Jane Eyre is a young orphan child, smart and independent in nature and sadly mistreated in her new home. She is outwardly emotional towards her caretaker Mrs. Reed. Her disagreement with her unfair treatment is seen as very disrespectful even though it might be quite just.
Jane Eyre’s acting out is highly disapproved of by Lowood’s owner, Mr. Brocklehurst. Brocklehurst seems to have very strong feelings towards following the Bible, yet might not do so himself. He demands the students at Lowood dress and act modestly, unlike himself and his family. Girls are punished for having their hair curled or done in anyway, while Brocklehurst’s own daughter and wife have their hair curled every time they visit the school. Besides being hypocritical towards appearance, he also barely feeds the girls enough food to live. Mr. Brocklehurst himself would never eat as little as the children do, yet he finds it completely fair to feed them little since they are “suffering in the name of the lord” which will make their character strong in the future.
Bronte let’s the reader see into the society of this time, through the interactions each character has with each other. The reader can understand that class was of utmost
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Not only are looks and appearances important to determining class, so is everything anyone says. Because of Jane Eyre’s mouth, the reader can see how important respectful behavior was in that time. Jane Eyre, even though not one, is expected to behave like a servant. When she does not agree with this she is thrown into the red room and put away in Lowood. The way a person dresses and acts is most important to that time, everything counted on it. The way a person dressed showed everything about them and the way they spoke just proved it. Jane Eyre is forced to live in this strange and somewhat cruel society, which the reader learns more about with every
Even though Jane faces limits to opportunities in her life because she strictly belongs to neither the upper nor poor class, her thinking isn’t limited and she is able to grow as an individual unlike the characters who have been assigned to a specific class. Through Jane’s point of view, Charlotte Brontë expresses her view that the class system is harmful Jane and thus to the society in which she lives in her novel Jane Eyre.
The novel Jane Eyre is about a young lady who was treated unfairly and all she really wanted was happiness and kindness. Many characters get introduced in this novel and many of them change, but Jane Eyre would have to be the one who changes the most. She doesn’t change in a physical way, but her mind set changes. Throughout the novel Eyre becomes frustrated, hopeless, and open minded.
In the first few opening chapters Jane Eyre is seen as a mentally and physically abused child, during her years at Gateshead Hall. John Reed displays violence towards Jane in the first chapter. He punishes and bullies Jane; it is not known why the Reed family resent her so much. Her situation is seen as desperate within the first few paragraphs. Her cousins and Aunt make her life impossible and unbearable, she is not seen as a member of the family. Jane is simply seen as ‘’less than a servant’’ as she does ‘’nothing for her keep’’.
Chapter seven sees Jane slightly more experienced to the ways of Lowood School. She has come to accept the poor conditions laid down by Mr. Brocklehurst, however has not yet learnt to ignore them and Bronte describes Jane suffering a lot in this chapter. This lack of food and appalling living conditions are down to the head of the school, Mr. Brocklehurst. This man uses his apparent strong beliefs in Christianity as an excuse to provide the children of Lowood with the absolute bare minimum. Brocklehurst claims his “mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh”, presenting the idea that perhaps Brocklehurst is simply a man that has a immensely firm grasp of his
In chapter six of Jane Eyre, Jane, the protagonist, is humiliated and falsely-accused before an audience of students and teachers at Lowood, a charity school where young girls are taught the fundamentals of a vain-less life. Mr. Brocklehurst, a clergyman and the school's proprietor, speaks sharply to Miss Temple, the superintendent, scolding her for treating the students to bread and cheese twice in a fortnight, as their burnt porridge proved far less than edible; his creed states that the modest and unelaborate ways of life lead to Salvation. Hands trembling as she shields her face with her chalk slate, Jane fears Mr. Brocklehurst’s eye might catch hers, then possibly lead to a discussion of her supposedly fiendish character. Her Aunt, Mrs.
