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Charlotte bronte's novel jane eyre embraces many feminist views in opposition to the victorian feminine ideal
Charlotte bronte's novel jane eyre embraces many feminist views in opposition to the victorian feminine ideal
Gender roles in the Victorian era: men and women
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Marriage interrupted
Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.-Martin Luther
Marriage is something many hope to obtain. Many girls dream of finding happiness, love and respect when they get married similar to that of fairytales, they forget about the long forgotten social norms of my many cultures as it related to marriage; societies that were once very harsh casting aside feelings for financial security and the scenes of the perfect wife.
This idea was especially true in British society, however there were some exceptions where love was the sole purpose for marriage and where the main hero wasn’t treated or treating their loved one as less than an equal which leads to my following argument. I will be discussing the following question: How does the marriage of Jane and Rochester in Jane Eyre help shape the idea of gender equality?
In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, The marriage of Jane and Rochester strengthens the idea of gender equality by promoting the idea focusing on love rather than status and the idea of promoting individuality as it relates to a woman’s views on marriage. The first piece of evidence where the idea of promoting love rather than status is Jane discussing marriage. Jane does not wish for marriage to be a chore she wishes to support her husband in a loving way rather than just by being purely subservient.
Jane sees the contrasting women of her society and takes away what she sees, in regards to how she is supposed to behave. Rochester marries Bertha for her money and social status. Bertha Mason is sacrificed to the institution of the marriage of convenience and hence Thornfield, symbolizing this institution of marriage of convenience, must be destroyed bef...
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...aintaining her identity; she and Rochester’s marriage seems to be the blueprint for marital equality.
Sources Cited
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Margaret Smith. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
Ya-huei Wang, “Women, Marriage and Economy in Jane Eyre." Journal of Literature Language and Linguistics 3 (2011): 1-9. Scientificjournals.org. 29 Feb. 2011. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.
Xiaojie, Li. "Jane Eyre: A Panorama of Victorian Women's Lives and Social Status: Kagoshima University Repository." Jane Eyre: A Panorama of Victorian Women's Lives and Social Status: Kagoshima University Repository. Kagoshima University, 15 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.
"Jane Eyre", from Governess to Girl Bride. Esther Godfrey. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900Vol. 45, No. 4, The Nineteenth Century (Autumn, 2005) (pp. 853-871)
Eventually, she returns to her former employer, discovering Thornfield in ashes, Mrs. Rochester dead, and Mr. Rochester blind and free from wedlock. Flooded with motifs, Jane’s continual struggles between her passions and responsibility prevail as the main theme of Bronte’s entrancing narrative. From the introduction of Jane’s orphan life, she battles between her ire at cousin John’s antics and obedience to Aunt Reed’s reluctant guardianship.
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.
Rich, Adrienne. “Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman.” Jane Eyre (An Authoritative Text, Contexts, and Criticisms). Ed. Richard J. Dunn. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001. 469-83. Print.
In the Victorian Era sense of emotion is important and here in Jane Eyre, although you may not always get a sense of it because of Jane's rough past, she is constantly faced with the decision of whether to conform to the norm and marry into wealth even if she does not love the man, or wait patiently for the man she truly is in love with.
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.
Jane Eyre, a novel written by Charlotte Bronte is far more than a love story. It is also a test of Jane’s own moral principles in her emotional search for happiness, independence, equality and freedom. It is through her journeys from Gateshead, to Lowood School, Thornfield, to Moor House, and finally to Ferndean that she is able to find self-fulfilment without sacrificing her integrity.
The novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, depicts the coming of age of a woman who encounters great hardships, obstacles, and heartbreak. During the Victorian era women were subordinate to men and often times lacked the same opportunities and privileges that society and the family structure gave to men. Although society and the family structure of the Victorian era treated men and women differently, men were also oppressed, experienced suffering, and had to overcome poverty, but due to the masculinity that men were forced to portray during the era often times the hardships of men have been overlooked when analyzing the men in Jane Eyre. The characters John Reed, St. John Rivers, and Edward Rochester suffer various forms of lack and poverty that contributes to their oppressive and suffering nature precipitated by societal and family structure as well as being impoverished by their circumstances throughout the story even though they come across as having wealth and power.
