The way she is
received at the sanatorium is cold and indifferent. She describes the sanatorium thus: No heat,
no light, except what came through a little window I could not reach. It was like being punished
at school (Munro 4). As aduniuk observes in her essay Missions and Explorers: Amundsen
as a Key to Reading Alice Munros Other Stories: The negative associations of the sanatorium
with punishment, prison and isolation emphasize Viviens awkward situation and foretell her
difficulties with finding a place for herself in this hostile environment (40). To Viviens
disappointment, nobody seems to respect her for being a teacher or being from Toronto. In
contrast, Janes first encounter with the house in which she is going to work is completely
different:
A snug small room; a round table by a cheerful fire; an arm-chair high-backed and old-
fashioned, wherein sat the neatest imaginable little elderly lady, in widows cap, black
silk gown, and snowy muslin apron; exactly like what I had fancied Mrs. Fairfax, only
less stately and milder looking. She was occupied in knitting; a large cat sat demurely at
her feet; nothing in short was wanting to complete the beau-ideal of domestic comfort. A
more reassuring introduction for a new governess could scarcely be conceived; there was
no grandeur to overwhelm, no stateliness to embarrass; and then, as I entered, the old
lady got up and promptly and kindly came forward to meet me. (C. Bront 180)
Although she is aware of her inferior position as a friendless and dependent employee,
the smart and imaginative Jane Eyre relies on her wits and originality to countercheck the
taunting and teasing manner in which the cunning and bitter Mr. Rochester addresses her in their
second encounter when they sit down together to speak. While Vivien keeps falling into the
traps that she believes Mr. Fox is setting up (Munro 8), Jane is the kind of young woman who
would famously assert: I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an
independent will (C. Bront 483). Despite all the vicissitudes and hardships that she has gone
through, Jane has retained her sense of self-assertion and individuality. Time and again
throughout the novel, she is described as passionate (C. Bront 18, 65, 455, 569) while
Viviens emotional identity and self-will has been squeezed out of her in the artificial urban
society she comes from.
Once the two women start working as teachers, they try to improve the mental condition
of their students by introducing new pedagogical methods and educational material, but their
employers almost care nothing for their professional capabilities. They are neither genuinely
praised nor criticized for the way they perform their jobs. Instead, their employers are interested
in them as sexual objects whom they want to dominate and make their own, each in their own
way. Viviens job is a mock job because she is teaching children who may never recover from
their illness. Even her students know that this was a pretend school where they were free of all
requirements to learn anything. (Munro 12). Likewise, Jane has become the governess and tutor
of a girl in whom her employer shows no interest. Although Mr. Rochester notices that Adele, the
girl under his guardianship, has improved under Janes tutelage (C. Bront, 229), he has a
contempt for her that prevents him from really focusing on her education and welfare, rendering
all the efforts that Jane makes in this regard almost completely futile and void. While Mr.
Rochester is free to roam the world, have wild affairs with various women, and pursue his
business as an independent gentlemen, Jane feels restless in her dormant and confined situation
that offers to opportunity for a sense of fulfillment: but women feel just as men feel; they need
exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts (C. Bront 207). As Weisser points out in
her article Thornfield and The Dream to Repose on: Jane Eyre, it is from this starting point
the inability to find a meaningful place in the social communitythat the Bront heroine is
impelled to find an alternative home in sexual love (76). Both characters eventually seek to
make up for the discontentment they feel by entering into the new realm of sexual passion as
they develop a romantic relationship with men whom they perceive as superior to themselves.
Thus, they create a challenging project for themselves and they seek to find a sense of superiority
and power by taming the wayward and moody male characters through love and marriage.
Vivien basks in the glory of others awareness of her relationship with Dr. Fox as she boastfully
declares: My stock had risen. Now, whatever else I was, I at least might turn out to be a woman
with a man (Munro 29). This remark suggests female inferiority and despite some initial
resistance, Vivien eventually end up as increasingly passive and dependent on her fiancs
opinions (Sldenwagner 15).
Vivien shows no authority or power in the arrangement of her marriage to Dr. Fox. He is
the one who decides on what day the marriage will take place; he is the one who decides that
they will not have a wedding ceremony; he is the one whose approval Vivien seeks as she
wonders whether he would agree to her having a bouquet (Munro 38); he is the one who drives
the car as they take a trip to the Town Hall in the nearby town to make formal preparations for
their marriage; and, of course, he is the one who, to Viviens utter bewilderment and
mortification, suddenly decides that he does not want to go through the marriage. When Dr. Fox
drops her at the station and buys a ticket for her to send her off to Toronto, Vivien fantasizes
about him coming back, and when she despairs of this fantasy after boarding the train, she thinks
of jumping off the train and running to find him in the street (Munro 43), but she fails even to
exert her will in this feeble attempt at controlling her fate.
