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Women's rights in jane eyre
Jane eyre and feminist research
Discuss jane eyre as a feminist novel
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In the novel “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, Jane reaches a “point of no return”. A “point of no return” is a point in a character's development in which they can never be the same. This point in the character’s development not only affects them, but it also affects the other characters in the novel as well as the theme as a whole. Jane reaches a “point of no return” when she gains independence. At the beginning of the novel, Jane is a lowly orphan who lives with her aunt, Mrs.Reed. Mrs.Reed treats Jane differently than her biological children even though her late husband Mr.Reed asked her to treat Jane equally to their children. Jane’s cousins were also rude to her and made her feel worthless. Due to this terrible treatment, Jane feels worthless, humiliated and upset with the circumstances in her life. When she goes to Lowood with dreams that …show more content…
Rochester is affected because when Jane reaches her “point of no return” she is able to be with Rochester. She is able to love him because now that she has money and independence she is his equal. Now that they are equals she feels that they could have a passionate love for each other that they have both craved for. Jane’s “point of no return” also affects the theme of the book. Throughout the beginning of the story, the theme of the book was Jane’s search for independence. After Jane’s “point of no return” it changes the theme because Jane’s search is over after a monetary gain through the lose of her uncle and her getting a job. The theme changes to God and undying love. After reaching her “point of no return” she has a new understanding for God and believes in God. She also realizes that she can love Rochester now and it changes the theme to undying love. Even though Rochester was blind and crippled, her love for him did not change. She had an undying love for Rochester and we see this when she accepts his
Jane has been dealt a rough hand of cards, she hasn’t felt love or care from anyone, she doesn’t know what love feels like. She has owned very little, and throughout the book she refers to herself as dull and plain. “ ‘Did you expect a present, Miss Eyre? Are you fond of presents?’ and he searched my face with eyes that I saw were dark, irate and piercing. ‘I hardly know, sir; I have little experience of them: they are generally thought pleasant things’” (Brontë 81). Now that Jane left Lowood it seems to be as if she wants more independence. She doesnt like being bossed around. She wants to do her own
According to Henri Bergson, “To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” Life consists of a multitude of transitions and experiences, which help shape the creation of a person’s identity. This is evident in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, when Jane undergoes a striking moment of self-realization and moral development as she leaves her life at Moor House for Thornfield. This evolution occurs as she cultivates her own religious values, determines what love is, and becomes autonomous.
The three events that mark Jane as an evolving dynamic character are when she is locked in the red room, self reflecting on her time at Gateshead, her friendship with Helen Burns at LoWood, her relationship with Mr. Rochester, and her last moments with a sick Mrs. Reed. Brought up as an orphan by her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, Jane is accustomed to her aunts vindictive comments and selfish tendencies. Left out of family gatherings, shoved and hit by her cousin, John Reed, and teased by her other cousins, Georgina and Eliza Reed, the reader almost cringes at the unfairness of it all. But even at the young age of ten, Jane knows the consequences of her actions if she were to speak out against any of them. At one point she wonders why she endures in silence for the pleasure of others. Why she is oppressed. "Always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, forever condemned" (Bronte, 12). Jane’s life at Gateshead is not far from miserable. Not only is she bullied by her cousins and nagged by her aunt, but help from even Bessie, her nurse and sort of friend, seems out of her reach. In the red room scene Jane is drug by Ms. Ab...
Jane spends her first 10 years of her life at Gateshead Hall, a lavish mansion. She lived with her Aunt, Mrs Reed, and three cousins, Eliza, Georgina and John. During her time in the mansion she wouldn't dare argue with the mistress, and fulfilled every duty. Jane is deprived of love, joy and acceptance. She is very much unwanted and isolated.
Because Jane is the narrator, the reader is given a biased point of view that St. John’s character is unfavorable. Throughout Jane’s life she has had oppressive male figures dominate her life, such as John Reed and Mr. Brocklehurst; thus, Jane can conditioned herself to be apprehensive when confronting men. After gaining her physical and emotional strength back, Jane studies St. John’s character. Jane’s first impression of St. John is pessimistic, she states “Had he been a statue instead of a man, he could not have been easier”(Bronte 329). By comparing St. John to a statue the reader is forced to see St. John as someone who is cold and rigid. Jane sets up the perception that St.John is disconnected from human feelings. Jane also presents a biased view of men when she first meets Rochester, who later becomes her husband. Furthermore, Jane’s first impressions of Rochester are also negative. Upon first being introduced to Rochester, after he asked to see her, Jane comments, “But it appeared he was not in the mood to notice us, for he never lifted his head as we approached. . . There was something in the forced stiffed bow, in the impatient yet formal tone, which he seemed to further expresses”(Bronte 111). Upon meeting Rochester for the fir...
The book has many features which are found in Gothic novels such as romance. Romance plays a very important role as Mr. Rochester and Jane are both uncertain if their powerful love is being returned. Another common feature of the Gothic novel is lovers being parted; in the story of Jane Eyre Jane and Rochester are parted when Rochester leaves to visit Blanche Ingram and also when Jane goes to see her dying Aunt Reed. There is also tension between the true love and society. Mrs. Fairfax appears to disapprove of Jane's and Rochester's marriage because of their difference in social class.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre chronicles the growth of her titular character from girlhood to maturity, focusing on her journey from dependence on negative authority figures to both monetary and psychological independence, from confusion to a clear understanding of self, and from inequality to equality with those to whom she was formerly subject. Originally dependent on her Aunt Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Mr. Rochester, she gains independence through her inheritance and teaching positions. Over the course of the novel, she awakens towards self-understanding, resulting in contentment and eventual happiness. She also achieves equality with the important masculine figures in her life, such as St. John Rivers and Mr. Rochester, gaining self-fulfillment as an independent, fully developed equal.
When she finally leaves for Lowood, as she remembers later, it is with a "sense of outlawry and almost of reprobation." Lowood is after all an institution where the orphan inmates or students go to learn. Whereas at Gateshead her physical needs were more than adequately met, while her emotional needs were ignored. Here Jane finds people who will love her and treat her with respect. Miss Temple and Helen Burns are quite probably the first people to make Jane feel important since Mr. Reed died. Except for Sunday services, the girls of Lowood never leave the confines of those walls. At Low...
If we look at the world, through Jane's eyes we see that she is a
At the start of Jane Eyre, Jane is living with her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her family after being orphaned. Jane is bitterly unhappy there because she is constantly tormented by her cousins, John, Eliza, and Georgiana. After reading the entire book you realize that Jane was perfectly capable of dealing with that issue on her own, but what made it unbearable was that Mrs. Reed always sided with her children, and never admitted to herself that her offspring could ever do such things as they did to Jane. Therefore, Jane was always punished for what the other three children did, and was branded a liar by Mrs. Reed. This point in the book marks the beginning of Jane's primary conflict in the novel. She feels unloved and unaccepted by the world, as her own family betrays her.
The story begins with a young Jane Eyre who is essentially neither loved by anyone nor independent in nature. At this point in the story, the reader discovers that Jane is an orphan and is being supported by the Reed family. This discovery is made through the portrayal of John Reed when he is taunting Jane about her social status. John claims that since it is his family who supports Jane, it is their choice to dictate the circumstances under which she lives. In this case, Jane is not allowed to play with the younger Reed children or read a book that belongs to the Reeds. The fact that6 Jane is an orphan living under someone else's roof displays that she has not yet gained her independence.
Rochester has an insane wife locked away in his house. She denies Mr. Rochester’s request to become his mistress and finds her way to St. John and his sisters Mary and Diana’s doorstep after almost dying from hunger and dehydration due to her being homeless and poor. Jane refuses to become dependent on their family because she does not want history to repeat itself (with the Reeds and Lowood). She demonstrates this when she says “Show me how to work, or how to see work: that is all I now ask; then let me go, if it be but to meanest cottage-but till then, allow me to stay here: I dread another essay of the horrors of homeless destitution” (Brontë 353). Jane shows that she is old enough to handle herself and can become an independent woman if she has the resources to help her. All she really wants is a job and by getting a job and becoming wealthy after her Uncle John passed away, leaving her all of his money, Jane has truly become the person she has always wanted to be: an independent woman. With this confidence, Jane has the courage to refuse St. John when he proposes to her. Jane knows that if she is to marry it will be out of love not for service. In the text “I repeat: I freely consent to go with you as your fellow-missionary; but not as your wife; I cannot marry you and become part of you” (Brontë 415). Jane displays her strength, will
The reader first learns of Jane when she is an inhabitant of Gateshead. At Gateshead, Jane was excluded from the rest of the family. She was merely an outsider looking in on a nuclear family, excluding the father, who had died. We know that Jane’s Uncle Reed, the father and dominant figure of Gateshead, when alive, was a kind man. He was the guardian for Jane and when dying made his wife promise to always care for Jane. After his death, his wife resented the little girl and did not want to care for her. Knowing what we know of family life in the nineteenth century, we know that Jane’s life would have been much different if her uncle Reed had not died. Being the master of the home one can assume that he would have made sure that everyone in the household would have treated Jane well and with love and respect. A father’s authority was unquestioned. Once Mr. Reed had died, the masculine dominance was somewhat given to his son who did not care for Jane and made her life miserable by all of his cruelty and abuse. Although he did not rule the home, due to his young age, his authority as seen by Jane was unquestioned.
fact, it is this buoyancy of Jane's relationship with Rochester that keeps Jane afloat at her time of crisis in the heath: "Why do I struggle to retain a valueless life? Because I know, or believe, Mr. Rochester is living."
At the beginning of the book, Jane was living with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her children. Although Jane is treated cruelly and is abused constantly, she still displays passion and spirit by fighting back at John and finally standing up to Mrs Reed. Even Bessie ‘knew it was always in her’. Mrs. Reed accuses Jane of lying and being a troublesome person when Mr. Brocklehurst of Lowood School visited Gateshead. Jane is hurt, as she knows she was not deceitful so she defends herself as she defended herself to John Reed when he abused her, as she said “Wicked and cruel boy! You are like a murderer – you are like a slave driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” to John Reed instead of staying silent and taking in the abuse, which would damage her self-confidence and self-worth. With the anger she had gotten from being treated cruelly, she was able to gain ...