What do you learn from Charlotte Bront about the Life of Women in the
early 19th Century?
Charlotte Bront was born at Thornton, Yorkshire in 1816, and was the
third child of Patrick and Maria Bront. She had four sisters and one
brother altogether before her mother died in 1821. All of the girls
except Anne were sent to a clergyman's daughters' boarding school,
which in 'Jane Eyre' is recalled as Lowood.
The eldest sisters Maria (who is recalled as Helen Burns) and
Elizabeth became ill there and died in Haworth. Charlotte was then
employed as a teacher, became a governess and in 1842 went to study
languages in Brussels with her sister Emily. This relates to Jane
Eyre's life as she was also a governess and later she studied
languages with her cousin St. John Rivers.
Charlotte's brothers and sisters all died during the next few years
leaving Charlotte to publish novels and to marry the Reverend A. B.
Nicholls, her father's curate. Charlotte died in 1855 after leading a
very successful life.
'Jane Eyre' is an autobiography, yet Charlotte Bront writes it, so
people believe that the novel has an embedded narrative. 'Jane Eyre'
is a reflection of Charlotte Bront's life but Bront did not want
people knowing everything about her, so she did not name the novel
after herself, instead she was the shadow behind it.
Jane Eyre has a tough childhood when under the guidance of Mrs. Reed
at Gateshead Hall as she was not Mrs. Reeds real daughter. "I [Jane]
knew that he was my real uncle [Mr. Reed]" but Mr. Reed had died and
made Mrs. Reed promise "that she would rear and maintain me [Jane] as
one of her own children." Mrs. Reed treats Jane as a total outsider
and with very little respect at all. "Take her [Jane] to the red-room,
and lock her in there", this was said by Mrs. Reed to Bessie and Abbot
when Jane and Master John Reed had been fighting. Mrs. Reed did not
ask for an explanation to why either of them had been fighting, she
just automatically blamed it on Jane and she was the one punished, as
always.
Mrs. Reed also teaches her children not to treat Jane with the same
respect as their other siblings. This is proved when John tells Jane
"mama says you ought to beg, and not live here with gentlemen's
children like us". John takes this seriously and consistently beats
Jane whenever he gets the chance, but "she [Mrs. Reed] never saw him
strike or heard him abuse me [Jane]" even though "he did both now and
then in her very presence"
towards African Americans are presented in number of works of scholars from all types of divers
While the group was still in Springfield in preparation, it was extremely hard for many to move once more to the West, but it should be the last time. Virginia Reed, the 13 year old adopted daughter of James F. Reed, wrote in her diary: “My father, with tears in his eyes, tried to smile as one friend after another grasped his hand in a last farewell.” The hardness of letting go ...
Reed had received a letter from a John Eyre of Madeira; saying that he wanted to meet Jane and wanted to adopt her because he didn't have any family himself, he was not married and had no children. As the merciless person she was, she did not want Jane to experience the feeling of hope or contentment. The author's use of Jane being locked in the red room, as a symbol of hell. Jane is being punished for her sins and her boorishness; meanwhile, in the room, Jane becomes hysterical when she thinks she sees her dead uncles ghost, which becomes a traumatic experience for her that leads to her being unconsciousness. The red room symbolizes the death of Mr.Reed and the promise Mrs. Reed vowed to keep to take care of Jane and that she be treated and
19th-Century Women Works Cited Missing Women in the nineteenth century, for the most part, had to follow the common role presented to them by society. This role can be summed up by what historians call the “cult of domesticity”. The McGuffey Readers does a successful job at illustrating the women’s role in society. Women that took part in the overland trail, as described in “Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey” had to try to follow these roles while facing many challenges that made it very difficult to do so. One of the most common expectations for women is that they are responsible for doing the chore of cleaning, whether it is cleaning the house, doing the laundry.
This passage displays how Mrs. Reed loses her control of Jane. The passion born inside Jane by her experience in the red room allows her to burn through Mrs. Reed's coldness and imposed restrictions. Mrs. Reed still views Jane through an "eye of ice" when this passage begins, and seeks to hamper her by using a "tone in which a person might address an opponent of adult age (rather) than such is ordinarily used to a child". This is an attempt to remind Jane which one of them is the adult, and therefore in ...
