Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is a novel written by Charlotte Brontë in 1847, and it tells the story of a young woman going through different stages
of her life. There are four (or even five) main stages:

-Early childhood in Gateshead: where she is “adopted” by her uncle and aunt. She is mocked by her cousins and her aunt
doesn´t love her. Here Jane encounters her very first humiliation, she is sent to a “red-room”, where her uncle has died, as a
punishment for beating her cousin. So she is sent to where it will be the next period of time.

-Lowood: a school for young girls, where Jane makes her first friend, Helen, who later dies of consumption (or tuberculosis).
Here she finds herself doubting her beliefs about religion. On the one hand Helen is pure love and forgiveness; and on the
other hand there is Mr. Brocklehurst, who is a very religious man and a very tough person. Here Jane encounters another
humiliation, while working with some slates, Jane drops one of them, and Mr. Brocklehurst punishes her by making her stand
on a stool while telling the whole school that she is a liar, and he forbids the other girls to talk to her.

When Jane becomes a young adult, she leaves Lowood and finds herself a job as a governess, which is the next important
period of time.

-The Thornfield mansion: Jane applies for a governess position at Thornfield Hall and gets the post. She becomes governess for
Adele. In this period of time, Jane begins to fall in love with her employer, Mr Rochester, but she knows he could never marry
her.

After some time, Jane is shocked when Rochester confesses his love and desire to marry her. She thought he wanted to marry
Blanche Ingram. However, on the day of their wedding, a man turns up at the church to declare that Rochester cannot get
married as he is already married. Rochester reveals everything about his marriage, claiming his wife Bertha, is mad and he still
wants to be with Jane.

Jane cannot be with Rochester when he is still married so she runs away, becoming homeless and then sick. The Rivers family
take her in and nurse her back to health. This leads to what it could be seen as the final stage.

-Marsh End: Here Jane inherits her uncle's wealth and estate. She finds out that the family that took her in are actually her
cousins. St John Rivers asks Jane to join him in his missionary work abroad and be his wife. She nearly accepts, since she’s been
brainwashed by St. John, but when she hears Rochester calling her in a dream, she decides she cannot marry someone she
doesn't love.

Jane returns to Thornfield. When she arrives, she discovers it has burnt down and Rochester is now living at Ferndean, his
usual retreat, and is blind. Jane rushes to him and they marry. Jane understands that she doesn’t have to give up everything in
her life to be with someone she loves, and that an equal relationship is the most important thing. The novel concludes with
Jane and Rochester married with children. Rochester also regains his sight in one eye.

Gender roles:

To varying degrees, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre addresses the expectations of gender roles presently common in Victorian
novels during the nineteenth century. Even in modern day society, the view of man tends to be aggressive, dominative, and
ambitious, while women are portrayed as emotional, subservient, and sometimes passive. Bronte’s depiction of the
stereotypical male and female roles are accurate, but she also displays how one’s gender can be altered. Jane, the novel’s
protagonist, is a cookie-cutout of what was expected of women in Victorian times. She dresses simply, is submissive, and longs
for a male counterpart.

As the story progresses, Jane shys away from conformities, but her willfulness to remain abnormal is tested when she endures
heart-wrenching situations. The novel opens, revealing the spirit and personality of Jane, as it experiences suppression when
she questions why she is being punished. Mrs. Reed answers to Jane and tells her that it is unacceptable for a child to speak to
an elder in that manner. The verbal attacks continue when Mrs. Reed’s son, John Reed, angrily tells Jane that she is dependent
and undeserving of the food and clothes that are provided at the expense of his mother.

John Reed, then physcially attacks her, and Jane is locked away in the red room. She goes on to make an apparent point as to
the unfairness of how she is being treated. “‘Unjust! – unjust! ‘ said my reason, forced by the agonizing stimulus into
precocious though transitory power; and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape
from insupportable oppression- as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting
myself die” (Bronte 21 ).
In this case, Jane’s gender is not the reason she is being punished, it is more her childish nature. As she grows older, the same
treatment remains for Jane, making this a prominent portion of the novel. It also is the setting stone for how women are made
inferior, and that they do not deserve any more respect than a child does. Being of lower class and minimal beauty, it is
unlikely Jane would ever become part of a high social status. Jane does possess an admirable education which grants her a
governess position at Thornfield.

This stage in the book is an important developmental period for her character, because governesses acted as a divider for the
lower and middle class. Jane takes on the role as a middle class women, educating Adele, while still living and earning a
payment under her master. As a female, starting from merely nothing and earning an educational position at Thornfield was
unlikely to be achieved, but Jane defies this assumption. Upon meeting her master, Mr. Rochester, Jane is quick to fall for him.

She longs to become his wife, even though she is aware that Rochester, being of high social standing, could not marry her
because society would look down upon this. Jane experiences internal conflict when she realizes that he is too good for her,
and she is solely nothing in his eyes. She thinks, “Don’t make [Mr. Rochester] the object of your fine feelings, your raptures,
agonies, and so forth. He is not of your order: keep to your caste; and be too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole
heart, soul, and strength, where such a gift is not wanted and would be despised” (Bronte 218).

