Charlotte Bronte’s novel ‘The Professor’ is a simple and steady novel about the life of Mr. William Crimsworth, a young man from an aristocratic family with no reliable connections or fortune. He is left to find his way in life. Although of not a very handsome nature, and endowed only with simple and plain features, Mr.Crimsworth is a man of self-respect and fortitude. He is employed by his tyrannical elder brother Edward Crimsworth as a clerk in his mill. Against his better judgment and suppressing feelings of mortification, he pulls along in his brother’s establishment for a few months. By the provocative but well-meaning machinations of Mr.Hunsden, Crimsworth escapes the assailing and enervating mill and embarks to Brussels with the recommendatory letter of Hunsden. Being a knowledgeable and proficient teacher, he finds a situation in a Boys school run by Mr.Pelet in Brussels as an English Professor. He is tasked to teach grammar and the nuances of the English language to a set of students mostly with not enough interest in it. His industry and hard work take him to an adjacent establishment to teach the same language to the girls of a boarding school run by Ms.Zoraide Reuter. The charms and beauties of this girls establishment are a distraction to Crimsworth but cannot melt his austere and rigid countenance. In this manner he has a sway over the classes, and the pupils even at their flirtatious or coquettish best are unable to distract him. However he falls for Ms.Reuter who is all charm, elegance and composure. But this brief affair is ended when he overhears a conversation between Ms.Reuter and Mr.Pelet about their engagement and impending marriage. The conversation also reveals how Ms.Reuter had encouraged his attentions although Mr.Pelet had been asking for wedlock. This revelation makes him reflect about his situation; a man with no fortune but dependent on the benevolence of his masters.
The life of the Professor takes a detour when he meets Ms.Frances Henri, a teacher of mixed Swiss and English origin who works in the girls’ school as a teacher of lace work and other vocational subjects. She joins his English classes to learn the language. Soon Crimsworth discovers that the girl has a higher intellect and sensibility than she is credited with. His emotional attachment with Frances Henri blossoms into love. When Ms.Reuter learns that she is not favored with the attentions of Crimsworth and his attachment to his dear pupil is more serious than what is acknowledged, she fires Frances out of her establishment. Ms. Reuter is married to Mr.Pelet and soon Crimsworth moves out, to find a position in another boarding school. Now he is free to call upon Frances to declare his love and she is happy to marry him. The novel follows a steady course from here with no major distractions or accidents. They establish a boarding school of their own of which Ms. Crimsworth is the directress and she proves equal to the task with her able and efficient administration winning the admiration of her teachers and the love and respect of her pupils. When they are provided well enough, to not think of dire times, they migrate to England to a place near —–shire of Mr.Hunsden. The long cherished desire of Frances Henri to be in England is thus fulfilled. The last few pages relate Crimsworth’s life of domestic happiness with his wife and son.
The novel is mostly a reflection of life in boarding schools probably drawing from Charlotte’s personal experience as a teacher in Brussels. We have portraits of naughty brats, snooping teachers, children from rich families going through the process of schooling and so on. The Professor is an uncomplicated novel with no mysteries or intrigues in it. The novelist may have reworked some of the themes and incidents of this novel into another fascinating novel ‘Villette’. The main interest in the novel is character portrayal which is in a way a testing ground for her more powerful later novels like ‘Jane Eyre.’ ( To be continued)