In the novel Jane Eyre, the author Charlotte Bronte displays the main character Jane as someone who goes against the grain in societal values, roles, and constructions. In Terry Eagleton's essay "Jane Eyre's Power Struggles", he sees internal conflict within the book as she attempts to sort out social class barriers and gender role conflicts. As Jane goes through life she has many challenges starting at a young age with both her parents being dead and raised in a house where she is not loved or wanted, Jane is sent away to a school for poor orphan girls. The book was written in a the Victorian time period where one's status in society was determined by what class they were born into. Going astray from the norm, Jane opposes the caste system
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is presented in the Victorian Period of England. It is a novel which tells the story of a child's maturation into adulthood. Jane's developing personality has been shaped by her rough childhood. She has been influenced by many people and experiences. As a woman of her time, Jane has had to deal with the strain of physical appearance. This has a great effect on her mental thinking and decision making. Jane Eyre's cognitive and physical attributes have been affected by her environment throughout her life.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë depicts the rigid social structure and clear division between the upper and lower classes of Victorian society, in which wealth and status determined one’s beliefs, career, and treatment from those surrounding them. Those of the upper class did not typically converse or involve themselves with those viewed as beneath them; however, Jane Eyre fights the separation between the classes to which she has fallen victim at both Gateshead and Lowood school. Her refusal to conform to the hierarchy eventually leads to the meddling between the Victorian-era elite and peasant class, as seen through Jane Eyre’s romantic relationship with Edward Rochester, an upperclassman and
In its simplest form, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre tells the story of a young woman, Jane Eyre, who grows up poor, makes the decision to be independent, does so, and, eventually, marries rich. The novel follows her from her childhood to her reunion with the love of her life and she, throughout it, deals with classism and sexism and exhibits her own form of feminism. By the end, it becomes clear that, with this semi-autobiographical novel, Charlotte Bronte was providing a criticism on society’s discrimination toward those of a lower class, a subtle argument against the male-dominated society’s treatment of women, and an even subtler call to action for women to find their own agency outside of the men in their lives. On another end, however,
Readers learn early in the story that Jane Eyre does not fit contemporary society's idea of a proper woman. As a child, Jane stands up to her aunt, Mrs. Reed, on more than one recorded occasion when Jane feels she has been treated unjustly (Brontë 28, 37). At one point, Jane bluntly tells her aunt, "I declare, I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed [Jane's cousin]" (37). This was at best improper behavior for a child in Victorian society, and it was most definitely seen as improper by Mrs. Reed who grows to hate Jane, calling her "tiresome, ill-conditioned" and "scheming" (26). But her aunt's reprimands and hatred do not deter Jane from speaking up in the face of injustice.
The coercive and autocratic men in Jane Eyre’s life have caused her suffering, despair, and resentment through the oppressive and dominating nature of their actions specifically, John Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and St. John Rivers. By virtue of being the sole male in the Reed household, as well as his mother’s darling, John Reed is in a position to persecute Jane. He leverages this advantage to torment Jane as evidenced in the 2011 adaptation of the film when John, brandishing a sword, seeks out his cousin hiding behind a curtain and exclaims, “That book belongs to me Rat” (Fukunaga, Jayne Eyre), then he hits her in the head with the book, causing a wound on the side of her head. Once at Lowood school Jane must endure more oppression at the hands of a dominant male. Mr. Brocklehurst, who began his persecution of Jane in the Reed household, continues this practice as the symbol of male authority within Lowood School. Brocklehurst, considers it his duty to see that the girls
Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte explore social class in a number of different ways throughout their novels Pride and the Prejudice and Jane Eyre. They do this through the use of stylistic devices which in turn appeals to their different audiences. Both Jane and Charlotte are notable writers for their remarkable texts. Jane Austen is known for playing a revolutionary role in the generation of English female literature, which was counteracted by this piece- and Charlotte Bronte also developed her feminist thoughts, which have been displayed throughout her novels. By analysing social class in Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre this essay will compare these two women writers’ texts and display how social class is presented
Jane Eyre’s life was full of oppression, neglect and sorrow. The novel was formed around a few main ideas. One of those would be the search of love and acceptance. Jane wanted to find a family so desperately and she wanted to belong to people. More than this though, Jane wanted to be treated equally. She was denied equality because of her social status, her income,her lack of “beauty” and most of all because of her gender. The book Jane Eyre shows the struggle that women face while attempting to overcome oppression and inequality in the Victorian era.
The novel in which Jane Eyre stars in can be seen criticizing many aspects of those times such as the role and nature of women, child negligence and social hardships for those in a lesser class. Jane Eyre’s alienation from society allows for a greater reveal of the story’s culture, values, and assumptions. It’s presented through the use of gender, class and character conflicts throughout the story. On multiple occasions, Jane is judged for the presented factors reflecting the type of society Jane lives in and what the times were like at that time.
“Little Girls with dreams become women with vision” (unknown). This quote expresses Jane’s entire life in the novel Jane Eyre written by the author Charlotte Brontë. The main character that is discussed in this book is Jane Eyre and she is trying to find herself despite being recognized as less than everyone else solely based on her gender and her poor place in nineteenth-century’s social class. Gender inequality is world wide problem with no end, dating back to the civil rights period to the present day. Mrs. Reed, John Reed, Mr Brocklehurst and Ms. Blanche Ingram, as well as many others are a prime example for this issue. For the reason being that they allow others’ mainly her son to not only treat her with disrespect but also torment Jane as well.