In Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte created a novel of social protest.

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In Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte created a novel of social protest.

Discuss why and how she did this.

Step one

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Social protest is …

Mainly Charlotte Bronte was protesting against the position of middle

class women, social inequality between the rich and the poor and

marrying above or below your status. These issues were very important

in the Victorian times.

Step Two

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Charlotte Bronte was very critical of the Victorian society. To her

every thing was not right (fair). The book ‘Jane Eyre’ is based on a

true-life story. It is like a reflection of Charlotte Bronte’s life

and the way she was treated. In the book, Jane Eyre is treated very

badly because she is an orphan which means she has no money or

savings. Jane Eyre lives with her aunt but because Jane Eyre is poor

she is treated differently from her cousins. Her aunt feels that she

or her children, who are wealthy, can’t be around Jane Eyre because

she is a poor child. This is like the life Charlotte Bronte was

living.

Charlotte Bronte was born 1816 on April the 21st in Thornton,

Yorkshire, England. Her father was Patrick Bronte (1777-1861), an

Anglican clergyman. Irish-born, he had changed his name from the more

commonplace Brunty.

Charlotte Bronte’s mother was Maria Branwell Bronte; altogether she

had six children including charlotte. Mrs. Bronte was awarded a

rectorship in Yorkshire 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Bronte and the two

eldest children (Maria and Elizabeth) died, leaving the father to care

for the remaining three girls, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Also a boy,

Patrick Branwell. An aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, aided their upbringing.

She left her native Cornwall and took up residence with the family at

Haworth.

In 1824 Charlotte and Emily, together with their elder sisters

attended Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, near Kirkby

Lonsdale, Lancashire. The fees were low, the food unattractive, and

the discipline harsh. They did not like it one bit. Charlotte always

complained and made a fuss.

Charlotte and Emily returned home in June 1825, and for more than five

years the Bronte children learned and played there, writing and

telling romantic tales for one another and inventing imaginative games

played out at home or on the desolate moors.

In 1831 Charlotte was sent to Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head, near

Huddersfield, where she stayed a year and made some lasting

friendships.

In 1839 Charlotte declined a proposal from the Rev. Henry Nussey, her

friend's brother, and some months later one from another young

clergyman. At the same time Charlotte's ambition to make the practical

best of her talents and the need to pay Branwell's debts urged her to

spend some months as governess with the Whites at Upper wood House,

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