A Journey Through Independence as a Women
Jane Eyre addresses several themes throughout the novel from isolation and abuse, to independence. The movie Matilda portrays many of these same themes. Jane Eyre and Matilda both grew up without parents and lived in abusive households representing isolation and abuse, while both had to learn to fend for themselves, representing the theme of independence. Due to strict morals about religion, morality, and womanhood itself in the 1800s, Jane Eyre represents these themes more accurately.
Isolation and abuse are very apparent throughout both works. Jane grew up without her parents living with her aunt and hateful cousins and on many occasions being insulted and having the maids told to, “take her away
to the red room and lock her in there” (Bronte 6). Matilda lived a similar lifestyle as an orphan and in an abusive household. Both childhoods had huge effects on who they became as women. This leads to the most apparent theme throughout both pieces: independence. Through the rough home lives and lack of helpful communication, these girls had to depend on themselves to become the insightful women they turned out to be, but their independence certainly develops at different times in their lives. The reader sees Jane’s independence really start to show in chapter 5, around the time she gets sent to school. She’s in a new place and pretty much has to start all over at such a young age. Matilda’s independence develops much sooner around age 5, when she makes the pancakes because no one would offer her any help (Matilda). The comparison can be seen that Jane is more independent. Although the two works do a great job of portraying a young woman’s self journey, I’d have to say Jane Eyre has a clearer message when it comes to self-sufficiency. Almost her entire life, Matilda has her teacher to fall back on, and in the ‘90s, being self-reliant as a woman was more accepted. Then there is Jane who for the Victorian era was quite rebellious. She has no caretaker to look up to, only employers and a lover who does not even come into her life for 18 years. She questions religion, battles self denial of love and even runs away, which for the 1800s was highly looked down upon. She turns down two proposals one from her cousin where she abruptly exclaims, “I cannot marry you, and become a part of you” (Bronte 436). Jane Eyre strongly shows her virtues and womanhood. \The two works are very similar in themes and some story scenes, including isolation, abuse and most importantly independence, but due to morality of eras, Bronte’s Jane Eyre reflects these themes more strongly and appropriately.
We learn that Jane is a young girl who is a victim of emotional and
The three events that mark Jane as an evolving dynamic character are when she is locked in the red room, self reflecting on her time at Gateshead, her friendship with Helen Burns at LoWood, her relationship with Mr. Rochester, and her last moments with a sick Mrs. Reed. Brought up as an orphan by her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, Jane is accustomed to her aunts vindictive comments and selfish tendencies. Left out of family gatherings, shoved and hit by her cousin, John Reed, and teased by her other cousins, Georgina and Eliza Reed, the reader almost cringes at the unfairness of it all. But even at the young age of ten, Jane knows the consequences of her actions if she were to speak out against any of them. At one point she wonders why she endures in silence for the pleasure of others. Why she is oppressed. "Always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, forever condemned" (Bronte, 12). Jane’s life at Gateshead is not far from miserable. Not only is she bullied by her cousins and nagged by her aunt, but help from even Bessie, her nurse and sort of friend, seems out of her reach. In the red room scene Jane is drug by Ms. Ab...
Mrs Reed keeps Jane only because of a promise she made to her husband on his deathbed. This abuse and neglect from her relatives forces Jane to be resentful and full of hatred. Later on Jane begins to stand up for herself. Once Jane begins to rebel to the abuse done by John and Mrs Reed, it is as if an uncontrollable beast had been unleashed inside of her.
In the book Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the main character Jane experiences extreme character development throughout the story due to hardships she endures. This allows her to grow into an intelligent woman who provides for herself. This growth can first be seen in her childhood at her aunt's estate and the school for girl orphans, Lowood. Jane is brought up in a household
At the beginning of the novel while Jane is living under her aunt, Mrs. Reed, she is treated disrespectfully and cruelly. She accuses Jane of being deceitful and a troublesome girl in front of Mr. Brocklehurst, the master of Lowood School. Jane is so hurt by this accusation that she cannot stop herself from defending her well being, and she stands up to her aunt. She knows she is being treated disrespectful and has much more self-worth than ...
Obligations arise as Jane is forced to stay with Mrs. Reed. With out being nurtured, Jane receives unnecessary abuse and still feels as if she is yet to find “home”. Frustration slowly builds up in Jane’s mind and she awaits the perfect chance to let it all out, “You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity” (33) With the anger and anguish built up inside of Jane, she finally finds a chance to move out, leaving behind a broken relationship with her aunt Mrs. Reed. Jane works towards living a better life, a more worthwhile life leaving what happened in the past, where it belongs. As Mrs. Reed becomes ill, she wishes to see Jane one last time before she passes away. This triggers the moral side of the Character Jane Eyre, and she is stumped on a decision she was to make, not realizing that her decisions will show her true character.
