Jane Eyre Critical Analysis

     Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a coming-of-age story about an unconventional woman's development within a society of strict rules and expectations. At pivotal moments in Jane's life, she makes choices which are influenced by her emotions and/or her reason. Through the results of those choices, Jane learns to balance passion and practicality to achieve true happiness.

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.

Jane Eyre is a young orphan being raised by Mrs. Reed, her cruel, wealthy aunt. A servant named Bessie provides Jane with some of the few kindnesses she receives, telling her stories and singing songs to her. One day, as punishment for fighting with her bullying cousin John Reed, Jane’s aunt imprisons Jane in the red-room, the room in which Jane’s Uncle Reed died. While locked in, Jane, believing that she sees her uncle’s ghost, screams and faints. She wakes to find herself in the care of Bessie and the kindly apothecary Mr. Lloyd, who suggests to Mrs. Reed that Jane be sent away to school. To Jane’s delight, Mrs. Reed concurs.

Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre embraces many feminist views in opposition to the Victorian feminine ideal. Charlotte Bronte herself was among the first feminist writers of her time, and wrote this book in order to send the message of feminism to a Victorian-Age Society in which women were looked upon as inferior and repressed by the society in which they lived. This novel embodies the ideology of equality between a man and woman in marriage, as well as in society at large. As a feminist writer, Charlotte Bronte created this novel to support and spread the idea of an independent woman who works for herself, thinks for herself, and acts of her own accord.

In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the relationships Jane has with the male characters demonstrates her coming of age from dependence to independence because Jane begins by rebelling against John and Mr. Brocklehurst, she leaves Mr. Rochester, and denies St. John’s proposal. Jane’s acts of rebellion against John Reed shows that she is tired of being dependent on him and his family. Also, by showing signs of rebellion to Mr. Brocklehurst when she first is interviewed to see if the school Lowood is the right place for her shows that she yearns for independence. Jane’s standing up to Mr. Rochester by leaving him shows that she is not dependent on him. Jane’s refusal of St. John’s proposal shows that she is an independent woman who can do things for herself. Considering the connection between the men in Jane’s life and her coming of age from dependence to independence, it is important to analyze her first show of instability with John Reed and Mr. Brocklehurst.

The novel is structured in two parts where the beginning is in the form of a flashback of Jane Eyre as a ten year old and then continues through Jane’s life rapidly to where she is now 31 years old. As a child, Jane was mistreated and verbally abused by her non-blood related aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her wicked children. One of the two maids of the house, Bessie, sympathizes for Jane and cares for her personally. Jane is sent to solitude in the “red-room” when she is “bad” and is forced to sit alone in the room her kind uncle passed away in. When her horrid cousin, who is much bigger than her, throws her book at her head, Jane retaliates and is able to hurt him to the point

Brontë consciously incorporates elements of fairy tales and Gothic fiction in her novel. In Jane Eyre, a young woman meets mysterious man and lives in his haunted mansion. His prison-like home is the manifestation of a dark secret surrounding its owner and his first wife, who represents the dark side of the young heroine. Jane Eyre reminds readers of fairy tales like “Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast.” For instance, Jane grew up with the archetypal evil stepmother, Mrs. Reed, and is mistreated as a child. Nevertheless, she possesses a kind heart; Jane accepts Mr. Rochester for who he is and encourages his development into a redeemed prince. Brontë can be credited with inventing many of the archetypes of the popular romantic mythos, even

Although authors’ life histories are not the main line in literary works, the epitomes of authors’ experience are always found in story lines of novels. Through subjectively designing characters of figures and plot development, authors show their personalities, values and views of life in their works, and consequently form the souls of characters and heighten the gist of the works. Virtually, the viewpoints of literary works are formed during this process. Jane Eyre, a typical novel with obvious autobiographic feature, is the master work of Charlotte Bronte, a famous English authoress in the 19th century. Being an authoress with strong feminist consciousness, the feminist characters and thoughts of Charlotte have significant influences on her

