Ralph Obandja Boyo Knihy

In the mid-19th century, Great Britain was so much facing social class inequalities that the writers of the period oriented their compositions towards those discriminations. Victorian authors such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, William Thackeray, Elizabeth Gaskell...strove to denounce the inequalities generated by the social class system. Charlotte Brontë did not depart from that norm. In the light of the above, the present work is an analysis of the socio-economic features surrounding Charlotte Brontë's four novels: Jane Eyre (1847), Shirley (1849), Villette (1854), and The Professor (1857). The rationale for such an initiative resides in the fact that the authoress's works of fiction cover a wide range of topics, where social class stratification is the most evident. More practically, four aspects inherent to the topic have been identified. These are: the defects of the upper-class, the Master-pupil/Master-servant relationship, the tribulations of the middle class (represented by governesses, companions, tutors, teachers, etc.), and class-based matrimonies.

Coined after its Sovereign, Queen Victoria, the Victorian Period was marked by inequities in the class, religion, and mostly gender domains as women were suffering a political, social, and cultural alienation. Like Capitalism and the injustices that it generated, the patriarchal system was promoting men's dominance over women. Men were graciously granted active roles and privileges, whereas women were attributed passive roles and constraints. Refusing to bow to that unfair system, Victorian authors like Charlotte Brontë stepped up to denounce women's mistreatment in their Artworks. Thus, this work examines women's resistance to patriarchal dominance in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847), Shirley (1849), Villette (1854), and The Professor (1857). Such defiance is mainly expressed through female characters such as Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason, Caroline Helstone, Shirley Keeldar, Lucy Snowe, Frances Henri, etc.

Learning English in a formal environment, pupils necessarily encounter difficulties such as lack of motivation and self-confidence. Yet, the aforementioned elements are critical in the process of a foreign language acquisition. The role of the teacher of English is to enhance these factors in the learners. To achieve his goal, he resorts to authentic materials that contain interactive activities. Moreover, the fact that pupils live in a society marked by a social phenomenon such as underage alcohol consumption, contributes to threaten their schooling and lives. That is why the teacher should associate the acquisition of English with moral value transmission, to ensure pupils a positive personal development. It is regarding such a standing point that The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy is proposed in this study as an authentic didactic source for English language acquisition and sensitization to alcohol consumption.