Canine Agency and Its Mitigation in the Characterization of Dogs in the Novels by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë

As is well known to scholars of the life and work Brontë novelists, Charlotte, Emily Anne had three family dogs, Grasper, Keeper Flossy. Less well-known fact that they included dogs in all seven their novels. best on both counts, for her great bond with Keeper, importance Wuthering Heights (1847), but also possibility she may have held views about what can broadly be described as ‘human-animal equivalence’, a topic interest current Animal Studies. In this article, I consider how novels are characterized, through naming attribution sentience, particular terms agency attributed them language narrator other human characters, including relation cognition. While there evidence aplenty, from sharp linguistic focus shows cognition often mitigated. does not stand out sisters respect. This characterization fictional by authors offers something challenge notion dog-human binary.