Jane Eyre Research Paper

How can one comprehend light without darkness? How can one appreciate good experiences without having been through bad ones? Using this philosophical approach, many aspects of society can be brought to light. By observing the outcasts who have been alienated from a society, one can gain insight into what that society values. This concept is presented very clearly in Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is set in Victorian England during the early 1800's. The main character, Jane Eyre, begins the story as a poor orphaned girl living with her unpleasant aunt and cousins. Mrs. Reed and her children despised Jane because she was poor and orphaned. Even Jane, herself, feared poverty in her childhood as she stated, "Poverty for me was synonymous with degradation." (21) This quote is exactly how the majority of the Victorian society viewed poverty. However, Jane later learns that you cannot judge a person based on their wealth or social status, but instead by what they do. She says, "Some of the best people who ever lived have been as destitute as

In the novel, Jane was viewed as a reckless child with no manners because of how she spoke her mind to those older than herself. Therefore, education was the system by which ignorant little children, such as Jane, were corrected in order to have a good social standing in the world. Jane spoke of the idea of education saying, "I scarcely knew what school was; Bessie sometimes spoke of it as a place where young ladies sat in the stocks, wore backboards, and were expected to be exceedingly genteel and precise," (22) which she found absolutely appalling. Jane continued in the field of education after graduating from Lowood institution. She taught at Lowood for a couple years before becoming a governess at Thornfield. As a governess, she spent every day teaching Adèle the etiquette and manners expected of a Victorian