Charlotte Brontë's Sula

toad as that” (Brontë, 23). Because Jane is not the pretty blonde, blue-eyed stereotype of society, like her cousin Georgiana, even the servants find it difficult to sympathize with the young orphan—compassion and affection is more freely given to pretty girls. Instead of wallowing in the morbid state of her appearance, Jane both accepts and rejects the criticisms. She accepts that she is plain, and ignores its significance in society. She finds strength from education and intellect, and places emphasis on this above all other shallowness worshiped in Victorian Society—above class, reputation, and beauty. Her belief that “that the germs of native excellence, refinement, intelligence, kind feeling, are as likely to exist in their hearts as in

Sula too, experiences this hardship, where she is judged upon her appearance and skin color above all other aspects of herself. While throughout the narrative Sula doesn’t experience any explicit scenes of overt racism, the effect of the Country’s mentality about blacks is reflected prominently throughout the novel and townspeople. The continued promise of work to no means, the unjust treatment being viewed as “natural hazards of Negro life”, and the segregations of the community even in death, --“just over there was the colored part of the cemetery”-- implies something eternal about racism (Morrison, 133, 170). Towards the end of the novel, Sula expresses the true impact that racism has on her throughout life, with the hallow statement “I know what every colored woman in this country is doing…Dying."

When assessing Jane, it is important to understand the “normal” and accepted role of Victorian women—to be married, or accept low paying chore-like jobs (such as housekeeping, service work, or factory jobs) (NEH). Unmarried women had little means or influence in society, and were considered lowly and unwanted. The ideal situation for a Victorian woman was therefore to be married, as little other options existed. Jane, having grown up in this time, is fully aware of this—however, she refuses to compromise any part of herself for a man or marriage. Rochester’s first marriage proposal may have been accepted, but as soon as Jane feels her integrity is threatened—when Bertha Mason, Rochester’s first wife is revealed—she leaves him with a certainty and nerve that downplays exactly what she is giving up – the option of a comfortable, wealthy life. Unperturbed, Jane would rather face the world head on, experiencing truly what society has to offer a woman with no husband or family—starvation and near death, “Oh, this spectre of death! Oh, this last hour, approaching in such horror! Alas, this isolation—this banishment from my kind!” (Bronte, 356). Jane feels rejected from society after her refusal to marry because of the intense pressures on women in that time, and while she could’ve chosen to return to Thornfield manner, where the devoted Rochester waited, Jane does not. She would prefer to die than give up