Feminism In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte wants the readers to be able to have insight about what it was like growing up as a female during this era. In my analysis of the book, I found that the novel did a great job portraying what it is was like for women to grow up in the era that the book takes place in. Women is this period of time were treated with disrespect, and were forced to be a typically housemaid and were not allowed to have real jobs. When Jane Eyre was growing up, she was often shunned by her aunt and cousins and was taken into rooms to be locked in with no one else. In my opinion, this shows how poorly women, young girls in particular, were treated. In addition to women being treated incompetently, they also had far less personal
“Helen Burns represents a christian ideal that Jane admires but does not aspire to. Jane, with her intense awareness of self and her fierce sense of justice, could never adopt Helen’s attitude of resignation and forgiveness,” (Yuen 1). In my opinion, this statement is false because I feel that Jane eventually learns how to forgive and that she will soon start to aspire to be like Helen. For example, when she goes back to her dying aunt, even though the aunt treated her very poorly. “ Love me, then, or hate me, as you will, you have my full and free forgiveness,”(Bronte 257). A statement that I agree with in her essay is, “Through these experiences and vicissitudes Jane’s personality becomes more withdrawn, so that from the solitary child she grows into the quiet, grave young women,”(Yuen 1). I agree with this statement because when Jane was young, she was often shunned and despised by her family, but as she, she became more independent.“ I did not wish either car or carriage to meet me at Millcote. I proposed to walk the distance quietly by myself,”(Bronte 261). This quote shows how she wanted to travel by herself quietly. Through her experiences, she becomes quiet with her thoughts and becomes