The 19th century witnessed rapid development and reform across the country; with the industrial revolution transforming life in Britain. For working-class women, life was an endless struggle of passivity and work; as soon as they were old enough, they worked on farms, in factories or as servants in the middle classes (Lambert, 2009). For women in general, life was oppressive; constantly overshadowed by the male gender seen as dominant leaders. In a Victorian house, the man was the head of the family; his wife and children respected and obeyed him without question. This critical analysis of two 19th-century novels – Hard Times by Charles Dickens and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë – will discuss the depiction of the two female protagonists in the context of the Victorian period and question whether they indeed depict an endless struggle for survival and survival. independence. When it comes to representation, the way authors choose to portray their characters can have a big impact on their accessibility. A strong character foundation is the foundation of any credible novel. Arguably, for an allegorical novel – from which Hard Times takes its structure – Dickens uses an unusually complex character base. The characters in Hard Times combine both the simplistic characteristics of a character developed for allegorical purposes, as well as the concise qualities of “real” people (McLucas, 1995). These characters are depicted as thinking and feeling what we do as readers and reacting to their situation in the same way that most of us would. Such attributes are what bring characters to life and allow us to identify with their decisions. In Hard Times, Charles Dickens portrays Louisa Gradgrind...... middle of paper ......rd Times and Brontë in Wuthering Heights depict their protagonists as struggling to overcome oppression in order to survive as independent women. The struggles faced by women have similarities as well as contrasts to their literary counterparts. On the one hand, you have Louisa, corrupted by her father and never allowed to imagine or be free; and on the other, Catherine, corrupted by her own aspirations and social constraints. Although Catherine achieves, for a short time, a certain independence, she is destined to retain her traditional role as a passive and dependent woman; thus inevitably losing in his struggles. In contrast, Louisa faces similar struggles in the fight for survival of her curious mind; but she ultimately wins her battle against her "fact-loving" father and, in doing so, establishes herself as an individual..