During the 19th century, gender roles in the American society were extremely different in comparison of the roles in the 21st century. Only men could enjoy true freedom, freedom to work in factories, shops, military, vote, etc., while women were left at the house to oversee the domestic duties that once belonged to servants. What this means is that women were not truly free; free to voice their opinion, to work alongside of men, earn pay, and even vote. They were expected to be excellent housewives and nothing else. It was shortly after her husband died, leaving her with six children to raise on her own that she began to write scandalous stories that were way ahead of her time and completely unappreciated. These stories often times placed the
During the 1800s, society believed there to be a defined difference in character among men and women. Women were viewed simply as passive wives and mothers, while men were viewed as individuals with many different roles and opportunities. For women, education was not expected past a certain point, and those who pushed the limits were looked down on for their ambition. Marriage was an absolute necessity, and a career that surpassed any duties as housewife was practically unheard of. Jane Austen, a female author of the time, lived and wrote within this particular period. Many of her novels centered around women, such as Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, who were able to live independent lives while bravely defying the rules of society. The roles expected of women in the nineteenth century can be portrayed clearly by Jane Austen's female characters of Pride and Prejudice.
Societal expectations of wives during the 19th century ranged from beauty, domestic abilities, and to education. Being able to succeed in these expectations a woman could be able to attract a husband. Women were to acquiesce with their husbands and help their marriage thrive. To be a proficient wife and be a success in society’s eyes would be a challenge. By 19th century standards Georgiana had failed as a wife.
‘You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poor-house.’
Women roles have changed drastically in the last 50 to 80 years, women no longer have to completely conform to society’s gender roles and now enjoy the idea of being individuals. Along with the evolution of women roles in society, women presence and acceptance have drastically grown in modern literature. In early literature it was common to see women roles as simply caretakers, wives or as background; women roles and ideas were nearly non-existent and was rather seen than heard. The belief that women were more involved in the raising of children and taking care of the household was a great theme in many early literatures; women did not get much credit for being apart of the frontier and expansion of many of the nations success until much later.
Things were a lot different in the 19th century when it came to the roles that males and females played. In the 19th century, it was essential for females to find a male to marry or they would end up having no property because only males would inherit anything. The males were the ones that would have jobs so that they could bring home the money to support their family and buy the necessities. However, females played a much different role than the males did. The females usually would not have a job, but instead they would take care of the household. The females would cook, clean and tend to the children while their husband was at work. Not only did male and female roles differ in the household, but they also were different when it came to the education that they received their work-life.
In the essay “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America” author Smith-Rosenberg wanted to analyze relationships “within a cultural and social setting rather than from an exclusively individual psychosexual perspective.” (Smith-Rosenberg 1975, pg.2) The first friendship that is mentioned was by Sarah Butler Wister and Jeannie Field Musgrove. They were two women who met at school while they were young and continued their relationship by writing letters to each other. In their letters it was evident that they loved each other and although they both eventually married men, they never stopped wanting to be with one another. The second relationship mentioned was by two women named Molly and Helena.
The 19th century became the foundation of women enlightenment. Women such as Mary Wollstonecraft emphasized the social oppression women faced by the patriarchal society. The common belief that women were naturally inferior to men became opposed by women who realized their individualism and sought to expand their limitations, thus creating feminism, which is the advocacy of women’s rights by political, economic and social equality to men. It is an ideology that questions the traditional roles of women and focuses on the desires of women. Donald Hall, who wrote Literacy and Cultural Theory, states that ¨Feminist literary and cultural analysis works toward this end, focusing on representations of gender in literary and other cultural texts and
During the Victorian era, women were viewed as the very opposite of what a man ought to be. In the words of John Stuart Mill, who published a criticism of the way society differentiated between males and females "The female sex was brought up to believe that its ‘ideal of character’ was the very opposite to that of men’s ‘not self-will , and government by self-control, but submission, and yielding to the control of others" to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections.’” (171) Basically, women were expected to be sweet, docile, and man’s perfect helpmate.
Lastly, the United States has not lived up to the promise of “...liberty and justice for all” because of the misogyny women have fought against for years. Up until the nineteenth century, women were essentially the property of their fathers or their husbands. Their only role in life was to cook, clean, birth children and do whatever the men in their family pleased. In 1920, women were finally granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment. In 1963 Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, ensuring women received equal wages when doing equal work as men. However, putting laws in place does not mean that inequality is immediately righted. Women are still discriminated against constantly in the workplace by male co workers. Men are more likely