“… 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, and eat the same meals we do, and wear cloths at our mama’s expense,” prophesied John Reed to his family’s only “dependent,” or rather, burden—Jane Eyre (Brontë 10). In Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, the bildungsroman tale of Jane starts after the Reeds could no longer phantom keeping her as a ward. Consequently, Mrs. Reed exported Jane to an orphanage at Lowood—a so called motherly gesture to abjure all the luxuries John ascribed Jane stealing from the Reeds. Moreover, where Mrs. Reed’s motherhood ended—Lowood; Jane’s orphanhood began because her new friend Helen Burns and superintendent

Is social class something that can be altered, Jane Eyre? The novel is written by Charlotte Brontëand the main characters within the novel are Jane Eyre, Mr.Rochester, The Reed’s and Blanche Ingram.This story tells the tale of a lowly orphan raising herself up the social ladder.The theme of the story is social class and how people are viewed for their different backgrounds like Jane Eyre was when she was with the reeds or when she first saw Mr.rochester or when she compared herself to Blanche Ingram.

stumbles upon the Rivers. Throughout her time at the Moors house, she develops bonds with

Parallel to many of the great feministic novels throughout literary history, Jane Eyre is a story about the quest for authentic love. However, Jane Eyre is unique and separate from other romantic pieces, in that it is also about a woman searching for a sense of self-worth through achieving a degree of independence. Orphaned and dismissed at an early age, Jane was born into a modest lifestyle that was characterized by a form of oppressive servitude of which she had no autonomy. She was busy spending much of her adolescent years locked in chains, both imaginary and real, as well as catering to the needs of her peers. Jane was never being able to enjoy the pleasures and joys that an ordinary and independent child values. Jane struggles

Jane Eyre, the main character, is an orphan with a strong sense of self-righteousness. During the Victorian Era, orphans were common, so much so that orphanages were “overflowing: even their waiting lists were full” (Banerjee, August 22, 2007). This was primarily due to epidemics such as typhus, which was the disease that took the lives of Jane’s parents. If they were lucky enough, many orphans were spared from the overcrowded orphanages and “taken in by other branches of their family, with various degrees of willingness.” (Banerjee, August 22, 2007). After her parents pass away, Jane is taken in by her uncle on her mother’s side Mr. Reed, who is very wealthy and treats her very well. He actually showed more love for Jane than he did his own children, which caused conflict between Jane, her aunt and cousins. When he was sick and in his deathbed he had Jane “brought continually to his bedside and

Jane Eyre is a story of a quest to be loved. Jane searches, not just for romantic love, but also for a sense of being valued and belonging. However, this search is constantly hindered by her need for independence. She starts of as an unloved orphan who is desperate to find love and a purpose. For example, Jane says to Helen, “to gain some real affection from you, or Miss Temple, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse, and let it dash its hoof at my chest”. However, over the course of the novel, Jane learns to gain love without harming herself in the process. Although she is despised by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, she finds parental figures throughout the book. Miss Temple and Bessie care for Jane and give her love and guidance. However, Jane does not feel as though she has found

De Keukelaere, a respected literary criticist, defines “deviated transcendancy” as idolatry that detracts from the relationship between the subject and God. Especially in the Victorian era, God was mandated to be the main focus of a life lived well. Those who put others before Him were shunned as heathens, and not given the “happily ever after” that the godly women did. Jane, in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, places her love of Rochester above her love and devotion to God, which drags her down a spiral of despair. According to Katherine Bubel’s “Transcending the Triangle of Desire: Eros and the ‘Fulfillment of Love’ in Middlemarch and Jane Eyre”, this idolation of Rochester is why Jane’s life takes the plunges it does, as her transcendancy to a higher state of living is threatened by her devotion to the metaphysical. The “imprisonment of triangular desire”, as Bubel claims, is trapping Jane, Rochester, and St. John, and in order to have a healthy relationship with Jane they all, Jane included, must “ren[ounce] deviated transcendancy” (Bubel 296). While Bubel is correct in that the relationships between both Jane and Rochester and Jane and St. John are strained due to their obsessions with possessing her as their own, I do not concur with the conclusion that this is due to a lack of morality; rather that the selfish motivations of both Rochester and St. John are deleterious to Jane’s psyche and prey upon