Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre tells the story of Jane’s growth and development as she searches for a meaningful existence in society. Author Faith McKay said, “No matter what your family happens to be like…it affects who you are. It matters.” Jane is an orphan, forced to battle a cruel guardian, a patriarchal society, and a rigid social order. (Anderson, “Identity and Independence in Jane Eyre”) Jane has concrete beliefs in what women deserve, as well as obtainable goals for how she imagines her place in society as a woman (Lewkowicz, “The Experience of Womanhood in Jane Eyre”) and with self-growth, Jane Eyre was able to define herself as well as equip herself with wisdom and…
During the Victorian Era, gender roles were of great significance in society. Men and women had specific duties and expectations due to the gender ideologies of the time. Victorian authors and poets like Charlotte Bronte and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and contemporary author Jasper Fforde utilize characters in their works to portray gender roles of the Victorian Era. However, rather than reflecting the true gender roles, the characters defy them. The incorporation of gender roles in pieces of literature reveals injustice within society and encourages change. Charlotte Bronte, author of Jane Eyre, contradicts gender roles in her work through her portrayal of protagonist Jane Eyre. In Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair, protagonist Thursday Next…
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…
Every topic in life can be portrayed as a controversial issue. There always have been two sides to every discussion and there always will be two sides. In the novel Jane Eyre, feminism is portrayed as the main controversial issue. In the early 19th century, women lived in a world that measures the likelihood of their success by the degree of their “marriageability”, which would have included their family connections, economic status and beauty. Women were also subject to the generally accepted standards and roles that society had placed upon them, which did not necessarily provide them with liberty, dignity or independence. This novel explores how Jane defies these cultural standards by her unwillingness to be defined by “marriageability”, unwillingness to submit herself to a man’s emotional power and her desire for independence while keeping her dignity.…
“Though restrained by social convention, the passions of the female characters emerge with great force.”…
In the Victorian era, men were more socially accepted because of their gender. They had more social power because society gave more trust, responsibility, and rank to men. The choices women made were based on the men they lived around. Males were the dependents of the woman’s future, whether it was as family, or workers. Yet this was the perspective of everyone, it was not always fair, nor true.…
When one is placed in a position of disadvantage, he is given two choices, either to accept his lowly status or to transcend his role in society. In Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Jane is motivated rather than discouraged by the various forms of oppression inflicted upon her and those around her and uses this motivation to rise to a position of both power and privilege, two things that she has lacked since birth.…
In the cases of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice and Emily Bronte's Jane Eyre, the ideals of romantic love are very much the same. In both 19th century novels, women's wants and needs are rather simplified. However, this could also be said for the roles and ideals of the male characters. While it was obvious that this era was responsible for a large amount of anti-female sexism in society and the economy, can it also be said that male-female partnerships were simplified from the male perspective?…
Bronte demonstrates her stance on feminism by creating characters that defy the stereotypical ideal woman during the Victorian era. Jane’s characterization opposed many desired virtues of the Victorian era because the ideal woman at the time was docile and selflessly devoted to her family as demonstrated in Patmore’s poem which reads, “ Man must be pleased, but him to please/ Is woman’s pleasure.” (Document E) As opposed to the character of Jane Eyre portrayed as a strong, stubborn woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind and has control of her own choices. Since she has no familial male figures present in her life, Jane has the opportunity to make autonomous decisions on what she wants, contradicting the standard rule of male ownership of…
Bronte critically challenges what was generally portrayed about women’s feelings and their emotions in the 19th century. Bronte’s view about women is that they “…are supposed to be very calm generally: but [they] feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do.” The use of first person, through Jane, articulates Bronte’s feelings directly as they happen, providing a more detailed and insightful response to readers. The way in which Bronte communicates her views about women’s feelings and their emotions, using very assertive language, would have evoked fiery debate among Victorian readers because the expected values of women in this time period would have involved them being emotionless and entirely dependent on their master’s, either being their father or husband.…
To varying degrees, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre addresses the expectations of gender roles presently common in Victorian novels during the nineteenth century. Even in modern day society, the view of man tends to be aggressive, dominative, and ambitious, while women are portrayed as emotional, subservient, and sometimes passive. Bronte's depiction of the stereotypical male and female roles are accurate, but she also displays how one's gender can be altered. Jane, the novel's protagonist, is a cookie-cutout of what was expected of women in Victorian times. She dresses simply, is submissive, and longs for a male counterpart. As the story progresses, Jane shys away from conformities, but her willfulness to remain abnormal is tested when she endures heart-wrenching situations.…
In Charlotte Bronte’s, “Jane Eyre” the concept of the ideal Victorian male is severely challenged. Characteristics of loyalty, honour, wealth, moral uprightness, and intelligence are seen to be a part of an equation that equals the ideal Victorian male. However, these distinctive characteristics are deemed unrealistic and through Jane’s narration questions can be raised as to if any of the male characters in Jane Eyre match the “ideal Victorian male”. Male characters depicted in the novel such as John Reed, Rochester and St John Rivers appear to be greedy, dishonest, hypocritical and inconsistent within their ways. They break the ideal Victorian male characteristics and by the end of the novel the characteristics of a feminine hero outshines the male characteristics to create a new type hero for the time period. However, all three male characters in the novel contribute in Janes’ journey from childhood to adulthood and her transformation into a strong, heroic woman.…
In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte portrays one woman 's desperate struggle to find her identity in the mist of temptation, isolation, and impossible odds. Although Jane may process a strong will to survive she still has to fight the forces of passion and reason within herself. When Jane Eyre was first published, it outraged many people at the time because of its realistic portrayal of life during that particular time. The controversy that surrounded the novel stemmed from the way Bronte challenged the roles of women, religion and mortality in the Victorian era.…
Terry Eagleton states the "Jane 's relationship with Rochester is marked by ambiguities of equality, servitude, and independence". By examining pertinent incidents in the text, the validity of this statement will be shown, and moreover, these ambiguities will be shown to be of Jane 's own doing. It will be shown that she is the one who constantly thinks herself to be inferior, and even when she is said to be Rochester 's equal, she thinks of some way in which she is inadequate, in order to sabotage her own happiness.…
Jane Eyre is a novel that represents critique of Victorian age assumptions about social classes and gender issues. In the nineteenth-century there was a belief that women and men belong in "separate spheres," each with its own responsibilities. The women were expected to devote her self to the repetitive tasks of domestic labor and to minister to the needs of others while the men work and brought money.…