Jane Eyre Essay

Through a close reading of the selected passage of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, a reader can see that Jane attempts to separate herself from her decisions by personifying her emotions and giving them a specific voice, which strongly reflects the societal views of the time. At this point in the story, Jane has discovered, on her wedding day, that Mr. Rochester is still married to a woman named Bertha, and that woman still lives in his house. Distraught, Jane locks herself in her room and tries to decide what she should do. When she wakes up the next day, she is again confronted with what she needs to do in the wake of her discovery.

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).

Furthermore, Jane says “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself” (Chapter 27, Bronte.) This statement greatly represents the growth that Jane has undergone. She no longer dreads the solitude that once haunted her because she respects herself enough to realize that she did not deserve to experience such great dismay. Through independence and self-recognition, Jane has discovered the importance of loving oneself. Without the reliance on the thoughts of others, the once extremely troubled girl found bliss through a lack of outside control. In regards to her relationship with Mr. Rochester, Jane understands that she must leave him behind to maintain her own well-being. She does not allow the wealth or proclaimed love from Rochester to skew her decisions and she does not linger to dominate the life of her lover. Instead, she moves forward to continue her endless pursuit of happiness and independence.

This extract from Jane Eyre sees Brontë, in one sense, overturning the gender and social constructions of the mid-Nineteenth century. However, overwhelming, she reinforces that Rochester and Jane’s relationship is one of insurpassable inequality. Jane’s Confirming her view of female independence earlier in Chapter 12, ‘It is thoughtless to condemn [women] […] if they seek to do more or learn more,’ (Jane Eyre, p.95) Jane rises above the constraints of her status as a ‘poor, obscure, plain and little,’ woman, through her retort towards Rochester, where she condemns him, who is superior to her societally, for his behaviour towards her.

Charlotte Brontë’s nineteenth-century Victorian novel discusses the effects that gender has on male and female paradigms. Rochester was married to Bertha Mason, who is characterized as “the madwoman in the attic.” He locks his wife in the attic because he cannot control her disability and marries Jane Eyre, a young governess. Jane abandons Rochester at the altar because he lies about being married. However, Jane later returns when Rochester becomes disabled.

2. Bronte addresses the reader personally which signifies that something important is about to happen, and it does. Jane and Mr. Rochester have switched roles. Jane now can see while now Rochester can’t. This perfect role reversal emphasizes how it is possible to reach gender equality and how someone from a lower class can actually work their way up and get lucky and end up in a higher class while the opposite can happen to

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.

Man was Jane’s master; she had to obey him. They received a better education than women, even if they don’t deserve it, just like John Reed, who was a spoilt little brat, but was sent to school whereas his sisters stayed home. The only kind of work a woman could do was become a governess or a tutor, but they couldn’t take up any other job like men did. That is why Jane, and her cousins the Rivers, only looked for governess jobs, and never mentioned taking up any other kind. The problem is that women were only admired for their beauty. However, Bronte proved likewise when she described Jane as “small and plain.” Despite her plainness, Mr. Rochester fell for her, and St. John thought her to be a good missionary’s wife, and even turned down Rosamond Oliver for her. However, her lack of beauty is again and again emphasized throughout the course of the story. Of course, presently, we obtain a contrastive view on women. Women now are equals of men; they have the right to take up any job they like, and their beauty is important but do not make up everything. A person’s thoughts and ideas are what define their

Brontë further comments on social structure as even the distinct social classes are blurred. Mrs. Fairfax and Jane were forced to fit into society’s social classes, yet in the Rochester household, they are left in the middle of the low and high social class; they neither members of the family nor members of the serving class. Jane is left to question the qualities of each social class and if each are as enforced as they are said to be; people are forced to confine into their proper place in society, however, the distinctions from each class are constantly

Blanche is a beautiful woman, and Jane is aware of how the society and men rate women regarding how beautiful they are; beautiful women have a higher value than unattractive women. Beauty in a woman is regarded more important than intellect, because a woman was expected to be an ornament without much opinion (Andersson). When we find out that Rochester really loved Jane all along and that he wants to be with her all his life, Jane is overwhelmed with happiness and

As a result of the patriarchy of the times the dominance of Jane by Rochester is seen as love, but feels like a stranglehold to Jane who is suspicious of it. His love feels textbook, however, and Jane begins to feel as more of an accessory than a loved one. Charlottle Brontë’s novel “Jane Eyre” examines social cues, ghosts, and the societal binding of love in three volumes, in all of which show love as a tool rather than a meaning of expression. What becomes of love when one in constrained into it but loses their autonomy and simply becomes an object of heightened societal status? Mr. Rochester, in his demanding ideals of a perfect wife, attempts to mold Jane into an onrament of status rather than a woman that he loves.

Bronte’s feminist ideas radiated throughout her novel Jane Eyre. There were many strong and clear examples of these ideas in Bronte’s protagonist, Jane, her personality, actions, thoughts and beliefs. From the beginning of the book, Jane’s strong personality and her lack of following social expectations were quiet clear. “Women of the Victorian era were not part of a man’s world, as they were considered below them.”(VanTassel-Baska, 4) The class divisions between a man and a woman were very distinctive. Jane however ignored this. When Jane first met Rochester, the whole scene presented a feminist portrait of Jane. A women walking alone in that era should never address a man, but Jane went out of her way to help Rochester stating that “if you are hurt, I can help” (Bronte, 98), Jane even let him place a hand on her shoulder. Jane believed that “women were supposed to be very calm generally, but women felt just as men felt” (Bronte, 116), which showed her perseverance and persistence in being independent and proving that men should be equal to that of women. This was of

Wide Sargasso Sea was Jean Rhys’s effort to retell and complicate the unresolved character of Bertha Mason, the “lunatic creole” presented to us in Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel, Jane Eyre. Bronte’s Jane Eyre was one of the first feminist critiques of the Victorian era. It scandalised and shocked society by presenting the reader with an independent woman who defied societal ideals of self-control. Through her depiction of Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys responds to Bronte’s feminist stance through a post-colonial lens 119 years later. Both novels are feminist works, however each author approaches feminist concerns in a manner

The women in both novels endure a loss of personal freedom, both mental, and physical. Jane Eyre, in her blind infatuation with Mr. Rochester, allows her emotions to enslave her. She realizes her obsession when she states, "My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and

Firstly, Jane Eyre is a young woman who faces hardships with great determination. Raised by Mrs. Reed, a cruel aunt, she is sent