Challenging Social Boundaries In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

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Jane Eyre: Challenging social boundaries A woman raised in the 21st century needs quite a bit of imagination to realize that not so long ago she would not have the rights she has today. The freedom of choosing a career, whether she would want to marry or not, or of having children. During the Victorian age women had limited rights. They were considered to belong to the domestic sphere and stereotypically their job was to clean the house, cook dinner, raise children and be obedient to their husband. With ‘Jane Eyre’ Charlotte Brontë questions this position of women in the social hierarchy of Victorian England. From the beginning of the novel the protagonist Jane struggles with her position in society. The ten year old orphan Jane lives with the Reed family in Gateshead Hall as the result of her late uncle Reed’s dying wish. The issue of class consciousness is quickly manifested in the young John Reed’s bullying of Jane; John, being the future head of the family, constantly reminds Jane of her inferior position. She is a dependent, she has no wealth and thus he stands above her as her superior, which in his mind, justifies his maltreatment of Jane. However the young Jane does not accept this treatment, nor John Reed’s superiority over her person, as becomes clear in the following lines;The previous passage also is a clear example of Jane’s strange position in society. She is not part of the elite class as she isn’t blood related to the Reeds, but Jane also is not part of the working class, like the servants, because she does nothing for her keep, placing her in an ambiguous place between classes. Charlotte Brontë uses Mr. Brockleburst to express the unjustness of the way the elite upper classes treats the socially lower class... ... middle of paper ... ...arge fortune she finally feels like she and Mr. Rochester are truly equal, both on intellectual and social aspect. Thus she feels that she can return to him and marry him without fear of having to change herself, or of Mr. Rochester socially degrading himself by marrying her. Also By making Jane a figure of ambiguous social standing and the embodiment of opposition regarding a women’s position in Victorian England, Charlotte Brontë has created a novel which explorers the hierarchy of social classes for women in England during the Victorian age. With Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë shows her readers how women struggle to find their place in an age dominated by men and the elite. Brontë argues that social status does not determine a woman’s worth and competence but rather her virtues, values and determination to work in order to establish a place for herself in society.

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    After the death of Jane’s parents, her uncle Mr. Reed has taken her in with his family to a mansion called Gateshead Hall. Nine years after Jane uncle has past she has been trapped in Gateshead Hall while suffering the bitter treatment of her aunt Mrs. Reed. Mrs. Reed was resentful of her husband’s favoritism toward Jane and takes every opportunity to neglect and punish her. When Jane is punished by Mrs. Reed she would be sent to the red room by two of Mrs. Reed servants, Bessie and Miss Abbot. The red-room was “a spare chamber, it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion” and in this every same chamber is where Jane uncle past (8). Not only did Mrs. Reed treat disrespectfully but her own son, Jane’s older cousin John Reed. John Reed would abuse and punish Jane several times a day, in the words of Jane; “every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shranked when he came near”(4). Everyone would ignore Jane’s plea for help especially Mrs. Reed who would act be blind and deaf on the subject. No one except for Mr. Reed show any love and care for Jane during her childhood in Gateshead Hall. Jane said “I was a discord in Gateshead Hall; I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage” (10). Jane continued by saying that they did not love her not if as little she loved them. Although the family mistreats her, Jane still wished for the atte...

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