#it is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility

[shakespearesdaughters]

“It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.” ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

[louisianna]

Anybody may blame me who likes, [...] that, now and then, when I took a walk by myself in the grounds; when I went down to the gates and looked through them along the road; or when [...] I [...] looked out afar over sequestered field and hill, and along dim sky-line — that then I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen — that then I desired more of practical experience than I possessed; more of intercourse with my kind, of acquaintance with variety of character, than was here within my reach. I valued what was good in Mrs. Fairfax, and what was good in Adele; but I believed in the existence of other and more vivid kinds of goodness, and what I believed in I wished to behold. Who blames me? Many, no doubt; and I shall be called discontented. I could not help it: the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes. Then my sole relief was to walk along the corridor of the third storey, backwards and forwards, safe in the silence and solitude of the spot, and allow my mind's eye to dwell on whatever bright visions rose before it — and, certainly, they were many and glowing; to let my heart be heaved by the exultant movement, which, while it swelled it in trouble, expanded it with life; and, best of all, to open my inward ear to a tale that was never ended — a tale my imagination created, and narrated continuously; quickened with all of incident, life, fire, feeling, that I desired and had not in my actual existence. It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot.

[noirsbelladonna]

Jane Eyre

'It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.''

'Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot.'

'Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do'

'They suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer, and it is narrow-minded in their most privileged fellow-creatures to say

that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more that custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.'

-Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

[chromatophilia-blog]

"It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action, and they will make it if they cannot find it."

--Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

[unbonmot]

"It is vain to say that human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity:  they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."

-Emily Bronte

also possibly Spock

I had a powerful urge come upon me and I was helpless against it.

[linusjf]

Charlotte Bronte: Tranquility and action

English: Portrait of Charlotte Bronte by J. H. Thompson Русский: Портрет Шарл��тты Бронте работы Дж. Х. Томпсона (Photo credit: Wikipedia) “It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility; they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. ” —Charlotte Bronte.

[powercutin]

It is vain to say human beings ought to b satisfied with tranquility. They must have action. And they will make it if they cannot find it.

[whiiteniights]

“It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

[warrioreowynofrohan]

All three of the Brontës were much farther outside the social norms of their day than Jane Austen was, in my assessment (though “their day” was not exactly the same one, as the Brontës published their main novels a little over 30 years after Austen published hers).

Jane Austen seems to have mainly written about things that it was socially acceptable for women to know, in terms that it was socially acceptable for women to express. She references seduction and abandonment, she references adultery, but always from a distance, through second- or thirdhand accounts, and always briefly. She does not deal with passion in the way that, for example, Charlotte Brontë does in Jane Eyre; the attraction that Austen’s leads feel for their partners is a likeness of mind, an enjoyment of their company, a respect for their principles and actions, a sense of affection. (The advice Austen seems to give her readers is, perhaps, similar to that of Helen’s aunt in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall: ‘first observe, then respect, then love’.) By contrast, though Jane firmly controls her passion in Jane Eyre, its there is no doubt of its existence; her physical attraction to Rochester is very clear.

This is not about the Brontës being ‘more feminist’ than Austen, which in my opinion isn’t a useful scale. They were doing completely different things, and only seem to be compared because all are women. Austen wrote social satire mingled with romance; Charlotte and Emily Brontë, in their most famous works, were Gothic (but favoured not untrammeled passion or wildness but its channeling and control through reason and education); Anne Brontë wrote realism with strong moral or didactic elements. All of them chafed at some aspects of women’s place in society.

Jane Austen takes it for granted that a woman will desire to marry, and is very conscious of the economic precarity that could be faced by widows and old maids. The emphasis, in all her books, is on women marrying well enough to have a stable life, but not marrying without, at minimum, respect and liking for their partner. (Though she doesn’t condemn Charlotte Lucas for doing otherwise, marrying a fool and getting through the marriage in tolerable comfort by encouraging your husband to spend as little time with you as possible is not shown as a desirable situation.) The main right of women she is comcerned with is not following your dreams or heart, but the megative right of being able to refuse someone you genuinely dislike, and her heroines - Elizabeth Bennet and Fanny Price in particular - speak strongly on the subject. She is also very aware of the sexual double standards whereby women who are seduced suffer far more, socially, than the en who seduce them.

