SOURCE: "Caroline Helstone's Eyes," in Brontë Society Transactions, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1961, pp. 18-28.

In the following essay, Tompkins looks at possible sources for the character of Caroline from among the author's family members and friends.

Two-thirds of the way through Shirley Caroline Helstone's eyes change from brown to blue. This is not an unparalleled phenomenon in a novel. In Shirley, however it is unexpected, for here Charlotte Brontë is much occupied with the looks of her characters. Here, for the only time, she gives herself two pretty girls as heroines, and she does not allow us to forget their charm. Her imagination lingers round their soft, rich hair, their slender grace, their muslins and silks, and their intelligent, sparkling eyes with that delight in feminine beauty which was mortified by her own appearance and denied satisfaction in her other heroines. It is in Chapter XXIII that Caroline first raises...