Jane's Idealism: The Victorian Moral Code For Women

The pictures in her book appear to be “bleak” and “desolate” (Bronte 2,3). The independence in the world looks isolating rather than fully freeing, yet Jane is still willing to take the risk. To her, there is nothing worse than being confined, even if escaping means entering a world of isolation. She must grow to be free. Jane finds herself ¨brooding upon her own dilemma: whether to stay in, behind the oppressively scarlet curtain, or to go out into the cold of a loveless world¨ (Gilbert and Gubar 340).

Jane Eyre was written in a time where the Bildungsroman was a common form of literature. The importance was that the mid-nineteenth century was, "the age in which women were, for the first time, ranked equally with men as writers within a major genre" (Sussman 1). In many of these novels, the themes were the same; the protagonist dealt with the same issues, "search for autonomy and selfhood in opposition to the social constraints placed upon the female, including the demand for marriage" (Sussman). Jane Eyre fits this mould perfectly. Throughout the novel, the reader follows Jane Eyre on a journey of development from adolescence to maturity to show that a desire for freedom and change motivates people to search for their own identity.

Jane Eyre, often interpreted as a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age story, goes further than the traditional “happy ending,” commonly represented by getting married. Instead, the novel continues beyond this romantic expectation to tell full the story of Jane’s life, revealing her continual dissatisfaction with conventional expectations of her social era; as a result, many literary critics have taken it upon themselves to interpret this novel as a critique of the rigid class system present in 19th century Victorian society. One literary critic in particular, Chris R. Vanden Bossche, analyzes Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre through a Marxist lens, asserting the importance of class structure and social ideology as historical context and attributing this to the shaping of the novel as a whole. This approach of analysis properly addresses Brontë’s purposeful contrast of submission and rebellion used to emphasize Jane’s determined will for recognition as an equal individual.

In the Victorian Era, society’s views of men and women and their roles in the world were beginning to dramatically change, and not all were content with these changes. The novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, represents the mindset that those who felt threatened by these changes had. Mina and the men of the vampire slaying group act in the traditional manner associated with their gender and represent the ideal way Stoker believed the sexes should behave meanwhile, Dracula and the female vampires are used to signify, and portray in a threatening light, those who didn’t conform to his society’s standards for men and women. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Stoker sets up traditional gender roles and ideals that he believed the sexes should embody and

She is constantly changing positions of class to manipulate her surroundings and her current situation (Vanden Bossche 47). The article briefly elaborates on the concept of bildung[sroman], which “suggests that the Jane who has learned the importance of financial independence must be regressing if she makes a decision that limits that independence” however, Vanden Bossche proposes to perceive these actions as “making her choices strategically, not solely on the basis of a continuous identity but also in relation to her changing circumstances” (Vanden Bossche 58). The bildungsroman novel, Jane Eyre, revolves around how Jane’s struggles of class discourse and her ability to adjust to the current situation affect her throughout her youth. While Vanden Bossche does address the bildungsroman perspective of the novel, he fails to go further in depth of how it affects her societal standing and economic wealth and her path to independency. As exhibited in Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, Jane uses her ability to strategically manipulate her situation and adapt easily to any particular class in order to become independent. Along with these qualities Jane is also driven by passion, stubbornness, and a will to prove that she, like everyone else, is “a human being with an independent will” (Brontë 258). Throughout the

In this piece of writing, I aimed to explore the Victorian values of virtue and respectability and their strict code of behaviour which repressed female sexuality. In this piece, the young lady has given up her child for adoption which can be alluded from many hints in the texts, such as symbols of fertility and sexuality as well as signs of removal and absence to suggest that she had been absent for a long time. The term ‘European trip’ was a commonly used term at the time to discreetly explain a woman being absent as she was pregnant and went to give the child up for adoption. The strong odour of the flowers is a symbol of sexuality as the older women and repulsed from it and ask for it’s removal-another allusion to the strict traditions and conservatism of the Victorian society who seeked to repress female sexuality. Prominent symbols of fertility;pomegranates and lilies-have been used. The images of nature,weather and seasons I used were to imply fertility. The lush and beautiful gardens that were mentioned before the young lady’s absence was to hint at her pregnancy and fertility whilst the images of a barren and dreadful garden was to insinuate the loss of fertility (her adoption). Furthermore, the peach was also another symbol of fertility and sexuality I utilised.

