Comparing Jane Eyre And The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall

The circumstances forced upon the protagonists, in both 'Jane Eyre’ and 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall', mirrored the reality of 19th century Britain’s “period of seismic political and social turbulence” (Rigby, 1848), a time which radically reduced the female protagonists’ possibility of broader horizons, by enforcing them to a life of domesticity. Charlotte Bronte's nineteenth-century fiction ‘Jane Eyre’, published in 1847 the novel "dazzled and shocked readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom" (STEVIE DAVIES 1996). Composed of three volumes, the first-person narrative provides a retrospective of the tempestuous pilgrimage of an eponymous heroine into adulthood. Residing primarily in the bildungsroman

Jane’s role as a governess in Victorian society, exposed her to enforcement of classism, which led to the oppression of her sexuality. In her judicious reading of Jane Eyre, Esther Godfrey noted that ‘the role of a governess created a hole in the invisible wall between working-class and middle-class gender identities.” Invalid source specified. Unable to associate herself with the residence of the house, due to her station, and ostracized from the servants due to her intellectual ability: a governess was often viewed as contempt by all levels of the social hierarchy. It could be argued that Brontë characterizes Mrs. Fairfax as the social voice of Thornfield House, vocalizing the Victorian attitudes surrounding classism. For instance, at first sighting of Jane’s relationship with her employer, Mrs Fairfax notes “Gentlemen in his station are not accustomed to marry their governess"(9p306 JE). By characterizing her protagonist as a governess, Brontë highlights this social limbo, which created oppressive social attitude and ideals. Whilst in marriage, wives had to maintain an angelic image of sexual purity, due their limited ability to find acceptable suiters within the domestic sphere, governesses were forced to suppress their own sexual desires. Although Jane appears to reject the idea of the Angel of the House, stating “I am not an angel, and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.”(JE), her relationship with her employer creates the danger of her becoming a ‘Fallen woman’. The equally oppressive ideal of a Fallen women, describes a woman who “has “lost her innocence”, and fallen from the grace of God. In 19th-century Britain especially, the meaning came to be closely associated with the loss or surrender of a woman's chastity.” (Dictionary, 2017). The fallen women creates vivid imagery of a female’s descent from an angelic status upheld