Freedom In A Caged Bird

“Jane’s relationship with Rochester in the early part of the novel is based not on love but control, manipulation and secrecy. She does well to escape”

In Thornfield Eyre changes her mind set a lot. In the beginning she felt a sense of imprisonment. She describes it as pacing the corridors like a creature caged. She was longing for her freedom. She changed her mind set when she met Edward Rochester. He offered her a chance to liberate her passions. She knew she had feelings for Rochester, but also knew that as his mistress she would be giving up her dignity and integrity. Jane didn’t know if this is the freedom she wanted. She had always had this idea that she would respect her own dignity and never undergo it, but Rochester makes her want to choose her feelings over everything. She then meets a fellow named St. John Rivers who offers her different aspects then Rochester. He allows her to act willingly when she pleases and offers her to live and work with him in India. Jane Eyre soon realizes that either way she will feel imprisoned because with St. John Rivers she would have to keep her feelings in check. Eyre ended up choosing feelings over everything. She wanted to be with Rochester because she was in love with him. Jane Eyre has the happy ending with Rochester that she now knows she

Jane and Rochester officially meet at Thornfield, the day after his arrival, Rochester invites Jane for tea. His attitude towards Jane is abrupt and quite cold, although he is charmed by Jane's drawings. Jane feels unusually comfortable around

Once again, Jane changes setting and circumstance and into a world that is completely new to her experience. Thornfield is in the open country and Jane is free from restrictions on her movements. Jane has always lived within confining walls and even as a teacher at Lowood had to get permission to leave. She is still confined, in a sense, but now she is living with relative freedom, but as she will discover later, Jane is not equipped to live utterly free. Jane is an adult but to live she must be employed. . After Mr. Rochester arrives, Jane feels it is finally time to have a family of her own, but unwittingly, Jane becomes Mr. Rochester's mistress, not his wife. With that in mind Jane decides to leave Thornfield even though Rochester tries desperately to convince Jane to stay. At her stay at Thornfield, Jane learns what it feels like to be needed, by both Adele and Edward Rochester.

Hence, Bronte used bird imagery to imitate human behaviour and feelings, allowing a connection between emotions and nature; she also used Birds to describe Jane’s progression over time. However, in contrast the images Jane looks at are not of pretty birds, but bleak shorelines. Jane is like a bird, she longs to fly away, but she is not beautiful she is plain and bleak, and feels trapped like a caged bird.

We first encounter this relationship between Jane and Rochester during their first dramatic meeting. She encounters him when he falls off his horse and she is required to give him assistance. Jane’s first impression of his face is that ‘He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow’. This may portray the dimness in his face awaiting to be enlightened by a woman which, in this case Jane. Further on in this chapter, unaware of who he is, on her return home, Jane is amazed to discover that the gentleman she assisted in the road was her employer, Mr. Edward Rochester. Jane’s future relationship with Rochester is most clearly set out in their first meeting. Although without any money, reserved and socially dependent, Jane is not

When Jane enters Thornfield she thinks she is going to work for a woman named Mrs. Fairfax, but she does not. She works for a mysterious man name Mr. Rochester. This man is going to be an import aspect of Jane’s life. Jane works as a governess to a young girl named Adele. Jane encounters Mr. Rochester when she goes for a walk and runs into Rochester, whose horse is injured. After the encounter Jane and Rochester start to gain interest into each other. Mr. Rochester is a man with a large amount of money and Jane is a woman with very little money, the fact that she works for Mr. Rochester defies their unprofessional relationship. “Like governesses, these marriages between older men and younger women were viewed with great ambivalence during the Victorian period”(Godfrey). Both characters develop strong feelings for one another and become close to getting married but a discovery of a secret puts the marriage to a halt. After

Though Jane is well educated and possesses the etiquette and training of a person in upper class society, social prejudices limit her because she is simply a paid servant, in their eyes. While at Thornfield, Jane falls desperately in love with the owner of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester. Jane is Mr. Rochester’s intellectual contemporary, but her social status prevents her from being his true equal. In the novel, Jane proclaims, “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart!” (Bronte 637). After Mr. Rochester finally proposes, Jane is hesitant to marry him because she feels as if he would be lowering himself to marry her. This feeling greatly increases after Jane discovers he is married to Bertha Mason, and that he keeps her locked away in Thornfield’s attic due to her insanity. Mr. Rochester proposes that Jane becomes his mistress, which, according to Victorian society, would be more fitting since Jane is a plain governess. Jane realizes that she can never compromise her morals that way and leaves Thornfield. While on her own, Jane still strives to gain independence, discovers new kin, and learns she has a wealthy uncle who has left her a large inheritance. After her loneliness and longing for Mr. Rochester becomes too great, she returns to Thornfield. Jane is

In this dilemma, Mr. Rochester decides to keep Bertha a secret and continue to marry Jane as if Bertha didn’t exist, only for the fact to be made known on his wedding day. Once knowing this, Jane, feeling betrayed, leaves Thornfield and Mr. Rochester. Mr. Rochester’s actions brought him only hardship, and almost cost him the person he loved most.