Viviens character is at the mercy of all the external forces that tuck at her from different
directions, ranging from the social standards set for women at her time to the dominance of the
man who promises to marry her. Even the desire she feels for Dr. Fox is not genuine, but results
from his higher position in the social ladder. This is evident in the confession she makes to
herself right before engaging in erotic fantasies she entertains on the day she thinks she is going
to marry him: I find it exciting that he is a surgeon (Munro 38). Conversely, Jane Eyre proves
to be rather different in the quality of her affections for Mr. Rochester and her attitude towards
her marriage. She forcefully refuses to be showered in jewelry or rich clothes as Mr. Rochester
wants her to by declaring that: I dont like to hear them spoken of. Jewels for Jane Eyre sounds
unnatural and strange: I would rather not have them (C. Bront 493). When their marriage
ceremony is broken off by the declaration of the fact that Mr. Rochester is already married, Jane
refuses to live with him as his mistress. She leaves the man she loves as she actively exerts her
will to hold on to her principles: I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the
more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God;
sanctioned by man (C. Bront 605). And when she comes back and marries the now widowed,
destitute, blind, disfigured, and disabled Rochester, it is again on her own accord, as is manifest
in her well-known blissful announcement: Reader, I married him (C. Bront 861). Although it
cannot be ignored that part of the strength in Janes character stems from her religious
convictions, she still seeks to acknowledge and satisfy her own desires even when an opportunity
arises for her to devote herself fully to a religious cause. In fact, it is through her desire that she
wills her selfhood into existence (Weisser 90).
In accordance with her optimistic view of a benevolent divine plan for human beings,
Charlotte Bront places her own beloved creation, her Jane Eyre, in the company of a husband in
whose blessed society she knows no weariness (864). Janes conjugal bliss is in stark contrast
with the cool spiritless future that Alice Munro depicts for Vivien Hyde. Years later, while she is
out to clear her head after a kind of dragged-out row with her husband (Munro 46), Vivien
once more meets Dr. Fox in a crowded street in Toronto as they are moving in opposite
directions (Munro 45). When Dr. Fox asks Vivien how she is, she answers that she is fine and,
adds for good measure that she is happy, though she immediately informs the reader in a
confiding tone that: At the moment this was only generally true (Munro 45). The short story
Amundsen reaches its cynical conclusion with Vivien Hyde uttering a particularly wry and
enigmatic last sentence: Nothing changes really about love (Munro 46).
As demonstrated in this essay, a comparative analysis of Alice Munros Short Story
Amundsen and Charlotte Bronts novel Jane Eyre with a focus on their respective leading
female characters Vivien Hyde and Jane Eyre can provide invaluable emotional psychological
insight into the inner world of these two characters as they struggle with the problems of agency
and female identity in their interaction with a society that relentlessly imposes various
conflicting gender roles upon them. Jane Eyre seems to show more energy, authority and positive
individuality throughout the novel while Vivien Hydes uncertain character as a young woman in
the emerging modern world with all its violence, artificiality and gloom appears to be at the
mercy of all kinds of social, political, and conventional forces. However, both these female
characters can be said to have gained an immense degree of agency as they find their own
captivating voices through their first-person narrative of the vicissitudes and emotions they
experience in their fictive lives.
 Works Cited

Bront, Anne. Agnes Grey. 1847, The Project Gutenberg eBook, December 2010,
www.gutenberg.org/files/767/767-h/767-h.htm. Accessed 29 January 2017.
Bront, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1847. Planet PDF, pp. 18, 65, 178, 180, 207, 229, 261, 455, 483,
493, 569, 605, and 864.
aduniuk, Magdalena. Missions and Explorers: Amundsen as a Key to Reading Alice
Munros
Other Stories. Alice Munro: Understanding, Adapting and Teaching, edited by
Mirosawa
Buchholtz, Springer, 2016, pp. 39-40.
Munro, Alice. Amundsen. Dear Life. Knof, 2012, pp. 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12, 29, 38, 43, 45, 46.
Sldenwagner, Ronja. Love, Gender and Social Pressure in Amundsen. For (Dear) Life:
Close
Readings of Alice Munro's Ultimate Fiction, edited by Eva-Sabine Zehelein, Lit, 2014, p.
15.
Weisser, Susan Ostrov. Thornfield and The Dream to Repose on: Jane Eyre. Charlotte
Bronts Jane Eyre, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House, 2007, pp. 76 and 90.