Charlotte Brontë is far more vigorous on the subject of women’s right to desire and pursue a life that is fulfilling and meaningful beyond just a family circle:

It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides politucal rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

And:

What good it would have done me at that time to have been tossed in the storms of an uncertain struggling life, and to have been taught by rough and bitter experience to long for the calm amidst which I now repined! Yes, just as much good as it would do a man tired of sitting still in a ‘too easy chair’ to take a long walk; and just as natural was the wish to stir, under my circumstances, as it would be under his.

Charlotte Brontë also speaks more of topics that were considered unacceptable for a wonan than Austen does: both in Jane’s passion for Rochester, and Rochester’s frank disclosure to her of his prior affairs. Socially, the relationship between Jane and Rochester also crosses class boundaries in a way that Austen’s novels never openly approve (all her main matches are between members of the gentry; ones that are not, like Harriet Smith [after her parentage is known] marrying a gentleman, are regarded as deeply undesirable:

Harriet’s parentage became known. She proved to be the daughter of a tradesman, rich enough to afford her the comfortable maintenance which had ever been hers…Such was the blood of gentility which Emma had formerly been so ready to vouch for!…what a connection had she been preparing for Mr. Knightley, or for the Churchills, or even for Mr. Elton! The stain of illegitimacy, unbkeached by nobility or wealth, would have been a stain indeed.

Perhaps one thing that frustrates some readers about Mansfield Park is this relative conservatism of Austen’s. Charlotte Brontë writes conventionality is not morality; self-righteousness is not religion. But in Mansfield Park as much as any of Austen’s novels, conventionality does seem to be morality; even apart from the inappropriateness of the particular play and casting (which I will readily grant as a moral hazard), the unconventionality of amateur theatricals is immorality; the unconventionality of Mary Crawford openly criticizing her adulterous uncle is immorality; the unconventionality of Mary using the play to flirt with a man who clearly likes her and whom she likes back, and who are neither committed in any way to anyone else, is immorality.

(For reference: Elizabeth Bennet does not marry ‘out of her class’ in marrying Mr. Darcy. Lady Catherine claims that, but Elizabeth firmly rebuffs that: “He is a gentleman. I am a gentleman’s daughter. Thus far, we are equal.” He’s much richer than her, but that difference merely makes the match uncommon, not improper.)

(Jane Eyre does, in fact, come into wealth before marrying Mr. Rochester, but the narrative reason in that case is not for social respectability, which neither of them care for, but for autonomy: Jane being with Rochester out of love alone, him now physically dependent on her, is better than the reverse, when all the wealth was his and he insisted, to Jane’s discomfort, on acting the part of rich benefactor.)

Anne Brontë writes even more graphically than Charlotte of spousal abuse, drunkenness, and adultery, to the point where the preface to the second edition of her book indicates she was sharply criticized when it became known she was a woman. She is like Jane Austen in one respect: she is concerned with the dangers of marriage to women. But where Austen is concerned mainly with irresponsible spending and/or lack of intelligence or sense in making for an unhappy marriage, Anne is extremely frank about abuse, cruelty, and coercive control. She clearly believes in women’s need for greater freedom just as Charlotte does, but where Charlotte focuses on autonomy, purpose, and the need for an equal relationshio that is a true meeting of minds, hearts, and spirits, Anne emphasizes freedom - and a more honest education in the dangers of the world - as necessary for women to be able to escape from harm. (I have passed over Emily Brontë as I don’t understand her writings well enough to speak to her ideas on women.)

every day I log onto tumblr dot com and I have to see people claiming charlotte bronte wasn't a feminist unlike their totally unproblematic fave jane austen and I am physically unable to grab them by the shoulders and giving them a good shake and it makes me real sad

[solarpearl]

fic recs please!

sorry for all the tags <33 these are mostly headcanons as i don’t read fics often.

