preview

Inequality In Jane Eyre

Good Essays

“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. To start, Charlotte Bronte experienced many hardships from a young age, and rather than letting them hinder her, she grew from them. Bronte experienced loss at a young age, losing her mother and two of her sisters, and she illustrated almost the exact same loss through Jane and Helen at Lowood (Bock). She effectively portrays her life’s setbacks through her works in which we can see many of her misfortunes paraphrased into Jane’s own. In Jane Eyre, Jane was sent to the school, Lowood, where they believe in “plain fare, simple attire, unsophisticated accommodations, (and) hardy and active habits” to teach young girls how to conform to society’s views (Bronte 42). Charlotte Bronte herself was sent to Cowan Bridge to learn how to present herself in any situation a lady may come to, and the school basically taught women how to become governesses and teachers because that’s all they could be, much like in the book (Bock). Bronte went through tough times in her life, but readers know how well she used those tough times to influence her work and end up finding a will to live through her writing. For example, in “The Wife’s Will” when the wife is talking about her hard times, making her cry, she states how the tears never lasted that long with the help of her husband (Bronte). This can be taken as a poem Bronte wrote

Get Access