The Life of the Governess Rebecca Sharp

The Life of the Governess

Vanity Fair Sets the Stage

“If Miss Rebecca Sharp had determined in her heart upon making the conquest of this big beau, I don't think, ladies, we have any right to blame her…” (Thackery 27). The narrator of Vanity Fair encourages readers not to blame Rebecca Sharp for being determined to win Joseph Sedley's attentions and proposal in only ten days! After all, the narrator reminds us that she was motherless, and thus had no one to help her secure a husband. Yet, members of Vanity Fair rebuke Miss Sharp for her assertive efforts. Perhaps, though, one should sympathize and applaud Miss Sharp's labors because her destination after ten days was the life of a governess.

A Governess-A Definition

The position of a governess required that one act as a companion for her charges and teach them the accomplishments that would enable them to compete effectively in society… The required accomplishments were still one or two languages, preferably French and Italian, music, dancing, drawing and needlework… The eventual aim was the best possible marriage.

--Alice Renton, 48

The governess was even often the heroine for writers focusing on domestic, educational and social issues (“The Victorian Governess”). Yet, author and former governess Charlotte Brontë wrote, “it was better to be a housemaid or kitchen girl, rather than a baited, trampled, desolate, distracted governess” (Damrosch 1524). And Anna Jameson wrote, “a woman who knows anything in the world would, if the choice be left to her, be anything in the world rather than be a governess” (Renton 59).

Why the Negativity Regarding a Governess?

As the cries of these governesses allude, life as a governess was not always glamorous, despite the literary regard. “A governess who was capable of teaching more than the usual subjects was generally little valued” (Renton 50). The pay a governess received often reflected the small value. “Her wages could be as low as eight pounds a year… Charlotte Brontë received twenty pounds per year (actually only sixteen since washing expenses were deducted at the source)” (Allingham). Perhaps the Quarterly Review best put the institution of being a governess in perspective when the following was published, “a being who is our equal in birth, manners, and education, but our inferior in worldly wealth” (Renton 96). Thus, governesses “ranked with the superior servants” (Altick 56) and ended up feeling broken and lonely as Jameson described (Renton 59).

So Where Did Becky Fit In?

Becky was obviously not the typical Victorian governess.