But in reality, a male narrator gives a certain sense of understanding to the male audience and society’s understand of the male and females roles and responsibilities in a marriage. Just as men were expected to cut the grass, take out the trash, pay the bills and maintain the household as a whole, women were expected to cook, clean, nurture the children, and be a loving and submissive wife to their husband. The only stipulation required for this exchange of power was to establish a mutual love. In the Victorian age love was all it took for a man to take or alter a woman’s livelihood and
Jane’s perspective of love is based upon a mutual understanding and equality. Jane’s equality in a relationship is derived from her desire of independence. Jane reveals her need of independence in her relationship with Mr. Rochester when she told him she would always call him master but she would not be inferior to him. Haiyan Gao asserts in her article “Reflection On feminism in Jane Eyre,” “Jane loves Rochester with all her heart and Rochester’s status and wealth make him so high above for Jane to approach, yet she never feels herself inferior to Rochester though she is a humble family teacher.” It is also notable that Jane does not pursue a relationship with Mr. Rochester with the intention of gaining money. Her love is solely based on equality and independence and not status, power, or property. As Heidi Kelchner proclaims in her article “Jane Eyre,” “Although she ranks far below Rochester in social rank and wealth, she feels equal to him in soul, understanding his true nature.” Jane has pure intentions in her marriage with Mr. Rochester as she believes he is her equal and true love. Jane proves that she seeks true love once more when she rejects St. John Rivers marriage proposal. St. John had offered Jane an invitation to become his missionary wife in India. Jane acknowledges that he does not seek marriage for love but instead for religious purposes. Therefore, Jane proposes an alternate plan that allows her to serve as a single, independent missionary and co-worker of John. As Heidi Kelchner affirms Jane’s thoughts in her article “Jane Eyre,” “As St. John’s wife, she fears she would be restrained, and always checked forced to keep the fire of her nature continually low.” She would not be degraded to an object but rather wanted to stand as a strong independent woman. Jane would not accept the humiliated marriage to please St. John’s wishes. She would continue to look for true love based upon
Although written during both the Victorian and Gothic time period, Jane Eyre draws upon many revolutionary influences that ultimately enabled it to become one of the most successful books of all time. Jane Eyre is merely a hybrid of a Victorian and Gothic novel, infusing a share of dark allusions with overzealous romanticism. The primitive cultures of the Victorian period reflect high ethical standards, an extreme respect for family life, and devotional qualities to God, all in which the novel portrays. Yet, to merely label Jane Eyre as a Victorian novel would be misleading. While the characteristics of a Gothic no...
The story of Jane Eyre is very much about the status of women in the
The construction of Jane Eyre as a seemingly flawless and strong character serves two purposes in the text. The primary purpose is to display the Victorian struggle for women against patriarchal dominance. The patriarchal systems of dominance and control within the Victorian society were the sole machinery that advanced the colonial interests of the male gender against the female gender. In Jane Eyre, the female gender is portrayed as particularly weak and lacking in the necessary strengths that are required to pursue their interests. Jane Eyre becomes a rebel within the system by articulating open and consistent defiance against the status quo. Her travails, challenges, successes and final triumph signify the determined shift by the author in portraying women as different beings other than the weak and fragile characters that were consistent with the Victorian meta-...
Although women had their ideologies and independent thoughts, they were to be represented by their men. Jane Eyre gives a critical evaluation and contributing statements on the facts about female Other in the form of oppression and colonialism. 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 cultural systems that placed her in the house and never allowed her to grow.
Jane Austen’s novel is commanded by women; Pride and Prejudice explores the expectations of women in a society that is set at the turn of the 19th century. Throughout the plot, Austen’s female characters are all influenced by their peers, pressures from their family, and their own desires. The social struggle of men and women is seen throughout the novel. Characters, like Elizabeth, are examples of females not acting as proper as women were supposed to, while other women like Mrs. Bennett allow themselves to be controlled by men and society. Mr. Collins is a representation of the struggles males deal with in a novel dominated by women. The theme of marriage is prominent during Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Marriage can be examined in different ways due to Mrs. Bennet’s commitment to finding her daughters husbands, the male parallelism of marriage to their female spouses, and Elizabeth’s nontraditional approach to looking for love.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre represents the role of women in the Victorian era by giving the reader an insight into the lives of women from all social classes. Jane Eyre therefore represents figures of the Victorian time yet the character of Jane Eyre, herself, can be seen as very unconventional for the Victorian society.