In Jane Eyre novel, Bronte shapes a tough and independent woman who pursues equality. Bronte is able to portray Jane’s strong character by showing her feminist development throughout the novel from place to place. Jane starts off as a dependent character in the Reeds’ home. She is abused and taken advantage of by her aunt Mrs.Reed and her cousin John Reed, leading to her punishment in a cold room for speaking out of the injustices. After being locked in for a night with her own thoughts, her early feminism cames out and she refuses to be treated as an inferior. Jane resorts back straightly and powerfully to Mrs. Reed before moving away to a disciplinary boarding school Lowood, “ I shall remember how you push me back-roughly and violently pushed
The novel starts begins with Jane’s childhood years at Gateshead, the home of the Reeds. At Gateshead, Jane is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt Mrs. Reed and her cousins. Mrs. Reed makes her dislike for Jane obvious by treating Jane like a burden and keeping children from interacting with Jane. In her absence, Mrs. Reed’s children, particularly John, continue to bully poor Jane. In the beginning of the novel, Jane defends herself against John, but this act ends up getting herself sent up to the red-room. In this red-room, Bronte shows how much those years of mistreatment affected Jane:
In the novel, Jane Eyre starts as a young girl of ten years old; she lives with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her cousins John, Georgiana, and Eliza. At Gateshead, Jane has undergone betrayal in the acts that the Reed family does not treat her as a part of their family. Mrs. Reed treats Jane unkindly and as if she was a victim to put it, in other words, Mrs. Reed says “ take her away to the red-room and lock her in there” (Brontë, Ch. 1). Mrs. Reed
The novel “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, and the novella “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James, both display the treatment of pride for upper and lower class similarly. Furthermore, the treatment of pride will be compared and contrasted in this essay to examine and understand how pride is treated. In novel and novella both the lower class characters believe their pride makes them superior beings. Although the pride of lower and upper-class characters led them to their corruption. Moreover, the upper-class characters in each narrative maintain their respectability by their pride. However, in “Jane Eyre” all casts must have their emotions controlled by their pride, or this will lead to inappropriate behavior. Nevertheless, in “The Turn of
In the novel, ‘Jane Eyre’ Charlotte Brontë focuses on the life of Jane, an unwanted orphan who can’t do anything right in the eyes of her aunt. When she is about nine she is sent to Lowood Institute where she is also treated as inferior by Mr Brocklehurst. Although Jane is treated so cruelly and unfairly all her life she proves everyone wrong in the end by making something of herself.
Even Jane’s aunt, whom she knew in her childhood, was a very regal and effeminate woman. Even though she is a proper lady, she treats Jane as though she was trash, which proves again Brontë’s point that femininity does not equate to kindliness or the true embodiment of the female spirit (Brontë 14). All the females who maintain typically feminine qualities are held in much less regard than the women, like Jane Eyre, who contain masculine traits.
Jane searches for independence, but gender hinders her in every stage of her journey. Troy faces similar complications. Jane’s gender ties her to specific roles in her work as a teacher or governess. She only watches children; she can only aspire to be an educator. Jane is smart enough and works hard enough to be an architect or scientist, but cannot due to her time. Such roles were not suitable for female occupation, and society decreases Jane’s chances to become financially independent. Gender also inhibits her ability to travel to India, since she cannot “be forever together-- sometimes in solitudes, sometimes amid savage tribes” with St. John (Brontë, 474). Jane’s outcry at this statement matches perfectly with her denunciation of dependence-
The novel starts with giving an outlook on how the lower classes were being treated. The young Jane Eyre lives with Mrs Reed, who was the woman married to her uncle. Jane’s uncle adopted her, and when he died she had to take care of her. Jane is ambiguous i...
Throughout Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane faces several conflicting feelings about her role in the world. Jane struggles with her acceptance of Mr. Rochester’s authority, which is exemplified in chapter 20 when Jane is told by Mr. Rochester to care for the bleeding Mr. Mason. While Jane does what Mr. Rochester asks, she questions herself and his power over others, showing how she faces a dilemma in how to properly feel about the situation. By using tools such as repetition, symbolism, and irony, Bronte conveys the period typical struggle that women faced against authority figures in finding a place between submissiveness and independence.
The novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, has a plot that is filled with an extraordinary amount of problems. Or so it seems as you are reading it. However, it comes to your attention after you have finished it, that there is a common thread running throughout the book. There are many little difficulties that the main character, the indomitable Jane Eyre, must deal with, but once you reach the end of the book you begin to realize that all of Jane's problems are based around one thing. Jane searches throughout the book for love and acceptance, and is forced to endure many hardships before finding them. First, she must cope with the betrayal of the people who are supposed to be her family - her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her children, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. Then there is the issue of Jane's time at Lowood School, and how Jane goes out on her own after her best friend leaves. She takes a position at Thornfield Hall as a tutor, and makes some new friendships and even a romance. Yet her newfound happiness is taken away from her and she once again must start over. Then finally, after enduring so much, during the course of the book, Jane finally finds a true family and love, in rather unexpected places.
How are women 's lives portrayed in literary works? What expectations do women characters have? Women in literary works are generally portrayed as pretty, dainty, girly, weak, or gentle minded, and that is what is usually expected specifically in a love story. This is not the case in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre, the main character, is no stereotype. She is strong willed, smart, responsible, and knows what she deserves in her life. That 's why Jane Eyre can be viewed in a feminist lens. She is unique and does not conform to the social standards set for women in her time.
In Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, the role of a woman in the Victorian era was general chores, and basically a servant to the man. Brontë writes about the conflict women have with being held at lower standards than men. Jane grew up with feeling like she was lower than a man, butby the end of the novel Jane finds her inner self and grows against the stereotypical setting of a woman. Jane Eyre is an anti-feminist book, but Jane Eyre herself is a feminist.
Jane Eyre was written by a young girl named Charlotte Bronte in 1847, as a way to earn an income for her family. This novel depicts social situations not yet seen by the American public, much less primarily focused on that of a female. This was a ground breaking work, as while the public did not know the author, they could identify with Jane’s struggles, irrelevant that the work was merely fictional. A daughter of a poor clergyman, whose mother died when she was seven was raised by her mother’s sister. Like Jane, Bronte grew up in dirty conditions, but she also, like Jane, possessed a passion for learning, even studying abroad and learning a few languages. Although, she never did attend any higher schooling, due to her gender and the attitude of the times, she did have some experience publishing, before Jane Eyre became popular. Bronte and her two sisters were sent to a desolate boarding school as young girls, which most likely inspired the conditions for Lowood school. Her eldest sister’s death had an impact on her characters, inspiring Helen Burns, her pure, loving, innocent schoolmate at
During the period Jane Eyre was set, the 1840's, it was conventional that women were inferior to men and were not entitled to their own opinions or freedom of mind. Brontë uses Blanche Ingram as an example of a typical woman of the time and the consequences of being so are shown throughout. Brontë argues this view in her preface that ?conventionality is not morality,? this means that what society may think is widely accepted and respectable, is not necessarily what is right, and she creates Jane Eyre as an example of a woman who believes just this but who has, in the end, become more successful than Blanche.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is set in the mid nineteenth century, during the Victorian era where class and gender roles are clearly defined in the patriarchal society. The general ideology of the era expresses the idea that if gender categories were not maintained as binary oppositions, catastrophic chaos would likely ensue (Gill, 109). Throughout the novel, Jane is faced with the issue of oppression. The typical characteristics of an ideal female in Victorian society would include submissiveness, simple dress, low ambition, longing for a male love interest and passiveness. Bronte clearly shows her stance on this Victorian ideology as Jane often challenges those social institutions and changes her place in society, although she often settles for the status quo for certain periods of time. Jane plays the typical role of a Victorian woman through much of her life, but through subtle shifts in power Bronte challenges these Victorian norms by way of Jane’s education, unlikely rise in social status from teacher to governess and her relationship with a seemingly unattainable man.
The Feminist and the Stereotype Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, published under her surname, Currer Bell, featured the character of Jane Eyre, an outspoken, independent, and unapologetic woman in a time where such a thing was mostly unheard of and socially unacceptable. In contrast, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte falls into the trope of a socially ostracized and emotionally wounded male hero. When comparing the two, it becomes clear that Jane Eyre is the better protagonist. Firstly, Jane was revolutionary for her time, being an independent woman in the Victorian era, something which cannot be said for Heathcliff. Additionally, Jane undergoes character development and has a character arch which is not present in Heathcliff.