Jane Eyre vs. Great Expectatio

In the novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre experiences many important stages of her life. To begin, her upbringing under her aunt, Mrs. Reed’s, care at her house, Gateshead. Secondly, her schooling at the Lowood School. Then, her work as governess and her affair with the master, Mr. Rochester, at Gateshead. Next, her life at the home of St. John Rivers, her cousin, and finally her life as Mr. Rochester’s wife. All of these stages had profound effects on Jane’s life, but three in specific forced her to face certain challenges that would shape the progression of her life. Throughout these stages, Bronte uses certain literary techniques to amplify and comment on

Brontë demonstrates Jane’s desire for love romantically while not compromising her autonomy as she proactively declines marriages from both Mr.Rochester and St. John

Jane Eyre is a classic in English literature written by Charlotte Brontë. This book establishes a success woman who is living independently, seeking personal freedom, advocating equality of life and not lowering head to fate. The book narrates Jane Eyre’s life chronically in Gateshead, Lowood, and Thornfield, discussing the formation of character. Initially Jane left from Gateshead to Lowood to avoid unfair family education, and then she met Mr. Rochester in Thornfield. After that she ran away to a rural primary school and finally returned to Thornfield to achieve happiness. She is a common girl came up with the dream of pursuing a new and equal life since she was dissatisfied with the reality of injustice. Jane Eyre went through all difficulties and eventually made her dream come true.

     Jane's search continues at Thornfield. She has now matured into a young adult, and finds her life as agoverness rather dull and limited. She lacks a sense of fufillment and finds limited affection from Adele and Mrs.Fairfax. When Jane first encounters Mr. Rochester, the focus of her life shifts. Jane becomes nervous about exposing her hidden feelings for Mr.Rochester as she is unsure about his feelings towards her. She shields her inner feelings from Mr. Rochesters manipulative way of conversation. Jane secretly loves Mr. Rochester but feels that she physically lacks the qualities to act upon her feelings. This is evident during when Jane looks into the mirror at Thornfield and describes herself. She is furthur discouraged by Mr. Rochester's shceme with Blanche Ingram. It comes to Jane as a surprise when Mr. Rochester begs of her love and marriage.

Have you ever read the first chapter of the book and decided right away whether you were going to enjoy that book or not? After reading chapter one of the three novels Emma, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre the one that grabbed my attention and left me wanting to know more was Jane Eyre. The three novels had similarities and differences between tones and writing styles. All of the novels began with a conflict for the characters. Each protagonist is faces with a situation of concern that affects them.

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.

Terry Eagleton states the "Jane 's relationship with Rochester is marked by ambiguities of equality, servitude, and independence". By examining pertinent incidents in the text, the validity of this statement will be shown, and moreover, these ambiguities will be shown to be of Jane 's own doing. It will be shown that she is the one who constantly thinks herself to be inferior, and even when she is said to be Rochester 's equal, she thinks of some way in which she is inadequate, in order to sabotage her own happiness.

After finishing chapter 27, I feel that Jane is making the right choice. Yes she may be tormented and saddened right now but if she stayed she would have had to deal with the mental guilt of only being a mistress. Jane is a religious woman, and has morals she is obligated to withhold; these morals would be pointless if she had stayed there, she would have eventually become angry with herself for living a lie.

Even before the crisis surrounding Bertha Mason, Jane is hesitant to marry Rochester because she senses that she would feel indebted to him for “condescending” to marry her. Jane’s distress, which appears most strongly in Chapter 17, seems to be Brontë’s critique of Victorian class

Rochester builds her character by forcing her to endure romantic hardship. Despite her strong romantic feelings, she decides that she must stay away from him. Earlier, when Jane is a young child living without anyone to care for, she reasons, “Human beings must love something” (Brontë 28). This heartfelt sentiment gives the reader insight into how important it is for Jane to show affection towards someone. Later, when the first potential object of her romantic love becomes Mr. Rochester, her choice to restrain her feelings for him demonstrates a large amount of self-discipline, due to this pre-established need to give away affection.

The relationship between Jane and Rochester, in Jane Eyre is an intriguing, captivating and unconventional one, right from their first meeting. Throughout the novel, Bronte conveys the struggles in which Jane is faced with, in order to have a genuine loving and equal relationship with Rochester, without betraying her own personal beliefs and principles. Also the issues of social class standing, social rules, gender roles and religion in the nineteenth century Victorian culture present as obstacles to Jane in her quest. Jane finds a companion in Rochester who can offer her the love, acceptance and sense of belonging she so yearns for. However Jane must find a way around the issues I have presented, which are a result of Victorian attitudes

However, money is not the issue in Jane and Rochester’s relationship, Jane is not a wealthy woman and also lacks Antoinette’s beauty, so we can gather that Rochester proposes to her because of something other than material gain. He comes to treat Jane as an equal, holding complex and open conversations with her, something that was relatively unusual in Bronte’s era. This is reflected in Bronte’s feminist lexis that sets the historical context of a Victorian woman’s place in society and is voiced in Jane’s passionate plea, ‘Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel’[7]

Also, even though Rochester and Jane were of different classes, Charlotte Bronte presents him as an intelligent person. Both Edward and Jane enjoy conversations with each other. However, Jane does not express her feelings as clearly as Rochester does. So he dresses up as a gypsy and tries to find out what she thinks of the marriage, which everyone assumes that he will with Blanche. Although, both Jane Eyre and Rochester have are fond of each other, Edward was deceitful to Jane. For example, when Jane found out about Mr Rochester’s first wife, he first says that they can run away as ‘brother and sister’. However Jane refuses. Rochester tries another tactic and asks her to be his mistress. But Jane was too virtuous to accept the offer and had no other alternative but to leave Thornfield.

There is perhaps no human emotion that can evoke feelings of both utter despair and incredible joy like love can. Throughout the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Jane searches tirelessly for love while living in a mostly cruel and heartless world. Jane’s journey goes from a childhood doll being the entirety of her love to marrying Mr. Rochester, the love of her life. This is symbolic of the massive change Jane undergoes throughout the novel and how love affects her. Two prominent characters in the novel who have profound effects on Jane’s outlook and feelings toward love are St. John and Mr. Rochester. The differences in Mr. Rochester’s and St. John’s outlook on love affect Jane by creating two vastly different relationships and leading her to reach her own conclusion on what it is to be in love and to be happy.

The novel Jane Eyre and Great Expectations takes and written during the Victorian Era. The years that make up the Victorian Literature Era are 1830s to 1900s, which is the time that Queen Victoria rule. During the time of the Victorian Era, society ideals are given more power to the rich; a line separates the rich and middle/poor class. Charles Dickens’s novel; Great Expectations, and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre illustrates the differences of the social classes. Dickens uses Pip to show the dreaded life of orphan to a gentleman, while Brontë use Jane to show the life of a mistreated orphan to a rich lady. Throughout Great Expectations and Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë both promote Gothic elements and Bildungsroman motif to depict the difference in the social classes during Victorian England.