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Autonomy In Jane Eyre Research Paper

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Jane Eyre: Champion of Autonomy Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre during the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era was a time of high standards for what women should and should not be. Women simply were not viewed as being passionate, or autonomous, and were more viewed as passive, inferior, domestic-beings. Charlotte Bronte created an alternate reality, through Jane Eyre, that challenged all of the pre-described Victorian Era standards for women's behavior. By creating a character that challenged autonomy and women's role, Bronte herself challenged the current views of female autonomy. After the people of the time saw the character Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte go against the standards for females, it caused the novel to become an example of female …show more content…

The rebellion against ideals is something Jane just happens upon. Often Jane stands against authority throughout Jane Eyre, most notably is her encounter with Mrs. Reed. Jane stands up to her aunt saying "you told Mr. Brocklehurst I had a bad character, a deceitful disposition . . . Deceit is not my fault" (Bronte 37). It is important to note that Jane reacts with a blatant disrespect for Mrs. Reed, she is simply standing against the wrong-doings. Yet still, at any cost, Jane is still defying an authority figure, which she even notices. Jane understood that "a child cannot quarrel with its elders" but it was simply something that she could no longer hold within herself. A rebellion of Victorian Era norms that happens frequently in Jane's time as a governess at Thornfield Hall is Jane's bluntness in her discussions with Mr. Rochester. In one instance Mr. Rochester asks Jane if she thinks he is attractive, and Jane plainly answers no. Once again after she speaks Jane understands that this is not the answer she should have given, she believes she should "have replied to this question by something conventionally vague and polite" (Bronte 131) yet it is something that slips out. In both of the previously described incidents, Jane undoubtedly opposes the standards for how women should act in

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