Plotting the Governess: The Lessons of Agnes Grey

Abstract The journey undertaken by the Victorian governess in the nineteenth-century novel is frequently aligned with the developmental narrative of the Bildungsroman. However, this article explores how the demands of instruction and surveillance, and the expectation that the governess is simultaneously authoritative and submissive, limit her growth and that of her pupils. An examination of Anne Brontë’s depiction of the repetitive and prosaic work of teaching in her 1847 novel Agnes Grey reveals that in demanding the critical engagement of the reader, the novel resists any expectation that either text or teacher are inherent repositories of knowledge. Finally, I argue that the rich development of the governess that is characteristic to the Bildungsroman can also be located in the marriage plot.