In the following excerpt, the journals and letters of late eighteenth-century governess Agnes Porter are discussed. Comparisons are made between Porter's experiences and those portrayed in Jane Austen's fiction.

In the following essay, Poovey focuses on the vast amount of attention given to the “plight” of the governess during the 1840s and 1850s, examining such factors as social stability, the Victorian notion of the domestic ideal, and the increasing economic independence of women.

In the following essay, Hughes provides an overview of governess life, discussing the oftentimes tumultuous relationship between the governess and the mother, the bond a governess might share with her students, and the typical subjects a governess was expected to teach.

In the following essay, Mangum explores how the grotesque, abusive, powerful, and gender-ambivalent governesses in Le Fanu's short stories and novels challenge traditional patriarchal authority and threaten domestic order.

In the following essay, Clarke offers a history of the Female Middle Class Emigration Society and an overview of the more than three hundred female emigrants who were sponsored by the Society and sent overseas to seek employment as governesses.

In the following essay, Peterson considers the role of the governess within the Victorian middle-class family, focusing primarily on the incongruencies inherent in the notion of “employed gentlewoman.”

In the following excerpt, Renton contends that regardless of the qualifications of the governess, most employers treated her with disrespect and considered her simply a “superior servant.”

In the following essay, Bell focuses on what she describes as Jane's intense desire for independence, which the critic argues is the heroine's prime “social fault.”

In the following excerpt, Renton discusses the difficulties governesses faced with their social standing within the family as well as frequently unfavorable working conditions and inadequate pay.