| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this thesis is to explore the complex relationship Charlotte Brontë s novels have with Europe. It will examine how religion, sexuality and morality, and language are used in order to create a British identity that is contrasted to a European one, but also how these binaries are broken down via the romantic unions of British and European characters and the appeal of certain aspects of Catholicism, European sexuality and the French language. The role of Europe has often been overlooked in favour of the British Empire in Brontë scholarship, and this thesis posits that Europe is integral to the establishment of a British national identity in Brontë s works. Furthermore, those who have studied the author s presentation of Europe have often limited themselves to the two novels that are set on the Continent, but I argue that much is lost in disregarding the remainder of Brontë s works. The findings of this thesis suggest that despite the rampant Europhobia found in Brontë s works, these novels stand out amongst their contemporaries in envisaging romantic unions between Britons and Europeans and that the British characters need something, or someone, European in order to be fulfilled. However, though the novels ask the question whether there is any room for Europe in the British national identity Brontë constructs, Britain is ultimately victorious in the battle between the two. | eng |