Essay On Social Governess In Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte uses her novel Jane Eyre to depict the strict social hierarchal system that was characteristic of Victorian England during the 18th century. In order to best analyze the system as depicted in the novel, it is necessary to question the ambiguous role of the governess and how such role fits into the social hierarchy present in England.

At the time, women were eager to find employment; however, there were few options available. And in addition to the lack of availabilities, the opportunities were less than pleasurable. Essentially, women could marry, engage in prostitution or become a governess. Typically, the governess was provided with a place to stay and then became a teacher of music, drawing and English for children of the family.1

Despite the apparently pleasant tasks of a governess the role was in fact filled with substantial misery for these women. The social status of governesses was ill defined at a time when a strict hierarchal system existed in England. According to the Quarterly Review, a governess, in relation to the upper-class, is one “who is equal in birth, manners, and education, but our inferior in worldly wealth.” 2 The social system in England greatly impacted the present and future life of a governess. The governess was an outsider - not a member of the family and not a member of the servant staff. She was left alone to battle with this lack of belonging in the household, which consequently led to personal struggles for the woman. 3

The struggle is apparent in the development of Charlotte Bronte’s character Jane Eyre. Jane is an orphan since childhood and continuously struggles to reach freedom from the alienation she experiences at a young age. The uncertainty of Jane’s social status is ...

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...s when she discusses how she is not suitable for a man like Rochester. “That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life: that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar,” she expresses.14 This line shows Jane conveying herself in the third person in order to poke fun at herself for thinking she was suitable for Rochester.

What distinguishes Jane from other characters is her ability to look beyond the social class differences to form friendships and bonds with all characters from Mrs. Fairfax to Rochester. However, we still get the sense that she favors the lower class over the upper class. That is the message that Bronte wants to convey – a critique of the strict social hierarchy. It also hints at the fact that social positions really may have been ill defined at the time.