At the novel's opening, Jane is living with the cruel Mrs. Reed and her horrid three children, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. Mrs. Reed makes her distaste for Jane very evident in all of her actions. She forbids her to play with her (Mrs. Reed's) children (Jane's own cousins) and falsely accuses her of being a "liar" and of possessing a "mean spirit." Mrs. Reed's attitude is subsequently passed on to her children who, in turn, treat Jane as bad, if not worse, than their mother does. As an unjustified consequence of these attitudes, Jane is forced to grow up in a home where she finds no love, even when she tries to be perfect. The only times she comes close to finding the semblance of love is when Bessie (a servant) is kind to ...
Both Harry and Jane had to bear the difficulty of being treated in an unjust environment. Harry had the cupboard underneath the stairs for his room, he wore hand-me-down oversized clothes that were outgrown by his cousin, he was often asked to do errands at home, he was constantly been kept from visitors, he was bullied by his cousin, and he suffered neglect and had to endure the insults and rude words that came from his aunt and uncle. Jane had a similar fate as Harry. Having been brought up in a house that treated her as a burden and constantly demoralized her, she had to endure physical and emotional abuse from her aunt and cousins. She was discouraged from socializing with other people including her own cousins and was excluded from family events. Even her three c...
The novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, has a plot that is filled with an extraordinary amount of problems. Or so it seems as you are reading it. However, it comes to your attention after you have finished it, that there is a common thread running throughout the book. There are many little difficulties that the main character, the indomitable Jane Eyre, must deal with, but once you reach the end of the book you begin to realize that all of Jane's problems are based around one thing. Jane searches throughout the book for love and acceptance, and is forced to endure many hardships before finding them. First, she must cope with the betrayal of the people who are supposed to be her family - her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her children, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. Then there is the issue of Jane's time at Lowood School, and how Jane goes out on her own after her best friend leaves. She takes a position at Thornfield Hall as a tutor, and makes some new friendships and even a romance. Yet her newfound happiness is taken away from her and she once again must start over. Then finally, after enduring so much, during the course of the book, Jane finally finds a true family and love, in rather unexpected places.
The story begins with a young Jane Eyre who is essentially neither loved by anyone nor independent in nature. At this point in the story, the reader discovers that Jane is an orphan and is being supported by the Reed family. This discovery is made through the portrayal of John Reed when he is taunting Jane about her social status. John claims that since it is his family who supports Jane, it is their choice to dictate the circumstances under which she lives. In this case, Jane is not allowed to play with the younger Reed children or read a book that belongs to the Reeds. The fact that6 Jane is an orphan living under someone else's roof displays that she has not yet gained her independence.
Charlotte Bronte tells a riveting story through her novel Jane Eyre. The book is about Jane Eyre’s life from childhood to adulthood. Jane is an orphan that lives with an evil aunt. Jane is soon shipped off to an all-girls boarding school. Later in life she becomes a school teacher and then a governess. She meets new and interesting people and eventually settles downs with the love of her life. Charlotte Bronte creates a feminine character who is shaped after her own experiences, and who embarks on a hero’s journey to discover the truth about love.
Jane does not experience a typical family life throughout the novel. Her various living arrangements led her through different households, yet none were a representation of the norm of family life in the nineteenth century. Through research of families in the nineteenth century, it is clear that Jane’s life does not follow with the stereotypical family made up of a patriarchal father and nurturing mother, both whose primary focus was in raising their children. Jane’s life was void of this true family experience so common during the nineteenth century. Yet, Jane is surrounded by men, who in giving an accurate portrayal of fathers and masculinity in the nineteenth century, fulfill on one hand the father role that had never been present in her life, and on the other hand the husband portrait that Jane seeks out throughout the novel.
Jane is always being reminded that she is poor, and that is not very helpful, she is also always reminded that she is alone and her aunt and her cousins consider her to be of a lower class, due to the fact that she will not inherit any money. Jane thinks that she beneath everyone, even the people who are in the same household, who are all of a low social class, though in reality, she is above all the individuals in the house. Aunt Reed and others just seem to shove these horrible ideas down Jane’s throat, even when they are not true.
Jane becomes an orphan after her father, a poor clergyman, is infected with typhus fever while visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town. Jane’s mother becomes infected from him, and both die within a month of each other (37; ch. 3). Because Jane is still a young child when this occurs, she knows no other life but of that as an orphan. Mr. Reed, her uncle who informally adopts her, wants Jane to be brought up in a positive familial environment. After his death, however, Mrs. Reed makes certain that this is not possible. Through her character, Bronte draws on the archetypical literary figure of the wicked stepmother (Nestor 35). Although Jane now lives with the Reeds, a financially well-off family, she is still treated like a poor, working-class orphan.
At the beginning of the book, Jane was living with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her children. Although Jane is treated cruelly and is abused constantly, she still displays passion and spirit by fighting back at John and finally standing up to Mrs Reed. Even Bessie ‘knew it was always in her’. Mrs. Reed accuses Jane of lying and being a troublesome person when Mr. Brocklehurst of Lowood School visited Gateshead. Jane is hurt, as she knows she was not deceitful so she defends herself as she defended herself to John Reed when he abused her, as she said “Wicked and cruel boy! You are like a murderer – you are like a slave driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” to John Reed instead of staying silent and taking in the abuse, which would damage her self-confidence and self-worth. With the anger she had gotten from being treated cruelly, she was able to gain ...