Charlotte Bronte for the first time in 1849 presented a woman who was not conventional in her approach towards life. The thing is not so strange if look at the present scenario of the women in the society but at the time it was written the thing was quite unique and strange for the people to believe that even women could enjoy such luxury and what a woman could do if she is left free from the worries of life that she usually face such as financial dependence on men.
In other books by the author Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte as well as in this story you can find some similarity in the characters and events. The story has two characters and both of them are female characters that shows that Bronte wanted to write about women and it was her feministic approach that forced her to create a character like Shirley. The two women in the novel are totally opposite to each other, both in personality and the circumstances of life in which they are living.
Caroline Helstone is the conventional type of woman or the woman of pure 19th century who cannot confront the public alone and who is always ready to bury herself behind the four walls of her house. Caroline does not revolt against the cruelties that she faces at home and in the society in which she lives. Shirley on the other hand after getting a share in the property becomes an independent woman who has the power of the purse as well and can do whatever she wants with her life.
She speaks boldly and that too in front of men, she is not afraid to talk of her own ideas in front of a larger gathering of men. Georgina Sutton has done well in narrating the character of these women who are not only living an opposite life but their tone and nature is also totally different from one another.
