Charlotte Bronte: A Early Feminist

Charlotte Bronte lived and wrote in Victorian England, she was born in 1816 and died in 1855. (Merriman, 2007) Ms. Bronte was considered a women’s liberationist for her era, and her book, Jane Eyre was influenced by her life, her place in society, and her intense determination for self-expression and liberation.

The Victorian Age was characterized by a rapidly growing economy, an expansion of the British Empire, relative peace, and the social and economic problems associated with industrialization. Victorian society was conflicted by the changes; they admired the material benefits industrialization brought, as it encouraged great optimism and spurred the growth of the industrial working class and a modern middle class, but it was also a time of social concern. Brutal factory conditions and slums bred poverty and disease. (Literature, the British, 1996)

Victorian society could be quite pleasant, but only if one were fortunate enough to be born into the upper or at the very least the upper middle class. Members of the upper class lived in grand mansions on great estates; they kept busy with parties, dances, and keeping track of what other people in the same social class were doing. The only career for a woman in this society was marriage. Society wives were expected to represent their husbands with impeccable manners and grace and provide no hint of scandal. Etiquette was a full time occupation; what to wear, who to speak to, and when to curtsy, was of the highest importance. One of the biggest fears of the socially aware was ostracism. (Rose, 1999- 2012)

Charlotte and her siblings were not among the fortunate. Charlotte was the third of six children. Her father, Patrick Bronte, was a protestant minister. There are ...

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