Bronte's Jane Eyre transcends the genres of literature to depict the emotional and character development of its protagonist. Although no overall genre dominates the novel exclusively, the vivid use of setting contributes towards the portrayal of Bronte’s bildungsroman (Realisms, 92) and defines the protagonist’s struggles as she grapples with her inner-self, and the social expectations of her gender.

The 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë has seen numerous film adaptations, which only added to its vast popularity. The bildungsroman follows the plain-featured, poor, but honest, intelligent and dignified orphan’s development from an oppressed young girl to an independent woman who has found balance between her often conflicting principles and sentiments. In her quest for a home and a family to belong to, Jane Eyre searches for both intellectual and emotional fulfillment, while strongly making a statement about women’s role in the Victorian society, gender and social iniquity and discrimination. The themes of the novel remain

The Victorian Age's morality also condemned any kind of sexual reference in literature. Victorian critics demanded from "serious" literature a didactic content and respect to the Victorian conventions which established that sex

One may come too close to the fire and let her demons consume her, leaving all but the ashes and dust. Others can overcome these obstacles and can wash away the burning flames of sadness. Antoinette is unable to control this fire, while Jane is able to wash away these restraints. According to Spivak, the concepts of “Self and Other” refers to how people are defined by who they are in relation to others; the “other” allows the Self to exist as empowered (Spivak cited in Rodenburg). In this essay, I will discuss how Antoinette, from Wide Sargasso Sea, and Jane, from Jane Eyre, both face similar challenges throughout their lives, but deal with their pains in different manners. I will argue that both Jane and Antoinette experience social

Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex” (Bronte). During the beginning of her time at Thornfield, Jane begins to yearn for a life that differs from societies boundaries. She begins to doubt her fears the red-room instilled in her, therefore making Jane

This novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë is about the life a woman named Jane Eyre undergoing many changes that wound up shaping the person she had eventually grown up to be. This type of novel which accounts for the psychological development of the protagonist as they grow up is known a bildungsroman. One particular moment or action, which accounts for Jane’s psychological development, that is described in this novel is the adoption of Jane by her relatives known as the Reed family (Chapter 3).

The novel in which Jane Eyre stars in can be seen criticizing many aspects of those times such as the role and nature of women, child negligence and social hardships for those in a lesser class. Jane Eyre’s alienation from society allows for a greater reveal of the story’s culture, values, and assumptions. It’s presented through the use of gender, class and character conflicts throughout the story. On multiple occasions, Jane is judged for the presented factors reflecting the type of society Jane lives in and what the times were like at that time.

The Victorian Era in England embraced strict societal values that dictated how women should submit to their parents when they are young, and to their husband when they are grown. While these notions may seem unnecessarily harsh from a modern standpoint, the phenomenon of finding comfort in these rigid standards existed during this time. For example, a woman who marries a wealthy man may be required to give up many of her own faculties and submit to her spouse’s rules, but she may be at ease knowing that she is well taken care of in terms of basic necessities in addition to luxury items. The idea of “finding immense support in rigid notions” played a “central role in the identity and culture” of Victorian England. This idea permeates in the life of the protagonist of the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Having grown up in an in which neither her intellect nor her emotions were ever acknowledged, Jane wrestles with the idea of conforming to Victorian standards for a woman, versus finding freedom in following her own passions as a single woman. Her journey through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood force her to reckon with “which restraints are worth enforcing” and “which would prove unnecessary, even harmful, if embraced”. Bronte represents Jane as a heroic woman of her time in the way that she remains true to herself despite instances of imprisonment and entrapment during each stage of her life.

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a novel which incorporates gothic features, in an otherwise realist narrative in order to highlight certain realist issues which Jane is forced to encounter in her 'auto-biographical', bildungsroman of a nineteenth-century woman. This is done by including mystery and supernatural characteristics in her experiences in both The Reed Household's 'red room' and Thornfield Hall. Bronte's writing works in a way which allows for us to explore many of the times contemporary issues which faced the protagonist, Jane and how she begins to break them down and understand them herself, by allowing for us to view these issues through the medium of the books gothic moments. By including these, supernatural and somewhat haunting contributions from the gothic entries we are able to explore Jane's desires and passions in a more subjective manner. Her willingness to seek out the seemingly supernatural in Thornfield Hall's attic indicates to us as readers that Jane does not feel content in conforming to the usual responses found in most gothic genres, fear, but instead caters toward her own curiosity and want for excitement.