Jane Eyre Social Lens Essay

Jane Eyre Social Criticism Lens

Jane Eyre truly captures the elements that made up the Victorian Era: oppression and social constraint based on social norms at the time. The novel appreciates women and puts them in a light where they have rarely been seen in. Instead of keeping the protagonist restrained to the home, the author Charlotte Bronte, allowed Jane to be free and search for her true identity, which was considered a stray from the social customs of the Era. Furthermore, Bronte uses the novel to criticize the hypocrisy and inequality that existed during this time period through different characters and experiences. Through the social criticism lens, Jane Eyre was created as an unorthodox display against marriage, religion, and gender

roles in Bronte’s time.
During the Victorian Era there were very rigid gender roles. A female was often confined to the home to do work such as taking care of children. Often times they had to act submissive to the male. In Jane Eyre however, the character Jane breaks those customs as Bronte asserts her own radical ideas. Jane tries to assert her equality to her lover, Mr. Rochester. Jane says that “it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making putting and knitting stockings…it is thoughtless to condemn them if they seek to do more and learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex” (Bronte 207). This illustrates the idea that Bronte thought that women were able to do much more. She is applauding the women of her time who are going against the social customs and speaking out on issues such as education and voting rights. Furthermore she states that “women are supposed to be calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need to exercise for their faculties and field for their efforts just as their brothers do;” (207). Bronte uses Jane’s relationship to prove that even though women and men are physically different, that should not be the reason to treat each gender differently. Because women were seen as inferior to men, they did not have as many rights and thus were seen as not being able to do much. This line encourages women to go out and do the things that they truly want to do and speak out about injustices that they feel that are happening.
Often times, marriages during this time period did not consist of love. A woman would marry a man because of their social and economic standing in society. This idea is manifested in the relationship that Blanche Ingram and Rochester share. Blanche Ingram is the typical Victorian woman, “having Roman features… furrowed with pride.” (325) but she “met all eyes with coldness” (367). Even though Blanche was very beautiful, she was boring and mean. These were all the traits that Rochester did not like. Even though she was wealthy and beautiful he did not connect with her emotionally and thus he did not marry her. Rochester goes against the social customs of the Victorian Era because he does not marry for beauty and money, but love instead. Additionally, men at this time were known to be sexually promiscuous and women had to be okay with it because it was perceived that women needed men to be happy. It was okay for a male to have mistresses even if they were married. After Jane finds out that Rochester is already married, he suggest that he should be his mistress. Jane refused to marry Rochester even after he begged her and he gets upset about it. Rochester says that “You have as good as said that I am a married man—just now you have refused to kiss me. You intend to make yourself a complete stranger to me” (562). In Rochester’s eyes there is nothing wrong with having a mistress. He cannot see why she does not want to be with him even though she loves her. Jane was deeply saddened by this, but she realizes that it is better for her to move on than to be a mistress. Jane believes that “[having] a mistress is the next worse thing to buying a slave: both are often by nature, and always by position, inferior: and to live familiarly with inferiors is degrading.” (595). The contrast of their thinking shows the progressive views that Bronte had for women at the time proving that they do not need a male to be happy. Lastly, Rochester embodies the typical male view of that being with multiple women at once is okay.
As Jane goes about her life, she meets many different characters who help mold her idea of religion.

Bronte uses the characters in the book to depict the hypocrisy that resided within the Era in terms of how one uses religion. She is able to criticize it based on characters such as Mr. Brocklehurst and St. John Rivers. Mr. Brocklehurst was the head of a religious charity school for orphans. He tells the girls at the school that they must wear plain clothing so they can learn about self-denial, hardiness, and patience, and punishes them if they do not do so. But, his daughters were “splendidly attired in velvet, silk, and furs. The two younger of the trio (fine girls of sixteen and seventeen) had grey beaver hats, then in fashion, shaded with ostrich plumes, and from under the brim of this graceful head-dress fell a profusion of light tresses” (119). His daughters are over-indulging because of their wealth and he allows them to do so. He does not practice what he preaches to the girls at the school. In addition, St. John River’s contradicts himself through his missionary zeal and devout Christianity. When St. John asks Jane to marry him she says no, and in response he states “You shall be mine: I claim you—not for my pleasure, but for my sovereign’s service” (771). Essentially St. John sees her rationally and not passionately, he thinks that she was made for work and not pleasure. The problem with this is that in the Christian religion, marriage is the sacred, holy and consisted of love. In St. John’s situation, he made it clear that he was not going to marriage her for love, but work. Through St. John and Mr. Brocklehurst, Bronte criticizes two different but both contradicting views on

religion.
Jane Eyre shocked the audience at the time because of Bronte’s challenges to Victorian society. The strength that Bronte gives to Jane makes her able to challenge the patriarchal system of Victorian England and encouraged women to go for more. Through the social criticism lens, the novel is a critique of the religion and marriage practices of the time. Jane’s quest for her identity helps with solidifying and molding these ideas. Jane’s experiences are key in Bronte’s criticism of the Victorian Era.