The Influences of Harsh Victorian Upbringing on Jane Eyre's Character and Development
Jane's early life experiences have a lasting effect on her developing
personality and beliefs. Charlotte Brontë first introduces Jane as a
vulnerable ten year old, orphaned girl who is pushed around and
disrespected. This changes drastically during the course of the novel
and ends with Jane being a happy, independent and respected woman.
Jane Eyre is an autobiographical novel thought to reflect Charlotte
Brontë's life, written by an adult but from a child's perspective.
As Jane is an orphan she lives with her aunt and cousins at Gateshead
where she is treated as an inferior and unloved child. The readers
learn that Jane is an intelligent young girl and enjoys reading as she
spends most of her time alone sitting in a window seat with a book.
Her older cousin John Reed physically abuses her, "He bullied and
punished me; not two or three times in a week, nor once or twice in a
day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him." Jane was
ill-treated in the Gateshead household, not just physically by John
Reed but emotionally and mentally too, she was not known as one of the
family even though she was related; she was not even thought of as a
servant, she was less than that, "you are less than a servant, for you
do nothing for your keep." As even the servants tell her.
On one occasion when Jane was alone reading in the small breakfast
room, John Reed came in and found her reading one of the family's
books, he was disgusted "You have no business to take our books…… you
ought to beg and not live here with gentlemen's children like us……Now
I'l...
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... crown us with a full reward" St John Rivers also has an
extreme faith but Jayne learns from these people and develops a
tempered, true faith that is respected.
Charlotte Brontë uses "Jayne Eyre" as an autobiographical book and
makes Jayne the heroine, reflecting her life and her struggle to be a
grown, respected woman. According to her family and Lowood, she was
"destined for the workhouse" but she proved them all wrong and became
an independent, loved, happy woman with a respectable home and family.
She even went against the standard way of life of that time period,
few women had financial independence, most lived off their husband's
wages while keeping a good home for their family, Jayne still kept a
good home filled with love and respect but she also gained what she
had always wanted, happiness and independence.
Pain, misery and disappointment are all a significant part of this world’s concepts of both life and love. A prime example of this is displayed in Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, where the protagonist, Jane, suffers through a particularly difficult life; her love is constantly stripped from her the moment she is relishing it most. With Bronte’s introduction of Bertha Rochester, Jane’s never-ending cycle of disappointment and loss of love.
was not a better place but it helped Jane stand on her own feet. Through
The novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte consists of continuous journey through Jane’s life towards her final happiness and freedom. Jane’s physical journeys contribute significantly to plot development and to the idea that the novel is a journey through Jane’s life. Each journey causes her to experience new emotions and an eventual change of some kind. These actual journeys help Jane on her four figurative journeys, as each one allows her to reflect and grow.
Following the Moral Compass in Jane Eyre Jane Eyre is the perfect novel about maturing: a child who is treated cruelly, holds herself together and learns to steer her life forward with a driving conscience that keeps her life within personally felt moral bounds. I found Jane as a child to be quite adult-like: she battles it out conversationally with Mrs. Reed on an adult level right from the beginning of the book. The hardships of her childhood made her extreme need for moral correctness believable. For instance, knowing her righteous stubbornness as a child, we can believe that she would later leave Rochester altogether rather than living a life of love and luxury simply by overlooking a legal technicality concerning her previous marriage to a mad woman. Her childhood and her adult life are harmonious, which gives the reader the sense of a complete and believable character. Actually, well into this book I  I was reminded of a friend's comment a few years back to "avoid the Brontes like the plague.
Being punished should never be a torture method, no one should have to suffer for making mistakes. A punishment should be a learning experience. A time to think about the reasons why the mistake was made and come to the decision to not make them again. Accept the fact wrong and want to change for the better.
posts, this was felt to be a women's job as it is the mother who would
In the beginning of Jane Eyre, Jane struggles against Bessie, the nurse at Gateshead Hall, and says, I resisted all the way: a new thing for me…"(Chapter 2). This sentence foreshadows what will be an important theme of the rest of the book, that of female independence or rebelliousness. Jane is here resisting her unfair punishment, but throughout the novel she expresses her opinions on the state of women. Tied to this theme is another of class and the resistance of the terms of one's class. Spiritual and supernatural themes can also be traced throughout the novel.
bits like this help to shape Jane into a Lady and who she will be when
her off to school. She tells him that he should "keep a strict eye on her,
Jane Eyre has been acclaimed as one of the best gothic novels in the Victorian Era. With Bronte’s ability to make the pages come alive with mystery, tension, excitement, and a variety of other emotions. Readers are left with rich insight into the life of a strong female lead, Jane, who is obedient, impatient, and passionate as a child, but because of the emotional and physical abuse she endures, becomes brave, patient, and forgiving as an adult. She is a complex character overall but it is only because of the emotional and physical abuse she went through as a child that allowed her to become a dynamic character.
Punishment has changed a lot in today’s world compared to the ancient and medieval times. Some might say that the punishment that is
Compare the presentation of childhood in Great Expectations and Jane Eyre Both "Jane Eyre" and "Great Expectation" adopt a typically Victorian style. outlook on childhood, which can seem quite alien set against modern. values. The s s s s s s s
According to Alexandria’s daily newspaper, The Town Talk, approximately 34,910 cases of suspected child abuse were reported in Louisiana alone last year (Crooks). Charlotte Bronte tells of one victim of child abuse in her novel Jane Eyre. In Jane Eyre, Bronte chronicles the life of Jane, a notoriously plain female in want of love. After being abused, Jane portrays many characteristics which other victims of abuse often portray. Throughout the novel, Jane is reclusive, pessimistic, and self-deprecating. Although Jane does display such traits through most of her life, she is finally able to overcome her past. By facing her abusive aunt, Jane rises above her abuse to become truly happy.
Punishment is not directly caused because a person is being held responsible for past transgressions, instead it is dealt out due to anger over the wrong that’s b...
Punishment is reserved to those who have committed a transgression, a dominant and common response to injustices upon a victim (Okimoto and Weznzel 2008 p.346). It is a sense of retribution against immoral behavior, not solely for the purpose of punishment against the offender, but