Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

"Jane Eyre" was written by Charlotte Bronte in Victorian England. The

novel was published in 1847, under the male name of Currer Bell.

Bronte was forced to take a male name to be taken seriously as a

professional author. This gives us an idea of the position of women in

the past and relates to "Jane Eyre" in which Jane, the protagonist has

to struggle through life. Her life is made difficult because of the

fact that she s a female but also because she is a poor orphan living

in a rich house, where even the servants look down on her. A persons

social status was of massive importance back then and Bronte expresses

this in the novel. Another example is that Jane's only job is a

governess, which is a hard job to find and was low paid. Many women

faced problems like these as they were seen as inferior to men Unless

women were wealthy they would have a struggle to find work as there

were only few jobs that women could do.

Bronte wants the reader to sympathise with Jane from the start of the

novel. We know this because of the first person narrative, which makes

us engage with the character. "Jane Eyre" is a very gothic novel and

is autobiographical of Bronte's life; it has five distinct stages of

Jane's life, so therefore "Jane Eyre" is an example of a

Bildungsroman. Bronte tries to show how hard life was for women in the

19th century.

The novel begins with Jane describing the weather "…cold winter

wind…rain so penetrating…" these cold icy images reflect Jane's

treatment by the Reeds, who have never showed her any warmth or love.

When Jane is reading a book, isolated away from her family, again

Bronte focuses very much on the weather again. This book is

metaphorical of Jane's life. It describes a "rock standing up alone

against a sea of billow" This quote is symbolic of Jane, battered but

alive. It also describes "bleak shores" also relating to Jane, she