Critical Criticism Of Jane Eyre

This term we have been reading and studying Jane Eyre, a literary classic. Jane Eyre was originally published as an Autobiography under the pen name “Currer Bell”, that was later revealed to be a woman called Charlotte Bronte. The novel follows the experiences of a young woman called Jane Eyre, trailing her growth into adulthood and being given an insight into her emotions using a first person style of writing. Charlotte Bronte reveals and discusses several controversial topics of the time period she lived in, drawing some ideas from her own personal life. Through reading this novel it has enabled us to delve into the life of a Victorian woman who experiences many similar problems that we do in the 21st century. Jane Eyre explores the social-cultural and historical realities during the Victorian Era; through exposing and scrutinizing pressing ideas about class, marriage and gender inequality.

In the 19th century, class divisions were far more fixed and pronounced than they are today, and the predetermined class you were born into based on wealth, and dictated the sort of life you would lead and the relationships you could retain. However, the 19th century began to see a small amount of change in society’s attitudes and values towards this trend with the lower class beginning to rebel against the social order and marginalization imposed upon them by the upper class, exemplified in the French revolution in 1848, occurring a year after Jane Eyre was published. Charlotte Bronte uses Jane Eyre to criticize the existing Victorian class hierarchy, by showing that individuals should not be defined by economic status. Instead of the normal class structure, Bronte implies that poverty can be respectable, as long as it’s accompanied by an e...

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...lity as men.

Jane Eyre is a revolutionary text that allows us as 21st era readers to reflect back to issues that we are still faced with today. It leaves us to question whether these issues have improved or whether we are still very much a woman of the Victorian era. Whilst it seems odd to relate to someone that lives in a drastically different environment, the challenges that Jane faces have all happened to us. I definitely had a few light bulb moments when I went that’s happened to me, for example being picked on by a teacher or loving someone that we have really no chance with because we are apparently of a “lower standard”. Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre challenges us with rich narrative and vocabulary, a style of writing we are not accustomed to, and enables us to learn some history whilst being taken on a journey of a young Victorian woman. Thank you.