How Is Jane Eyre Changing Social Status

Throughout Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre is afflicted with the feud between her moral values, and the way society perceives these notions. Jane ultimately obtains her happy ending, and Brontë’s shrewd denouement of St. John’s fate juxtaposes Jane’s blissful future with St. John’s tragic course of action. When Jane ends up at the Moor House, she is able to discover a nexus of love and family, and by doing so, she no longer feels fettered to Rochester. Moreover, Rochester is no longer Jane’s only form of psychological escape, and thus Jane is in a position to return to him without an aura of discontent. At the end of the novel, Jane is finally able to be irrevocably “blest beyond what language can express” (Brontë 459) because she is “absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh” (459).

In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane is an orphan who is often mistreated by the family and other people who surround her. Faced with constant abuse from her aunt and her cousins, Jane at a young age questions the treatment she receives: "All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sister’s proud indifference, all his mother’s aversion, all the servants’ partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. Why was I always suffering, always brow-beaten, always accused, forever condemned?" (27; ch. 2). Despite her early suffering, as the novel progresses Jane is cared for and surrounded by various women who act as a sort of "substitute mother" in the way they guide,

In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane is an orphaned child that had to learn to fend for

In the early chapters of the novel Jane Eyre, our heroine resides at Gateshead and Lowood school; her character immediately inspires pity from the readers. She is an outcast within her own family, the Reeds, and is considered less than a servant. John Reed bullies her to the extent that she fears him, introducing weakness as one of her character flaws. Jane is somewhat jealous of her cousins’ lack of punishment and condemnation, although she believes they were “not fit to associate with [her]” (Bronte, 35). She feels wrongly accused, leading to a growing bitterness towards those who have treated her so harshly.

Othering is an anthropological term referring to the practice of intrinsically classifying people consciously or otherwise as inferior and alien to the social identity of one’s self. Edward Siad (1978) characterized othering as the western construction of non-western cultures as the other, as alien, distant, and irrational. This explores the idea that othering is a creation of the west to present itself at the top of the social hierarchy, against backwards, non-compatible, non western cultures that pose a threat to its social and cultural values. This characterization correlates with the Australian news medias conclusive othering of individuals of non-Christian faith, most predominantly in recent times, Muslims. This piece explores the way

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.

On June 4, I died. Well, metaphorically speaking. Let me rephrase that— I was reborn.

Throughout the novel, Jane is of a flexible social class; with each move to a new location throughout the plot, she experiences a different position in the social hierarchy. At the first location in the novel, Gateshead Hall, she is at an in-between point in the class system. She lives with the wealthy Reed family and gets to stay in their extravagant home, but she does not feel she belongs there because of her dependence on them. Her dependence is shown especially when Bessie, the nursemaid, tells her, “you ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poor-house” (Brontë 17). This illustrates Jane’s uncertain social class; she would have to go to the “poor-house” if Mrs. Reed decided to kick her out. However, she lives in the “rich-house” of Gateshead.

Furthermore, this demeaning and negative attitude Jane is exposed to is further instigated when her cousin, John Reed, expresses her situation by saying: "You have no business to take our books; you are a dependent, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us". The truth of Jane's unfortunate situation is expressed against her which results in her feeling no true support from this family and confides only in her childhood nursemaid- Bessie, who although behaves inconsistently and has “a capricious and hasty temper”, is the closest mother figure to her. Furthermore, the friction between Jane and John is further emphasised when the first physical aspect of violence is introduced to the reader through a graphic portrayal, further showing the ultimate rejection Jane experienced

As I left the patio, I thought about Dad’s friend, Luc. He was a hunter and a fisherman, and I asked him once why he didn’t have the bumper sticker ‘Guns don’t kill. People do.’ He said because it was a lie. Guns gave people the courage to commit crimes or kill. I told Samuel Luc’s story. He thought for a moment and said that’s why Americans fear gun laws. They’re afraid if they lose their guns, they will lose their courage.

Throughout Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë uses the character Jane as a tool to comment on the oppression that women were forced to endure at the time. Jane can be seen as representative of the women who suffered from repression during the Victorian period, a time when patriarchy was commonplace. Brontë herself was affected by the time period, because according to Wolfe, she was deprived “experience and intercourse and travel.” (70) Thus Jane offers a unique perspective as a woman who is both keenly aware of her position and yet trapped by it despite repeated attempts to elevate herself and escape the burden placed on by her different suitors. Although superficially it seems that Jane wants to break away from the relationships that further

The only time that a member of the Reed family speaks to Jane is when they are belittling her, hoping to further assert their elite dominance over the lower class. In one particular quarrel, John Reed, the oppressive “Roman emperor” and “slave driver,” throws a book at Jane’s head to physically proclaim his dominance over her, to which Jane responds by verbally firing back at his elitist oppression. (Brontë 13) The battle between the social classes concludes with Jane being banished to the horrifying red-room as punishment for attempting to overthrow the elite power, John Reed, even though John was the clear instigator of the scuffle. Jane is later condemned by the house servants for her attempt to overthrow her “young master.” Jane and John are both children, but due to the wealth and status of his parents, John is allowed to rule over Jane, making Jane, as the Gateshead servants would describe, “‘less than a servant’” because she does nothing for her keep. (Brontë 15) Jane continuously faces this maltreatment at Gateshead until an outburst directed towards Mrs. Reed causes her to be sent away to Lowood school, a place where Mrs. Reed hopes Jane will perhaps be taught to conform to the societal norm of how a young girl like Jane should act in

Despite the punishment, she has gained power to be able to stand up for herself against her abuse. Jane was treated different than the Reeds children, since she was no relation Mrs. Reed, didn’t feel like she had to treat her the same. Jane felt hopeless as if she was never going to be able to escape from the Reeds. (pg 68) “Never I thought ; ardently I wished to die.” Although when Jane goes to Thornfield to teach she feels like it is the most beautiful, delightful place she has ever been.

Charlotte Bronte created one of the first feminist novels--Jane Eyre--of her time period when she created the unique and feminist female heroine, Jane Eyre. Throughout the novel, Jane becomes stronger as she speaks out against antagonists. She presses to find happiness whether she is single or married and disregards society’s rules. The novel begins as Jane is a small, orphan child living with her aunt and cousins due to the death of her parents and her uncle. Jane 's aunt--Mrs. Reed--degrades her as she favors her biological children. Jane 's aunt--Mrs. Reed--degrades her as she favors her biological children. Her cousin--John Reed--hits her and then Mrs. Reed chooses to punish her instead and sends her to the room in which her uncle

Those living in the Victorian period,consider it normal to treat people with cruelty. As a child, Jane constantly faces oppression. Jane faces constant abuse while living with her aunt at Gateshead. Bronte illustrates this point through Mrs. Reed, the Aunt Jane is sent to live with, who says, “Take her away