Sammendrag
This thesis examines animal representation and the role of animals as indicators of characters’ morality in Anne Brontë’s two novels Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1849). It explores the many animals that are introduced during the course of these novels, and their literal and symbolic values. The analysis compares the animal-human connections and their implications, and it considers how animals are positioned by Brontë as instructive emblems of empathy and morality. The results indicate that the characters who are kind to animals are considered to be good people, and are, accordingly, rewarded for their treatment of them; the characters who do not treat animals well are portrayed as having poor morals and are understood as ‘bad people’. They are consequently punished for their actions. There are also proven links between violence to animals and cruelty to humans. As such, these results point to Anne Brontë’s firm opposition to cruelty towards animals, and indicate her didactic project to of teach her readers principles of right and wrong through the treatment of animals.