The passage from Bronte's Shirley is downright brutal in two respects. First, Mrs. Hardman has a cold blooded, perfectly self conscious and unashamed understanding that the employer of a governess is exploiting the poverty of a woman who has been brought up in the genteel class but fallen out of it economically. Second, it points up that the governess must be kept firmly repressed because she is a sexual anomaly in the household. She is a "tabooed woman," barred from social intercourse with the men of the household, because the combination of genteel appearance and education, proximity, and economic dependence makes her a standing threat to lure one of the sons into an unsuitable marriage and a standing temptation to sexual misconduct by the sons or the husband. Under the double standard, of course, she would be blamed for any misbehavior by the men even if she were coerced into it.

It is simple enough why the servants would have "detested" a governess. Her genteel accent and manners put a barrier between her and them; coupled with the fact of her dependency, they make her appear pretentious, snobbish and above her self to the servants' hall.