A symbol that Angelou uses is a caged bird and a free bird to represent races. Even though it is not said in the poem it is quite obvious to the reader that the ‘free bird’ represents White Americans and the ‘caged bird’ represents African Americans. Throughout the poem Angelou carries out the extended metaphor to express her view on society. The way the free bird ‘claims to own the sky’ associates with the ideas of power and choice, this indicates an air of arrogance and selfishness as the White Americans assume that it is their place to own and dominate the world, despite others desires and needs. The metaphor “sky” relates to the society, power, riches, and privileges in the world. This contrasts with White Americans “owning” the world as

While Jane’s time at Gateshead demonstrated her immense sadness, Jane’s time at Thornfield reveals her sadness through depression, as it begins to evolve into anger and an internal struggle. Her correlation with madness and anger begins to appear when she goes into the attic. She states “I climbed the three staircases, raised the trapdoor of the attic, and having reached the leads looked out afar over sequestered field and hill, and along the dim skyline- that then I longed” (Bronte 114). Jane is trapped inside herself. She longs to escape from her emotions and internal struggles, yet cannot. The attic, the abode of Mr. Rochester’s insane wife, houses Jane’s emotions. She climbs up to the attic and views the world beyond it. She

“I am no bird and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will” (Bronte, Jane Eyre 293). In the Victorian time period Charlotte Bronte lived the unequal life as a woman, like many others. The only difference is Bronte did not believe in living in inequality, and she wrote about her hardships in her literature. In her book, Jane Eyre, the reader can see many similarities in her main character’s life and her own. Jane Eyre has many ways of showing how Victorian women were expected to be and act, included in the life of Jane. Bronte also continues her portrayal of the inequality of women and the decision of love versus autonomy through two of her poems, “Life” and “The Wife’s Will.” Charlotte Bronte displays the inequality in life of women in the Victorian era by taking her life and revitalizing it into themes of her works, by providing a journey of discovery of love or autonomy.

The poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou tells the story of two birds: one bird has the luxury of freedom and the second bird lives its life caged and maltreated by an unknown tyrant. Maya Angelou wrote this poem during the Civil Rights Era, the period when black activists in the 1950’s and 1960’s fought for desegregation of African Americans. This poem parallels the oppression that African Americans were fighting during this time period. In “Caged Bird”, Angelou builds a strong contrast that shows the historical context of discrimination and segregation through the use of mood, symbolism, and theme.

Towards the end of the book, Rochester redeems himself to be made worthy for Jane. When Jane leaves Rochester, he is left with his mentally insane wife. Although, we have the impression that Rochester is a cold, harsh man, Charlotte soon portrays us that he is brave and is kind. We know this because, soon after Jane leaves, Bertha sets Thornfield Hall on fire, and then tries to jump off the roof. Rochester tries to stop her,

Perhaps as a result of her upbringing, which was full of cruelty and abuse, Jane developed a strong sense of what was right and what was wrong. As a child, these traits translated to insolence as she disobeyed and spoke out against the wrongdoing of adults that were so used to children being seen and not heard, resulting in Mr Brocklehurst warning her that “wicked” children go to hell . However, her moral compass develops and as an adult Jane begins to relish her own freedom and independence. She has been under other people’s care for so long – for example Mrs Reed, Miss Abbot and Mr Brocklehurst – that when she is able to start anew at Thornfield she values her ability to control her own life and does not wish to become a possession of Mr Rochester. This can be seen when Mr Rochester takes her to Millcote to buy new dresses following their engagement and her cheek “burned with a sense of annoyance and degradation” as she “never [could] bear being dressed like a doll by Mr Rochester” , and would value the money from her uncle in Madeira as it would give her a sense of independence from Mr Rochester. Her desire for independence and freedom is further stressed when she leaves Thornfield following the