Social Inequality In Jane Eyre

Living in the 19th century was a very difficult time for women, as they were not yet granted social equality to that of the man. Women were deemed to be domesticated house slaves who would marry for the want of children and not decide to marry for true love. They had no choice but to stay chaste until marriage and were not even granted to speak to men unless there was a married woman present as a chaperone. Only very few women were able to gain the same education as a man, due to the social norms of the 19th century period. Women were unable to have a voice when it came to political activities such as voting and were instead expected to live their lives largely homebound. In the 19th century women were expected to clean, cook and look after

Being an orphan, Jane Eyre didn’t really have a sense of belonging with anyone close to her as she felt as though she was alone in the world. Mrs. Reed, Jane’s Uncle’s wife, promised on his deathbed that she would take care of Jane like she was her own child when he passed. Jane did not fit the picture of a model small child at the time, she had a robust sense of fairness and she questioned too much; characteristic traits that were deemed unsuitable for a young Victorian girl. Jane was not an idealistic little girl of the Victorian Era, as her name suggests “invisible as air, the heir to nothing, secretly choking with ire” (Gilbert, 1984). Though Jane carries the characteristics of air, she is invisible from the outside but she is like fire from the inside, which in turn will be the fuel for her quest to find her own uniqueness and

In Charlotte Bronte’s case she received a lot of negative backlash from her readers once she had announced that the novel Jane Eyre was her own. Readers criticized Bronte for her attack on the nobility that she had regarded as insincere. She was told that she had attacked individual 's previously recognized ethics by displaying a believable case for polygamy. Philosophies that evoked repugnance and barbarity from readers. Yet its most scandalous aspect was its open treatment of passionate love. The Victorian Era classified these passionate love scenes as extremely explicit, but in today 's modern standards would be classified as less than