Explore and analyse the comments on physical appearance
Explore and analyse the comments on physical appearance, what significance does physiognomy have in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre?
At a time when rapid industrialization and urbanization threatened to obscure individuality and blur the boundaries between the public and private spheres, Victorian society became increasingly concerned with appearances as a way of distinguishing one person from another. Physiognomy is the art of determining character or personal characteristics from the form or features of the body, especially of the face. Examples of facial features that are deemed as parts that emanate physiognomy are the forehead, eyebrows, nose, mouth, cheeks, chin, ears, hair and eyes. Physiognomy and the idea that physical appearance and inner character are linked has been popular since ancient times. It was actually considered a legitimate "science" at the time. The idea is that essential personality traits (such as trustworthiness, honesty, etc.) are reflected in a person's outward appearance, particularly in the face. The doctrine of physiognomy was very much accepted by ancient Greek philosophers, there is evidence of this in the earliest classical work of Hippocrates and Homer. The earliest known work on physiognomy is found in Aristotle’s Physiognomonica.
This desire to use appearances to discern a person’s inner character paved the way for the rise of physiognomy. These methods of reading became quite popular, and nearly all Victorians were familiar with the idea of using a person’s appearance to judge his or her character. Bronte was as fascinated by the idea that a person’s exterior could give clues about their interior as the rest of her peers. She included several references to physiognomy and phrenology in her novels, but she used them to mean more than just the literal reading of faces and skulls.
Bronte was raised and wrote in the era when a great studier of physiognomy, Lavatar, was publishing his works of his deception of the subject. A book,
At a time when rapid industrialization and urbanization threatened to obscure individuality and blur the boundaries between the public and private spheres, Victorian society became increasingly concerned with appearances as a way of distinguishing one person from another. Physiognomy is the art of determining character or personal characteristics from the form or features of the body, especially of the face. Examples of facial features that are deemed as parts that emanate physiognomy are the forehead, eyebrows, nose, mouth, cheeks, chin, ears, hair and eyes. Physiognomy and the idea that physical appearance and inner character are linked has been popular since ancient times. It was actually considered a legitimate "science" at the time. The idea is that essential personality traits (such as trustworthiness, honesty, etc.) are reflected in a person's outward appearance, particularly in the face. The doctrine of physiognomy was very much accepted by ancient Greek philosophers, there is evidence of this in the earliest classical work of Hippocrates and Homer. The earliest known work on physiognomy is found in Aristotle’s Physiognomonica.
This desire to use appearances to discern a person’s inner character paved the way for the rise of physiognomy. These methods of reading became quite popular, and nearly all Victorians were familiar with the idea of using a person’s appearance to judge his or her character. Bronte was as fascinated by the idea that a person’s exterior could give clues about their interior as the rest of her peers. She included several references to physiognomy and phrenology in her novels, but she used them to mean more than just the literal reading of faces and skulls.
Bronte was raised and wrote in the era when a great studier of physiognomy, Lavatar, was publishing his works of his deception of the subject. A book,