anything by @genshin-fluff

prayer by @looking-for-my-light

dry your tears by @glazelilyy

celebration / this thoma one / a childe one / childe birth / detective au / mafia au / envy / alarm by @favoniuscodex

how they say i love you by @almondto-fu

affectionate nicknames by @windblooms

when he realises he loves you by @dandelion-dreams 

mourning for you by @ohmykazuha

when he loved me by @mircoluv

koi no yokan. a hunch for true love. by @komorebi-e

keeping your relationship a secret / playing hard to get / a drowsy afternoon by @xiaowhore

a simple goodbye by @starfell-traveler

booping their nose / your turn and mine by @yanbub

twice by @illuminer

appetence by @rasbeaii

#D40404 by @lupically​ 

7:14PM by @tartagilicious​ 

the moment they fell for you by @craeya  

“oh we’re married (before 25).” by @coophi 

efflorescence by @seerie 

this one by @nemeseos-noctua 

coffeeshop au by @monocaelia 

rate of reaction by @albaedhoe 

unrequited by @stellarpredator 

sing thee to thy rest by @valberryy 

[a-books-allure]

16.10.22 | Strolling down autumnal paths 🍁🍂

“It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.” - Jane Eyre

[macrolit]

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) British novelist

[chasingliterature]

when Jane Eyre said, “It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it,” God—I felt that in my heart.

[puppieyes]

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people eart

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Jane Eyre

This has been one of my three favourite books - along with the Silm/LOTR and Les Misérables - since around my early teens. And when I first read it, it wasn’t even about the romance - I was still too young to care about that. It was Jane’s personality, her sharp hatred of injustice, her rage against unfairness, her cry of unjust, unjust! It was her passionate desire for love and affection:

Helen: “If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”

Jane: “No; I know I should think well of myself; but that is not enough: if other’s don’t love me I would rather die than live - I cannot bear to be solitary and hated. Look here; to gain some real affection from you, or Miss Temple, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse and let it dash its hoof at my chest -”

Reading it as an adult, I can see how the story is about the maturation and transformation of these qualities within Jane, and the strength that gives her. She does not cease in recognizing and opposing and rebuking injustice and wrong, but she becomes opposed to it on the basis that it is wrong and that it harms others, and comes to regard wrongs done to herself dispassionately. She dors not hesitate to criticize Rochester’s actions and impulses. She rebukes Hannah, not for turning her away when she was destitute, but for the wrong thinking underlying it:

“Some of the best people that ever lived have been as destitute as I am; and if you are a Christian, you oight not to consider poverty a crime.”

But she forgives her Aunt Reed, who never treated her with anything but hostility; Jane’s keen understanding of other people lets her analyze why her aunt treated her that way, and put Aunt Reed’s hatred aside, as something that in now way reflects on Jane as a person; and, from that point, her aunt no longer has any power over her, and can be pitied. Her passion against injustice to herself cools and matures into a steadfast and unshakeable opposition to wrong - the wrongs not only of individuals but of society, as she (and her author speaking through her) expresses in one of my most-loved passages for the book, which shows that her youthful fire remains, even if it is now more controlled:

It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they ill make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddinfs and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and knitting bags. It is thoughtless to comdemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

…What good it would have done me at that time to have been tossed in the storms of an uncertain struggling life, and to have been taught by rough and bitter experience to long for the calm amidst which I now repined! Yes, just as much good as it would do a man tired of sitting still in a ‘too easy chair’ to take a long walk: and just as natural was the wish to stir, under my circumstances, as it would be under his.

Passages like this are why I loved Jane before I cared about the romance at all. And in the same way, while she does not cease to passionately want affection and love and people among whom she can belong - see her proposal to Rochester; see how, upon coming into wealth, she cares nothing for it except for her joy in instantly dividing it with the newfound cousins who loved and welcomed her before they had known of any relationship - she comes to agree with Helen that she can and will choose what is right, and put that before her desires; she will not compromise her principles for any human love and companionship. In her choice to leave Rochester, she actively endorses Helen’s above-stated principle:

I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.

The heart of Jane Eyre is Jane’s departure from Rochester, not just her later return to him that concludes the book. It is her choice to walk away from everything she desires and needs, in order to maintain her principles and self-respect. Her return - only when she is both materially and emotionally self-sufficient, only when her driving force is love for him without need of him - becomes a great love story because it is grounded in what came before.

[bramstokerdoesntapprove]

“It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”

— Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre