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More handpicked essays just for you.
How have women's roles changed over time
Depiction of women in literature
Depiction of women in literature
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The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys were produced at different times in history. Indeed, they were created in different centuries and depicted extensively divergent political, social and cultural setting. Despite their differences, the two novels can be compared in the presentation of female otherness, childhood, and the elements that concern adulthood. Indeed, these aspects have been depicted as threatening the female other in the society. The female other has been perceived as an unfathomable force that is demonic in nature but respects these enigmatic threatening characters. The female other has been portrayed as intensely alienated while grows knowing that their actions are subject to ridicule, rumor,
It is flawless that it is impossible to interpret some of these 19th-century texts without coming across concepts of imperialism. The English, the social system used widely in England and the entire English community placed the male gender on a social platform that disregarded any advancement of the female sex (Pui-Lan). The ruling class made the authority and were not to be challenged, prompting them to put the woman in her place, considering her as physical property belonging to men and could be possessed. Although women had their ideologies and independent thoughts, they were to be represented by their men. Bronte in Jane Eyre gives a critical evaluation and contributing statements on the facts about female Other in the form of oppression and
Culture plays a huge role in this part because, in any society, culture overrules some of the most popular practices by Englishmen on their women. The woman captured in Jane Eyre adopted to cultural systems that placed her in the house and never allowed her to grow. From Bronte’s novel, it seemed like a normal, acceptable practice during these times. However, in responding to this, Rhys in Wide Sargasso Sea argues that the woman, through culture had better things to do, better ways to engage her brain and keep working (Thorpe). It is as if Rhys refuses to perceive the possibility of the existence of the Victorian society where the woman was the colonized Other and oppressed Other, kept away from men’s issues and also handled as the property of
Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, was published in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Company, in London. This year is exactly ten years into Queen Victoria’s sixty-four year reign of the British Empire. The Victorian Era was renowned for its patriarchal Society and definition by class. These two things provide vital background to the novel, as Jane suffers from both. Jane Eyre relates in some ways to Brontë’s own life, as its original title suggest, “Jane Eyre: An Autobiography”. Charlotte Brontë would have suffered from too, as a relatively poor woman. She would have been treated lowly within the community. In fact, the book itself was published under a pseudonym of Currer Bell, the initials taken from Brontë’s own name, due to the fact that a book published by a woman was seen as inferior, as they were deemed intellectually substandard to men. Emily Brontë, Charlotte’s sister, was also forced to publish her most famous novel, Wuthering Heights, under the nom de plume of Ellis Bell, again taking the initials of her name to form her own alias. The novel is a political touchstone to illustrate the period in which it was written, and also acts as a critique of the Victorian patriarchal society.
Jane Eyre has been acclaimed as one of the best gothic novels in the Victorian Era. With Bronte’s ability to make the pages come alive with mystery, tension, excitement, and a variety of other emotions. Readers are left with rich insight into the life of a strong female lead, Jane, who is obedient, impatient, and passionate as a child, but because of the emotional and physical abuse she endures, becomes brave, patient, and forgiving as an adult. She is a complex character overall but it is only because of the emotional and physical abuse she went through as a child that allowed her to become a dynamic character.
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.
Bronte is known as one of the first revolutionary and challenging authoress’ with her text Jane Eyre. The society of her time was male dominated, women were marginally cast aside and treated as trophies for their male counterparts. Their main role in life was to be a mother and a wife, “ Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life……the more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure she will have for it.” A quote from a letter Robert Southey wrote to Bronte. A clear sign of the mentality and opposition Bronte was up against. A woman’s “proper duties” of course being to tend and wait on her “master’s” every whim and need. Women during Bronte’s time had no clear voice, none that was of any merit, they were a silent category of society, silenced by their male oppressors. Bronte’s book was in fact written before the first women’s rights movement had happened, yet it puts forward an image of an independent strong character, of a passionate and almost rebellious nature. A character “refusing subservience, disagreeing with her superiors, standing up for her right’s, and venturing creative thoughts.” I put forward that Bronte throughout her text not only revises the themes of male power and oppression, but reconstructs them also. The text is a female bildungsroman of it’s time, sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly tackling the patriarchal view of women.
In Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, a sea of “differences” engulfs the women, stirring up prejudice and animosity. Instead of perceiving how much they are alike, these women allow the water to destroy the bridges between them. They are envious of each other’s wealth, leery of each other’s premature aging, and unforgiving towards those who do not “belong” to their ethnic groups. Differences in economics, age, and nationality among the women cause misunderstandings and divisions between them.
Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre depicts the passionate love Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester have for each other, and as Bertha Mason stands in the way of the happiness of Brontë's heroine, the reader sees Mason as little more than a villainous demon and a raving lunatic. Jean Rhys' serves as Mason's defendant, as the author's 1966 novella Wide Sargasso Sea, a prequel to Jane Eyre, seeks to explore and explain Bertha's (or Antoinette Cosway's) descent into madness. Rhys rejects the notion that Antoinette has been born into a family of lunatics and is therefore destined to become one herself. Instead, Rhys suggests that the Cosways are sane people thrown into madness as a result of oppression. Parallels are drawn between Jane and Antoinette in an attempt to win the latter the reader's sympathy and understanding. Just as they did in Jane Eyre, readers of Wide Sargasso Sea bear witness to a young woman's struggle to escape and overcome her repressive surroundings. Brontë makes heavy use of the motif of fire in her novel and Rhys does the same in Wide Sargasso Sea. In Rhys' novella, fire represents defiance in the face of oppression and the destructive nature of this resistance.
Jane Eyre’s Journey to Independence In the outstanding novel of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront, the story is told of a romantic heroine named Jane Eyre who pursued independence during an era in which women were inferior to men. Jane proved her independence by demanding self-respect, becoming socially independent, and pursuing true love based on equality. Jane Eyre was an orphan left to depend on unsympathetic relatives who mistreated her. As Millicent Bell explains in her article “A Tale of the Governess,” “With the Reeds she suffers not only the dependency of childhood and female hood, but the excruciating humiliation of the poor relation.” The cruel treatment she received from her family members caused her to have no sense of belonging.
Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea have similar messages told through women’s journey to self-discovery. The differing points of view give the stories unique qualities but both discuss the harsh reality oppression in all of its forms and the need for love that every human has. Jean Rhys and Charlotte Bronte beautifully share the stories of women in a time of oppression, giving women and all who are discriminated against a voice.
The literary titles by Frances Power Cobbe, Sarah Stickney Ellis, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, John Henry Cardinal Newman, Sir Henry Newbolt, and Caroline Norton reveal society's view on women and men during the Victorian era. Throughout the Victorian era, women were treated as inferior and typically reduced to roles as mothers and wives. Some women, however, were fortunate to become governesses or schoolteachers. Nevertheless, these educated women were still at the mercy of men. Males dominated the opinions of women, and limited their influence in society. From an early age, young men were trained to be dominant figures and protectors over their home and country. Not until after World War I would women have some of these same opportunities as men.
Similar to many of the great feministic novels of its time, Jane Eyre purely emerges as a story focused on the quest for love. The novel’s protagonist, Jane, searches not only for the romantic side of love, but ultimately for a sense of self-worth and independence. Set in the overlapping times of the Victorian and Gothic periods, the novel touches upon both women’s supposed rights, and their inner struggle for liberty. Orphaned at an early age, Jane was born into a modest lifestyle, without any major parent roles to guide her through life’s obstacles. Instead, she spent much of her adolescent years locked in imaginary chains, serving those around her but never enjoying the many decadences life has to offer. It is not until Jane becomes a governess that many minute privileges become available to her and offer Jane a glance at what life could have been. It is on her quest for redemption and discovery that she truly is liberated. Throughout Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel Jane Eyre, the story’s protagonist Jane, struggles to achieve the balance of both autonomy and love, without sacrificing herself in the process.
Like Goodman and Harrop explain, women were often subordinate in nineteenth century England. In effort to show the ludicrousness of gender roles, Austen used her characters to dispel ideas like the want of a woman to be second, showing the subsidiary nature of women was not inbred in them, but forced upon women by society.
Wide Sargasso Sea is unique from Jane Eyre and Mansfield Park in that the issue of race plays a huge part in how the characters themselves relate to themselves and their place within their society. Its unique nature comes from the way the story is written from the point of view of the characters themselves rather than the author. The writing style within the novel shows how racial stereotypes and prejudices influenced portraying people of color within 19th century writings and attitudes.
Bronte wrote Jane Eyre to emphasize her beliefs behind the purpose of women, and how society lacked to understand them as who they were created to be. The issue of lack of opportunity for women to engage in intellectual preparation and continuation is prevalent within the character of Jane. Expectation of women’s role was a social norm, with a lack of diversity or individuality. Bronte challenges this issue through the character of Jane, whom experiences a tug-of-war sensation between being herself, who she wants to be and should be, and what society wants her to be, and pushes her to be. Bronte was trying to explain that women have the same capability as men to be productive individuals of society, but they are held back from establishing their potential. The most unique understanding of Bronte’s challenge to society is the understanding that the characteristics and personality of Jane as a female is shamed and criticized, however these features are identical to those of a successful and representable man in
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys confronts the possibility of another side to Jane Eyre. The story of Bertha, the first Mrs Rochester, Wide Sargasso Sea is not only a brilliant deconstruction of Brontë's legacy, but is also a damning history of colonialism in the Caribbean.
As society is constantly adapting and aligning itself to suit the needs and demands of the individuals present in that civilization, it is unlikely for such change to come forth without some sort of drastic alteration be it in regards to morality or interpretation. While Jane Eyre & Wide Sargasso Sea are fairly similar texts, an insightful analyzation allows certain distinctions between the two texts to come to the fore. Although change in culture can be drastic, it can also be referred to as repositioning of culture which is the reconstruction of the cultural concept of a society. Comparing and contrasting the two respective novels allows for distinctions to be seen in; cultural attitudes and the impact this has on modernization and the