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Blanche Dubois Research Paper

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On that account, another important aspect that the novel brings to our attention is the way in which women were becoming objects of display. Again Blanche’s example epitomizes the upper-class women that Victorian society was encouraging: “Creatures so absorbed in care about their pretty faces, and their white hands, and their small feet”, considered to be their “legitimate appanage and heritage!” (Brontë, 340), that made them give no second thoughts to their role as free, intellectual human beings. These were the expectations of nineteenth-century aristocratic women, and as Brontë clearly points out, Blanche embodies perfectly such qualities that endeavor her to become an object. Her time at Thornfield was never spent with productive activities that would enrich the mind, such as reading or writing, but in idle amusements. Constantly we see how Blanche exhibits her qualities and value through forms of self-display, so as to make herself more attractive to men: “both her words and her air seemed intended to excite not only the admiration, but the amazement of her auditors: she was evidently bent on striking them as something very dashing and daring indeed.” (Brontë, 339) In such manner, we notice how through the upper-class society described in Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë is painting an eloquent image of the …show more content…

Brontë shapes her female character in such a way that she deals with her “hunger, rebellion and anger” (Gilbert and Guber, 1979: 360), without entering into a visible conflict with society. Thus, Jane does not openly challenge the Victorian patriarchal system, because she knows how to encompass the imposed standards without letting them run her

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