By Jane expressing these feelings, she is giving us an insight on the mindsets of lower class woman during the Victorian era. All
thoughts of true happiness are to be suppressed by keeping in mind their lower class lifestyles and telling themselves they are
unworthy. These thoughts do not exist to Rochester, for if he were to make the decision to be with Jane, his prerogative would
not be questioned by society. We are aware that men of this day were driven by ambition and the wealth that would dress
their name if associated with it.

Before Rochester professes his love to Jane, he speaks of a woman named Blanch with whom he has had relations with. He
only takes a liking for her due to her social status and later tells Jane that he only spoke of her to be of assurance that she truly
liked him. Rochester displays what a man of this time would do; putting to use his ability to control the emotions of a woman,
only causing Jane to desire him more. Jane’s discovery of self respect helps her to flee from Rochester after she discovers that
the insane woman who resides in the top rooms of Thornfield is actually his wife, Bertha.

Jane’s behavior is unheard of for women at this time, yet demands some respect. The roles reverse, and Rochester is the one
who is left to clean up the shards of a heartbreak, while Jane abandons her position as a governess without any idea of what
she will do. She looks back on her life momentarily before she leaves her fate in her own hands, stating, “No reflection was to
be allowed now: nit one glance was to be cast back; not even one forward. Not one thought was to be given either to the past
or the future.

The first was a page so heavenly sweet — so deadly sad– that to read one line of it would dissolve my courage and break down
my energy. The last was an awful blank: something like the world when the deluge was gone bye” (Bronte 428). With this, Jane
shares how women are expected to find a meaning to their lives, yet proves that she does not need to conform with the
standards and guidance of men. Through struggles with her newly found independence and lashing out on those who
surround her, she returns to Rochester.

The act of leaving Rochester was done simply because she knew what would be best for herself, but at the same time she
knew that she still loved him. By no means did this make her weak upon returning, for any other woman would have never left
in the first place to discover herself. At this point, the fire has occurred, leaving Rochester blind. Despite still working under
him, Jane has technically taken on a more dominant role in caring and providing for Rochester. She now has money that she
has inherited from her deceased uncle, which she selflessly shares with her cousins.

Bronte’s character portrayal, regarding the gender roles fits the expectations of Victorian times, while bending them as the
story continues. In the beginning, both Jane and Rochester fit the mold of how the typical man and woman lived. Jane’s
character becomes more admirable as she journeys to self-discovery and returns to Rochester when she felt it was morally
right. The story displays the prominent theme of all Victorian novels, while Bronte adds her own twist, making it interesting
and insightful.
The Victorian Stereotype And Double Standard

Today “Victorian” connotes a prudish refusal to admit the existence of sex, hypocritically combined with constant discussions
of sex, thinly veiled as a series of warnings. There is some truth to both sides of this stereotype. Some few educated Victorians
did write a lot about sex, including pornography, medical treatises, and psychological studies. Most others never talked about
sex; respectable middle-class women in particular were proud of how little they knew about their own bodies and childbirth.
In addition, Victorians lived with a sexual double standard that few ever questioned before the end of the period. According to
that double standard, men wanted and needed sex, and women were free of sexual desire and submitted to sex only to please
their husbands. These standards did not mesh with the reality of a society that featured prostitution, venereal disease, women
with sexual desires, and men and women who felt same-sex desire, but they were important nonetheless.

Gender And Class In Victorian Society

Victorian society was organized hierarchically. While race, religion, region, and occupation were all meaningful aspects of
identity and status, the main organizing principles of Victorian society were gender and class. As is suggested by the sexual
double standard, gender was considered to be biologically based and to be determinative of almost every aspect of an
individual’s potential and character. Victorian gender ideology was premised on the “doctrine of separate spheres.” This
stated that men and women were different and meant for different things. Men were physically strong, while women were
weak. For men sex was central, and for women reproduction was central. Men were independent, while women were
dependent. Men belonged in the public sphere, while women belonged in the private sphere. Men were meant to participate
in politics and in paid work, while women were meant to run households and raise families. Women were also thought to be
naturally more religious and morally finer than men (who were distracted by sexual passions by which women supposedly
were untroubled). While most working-class families could not live out the doctrine of separate spheres, because they could
not survive on a single male wage, the ideology was influential across all classes.

Class was both economic and cultural and encompassed income, occupation, education, family structure, sexual behaviour,
politics, and leisure activities. The working class, about 70 to 80 percent of the population, got its income from wages, with
family incomes usually under £100 per annum. Many middle-class observers thought that working-class people imitated
middle-class people as much as they could, but they were mistaken; working-class cultures (which varied by locality and other
factors) were strong, specific, and premised on their own values. The middle class, which got its income (of £100 to £1,000 per
annum) from salaries and profit, grew rapidly during the 19th century, from 15 to over 25 percent of the population. During
the 19th century, members of the middle class were the moral leaders of society (they also achieved some political power).
The very small and very wealthy upper class got its income (of £1,000 per annum or often much more) from property, rent,
and interest. The upper class had titles, wealth, land, or all three; owned most of the land in Britain; and controlled local,
national, and imperial politics.