Why Is Jane Eyre Still Relevant Today

Whether people believe it or not, social classes have always been a divider between different groups of people. Even if they aren’t as defined as they were one-hundred or two-hundred years ago they are still present in society today. People within the same class, most of the time economic, tend to live around, work or go to school with, and hang out with other people of the same class and that has always been that way; possibly even more so in the book Jane Eyre. Classes were even more separate than they are today when the book was written and published back in October of 1847. It was highly unlikely and even frowned upon if people from different classes interacted often and especially when they spoke out against the class systems. However, Jane was a different kind of person. She broke the mold and spoke out for herself when it wasn’t popular or could’ve gotten her in trouble. She even spoke out against men which was a big deal back in those days because
As Vanden Bossche put it in his analysis of the time and period and how it connects to Jane Eyre entitled “What Did "Jane Eyre" Do? Ideology, Agency, Class and the Novel” he said “when understanding the history of the nineteenth century as being driven by class interest, we can see class as one of the chief discursive formations through which the nineteenth century conducted political debate and sought to understand, manage, and come to terms with a diverse series of social conditions” (50). During the time period Jane Eyre was set in everything was revolving around what class someone was in. How they were treated, who they were allowed to interact with, and what they were allowed to purchase depended on one’s class. It makes sense Jane wanted to “rebel” against her class since she was in a lower one she was not given the same privileges as