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Jane Eyre as a Bildungsroman

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A Project

Presented to the

Facultad de Humanidades,

Universidad de Almería

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Female Anglophone Authors

from the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries

Professor María Elena Jaime de Pablos

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by

María Teresa Giménez Rubia

54143644B

SCHOLAR YEAR

2022 - 2023
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Features of the Bildungsroman as a genre…………………..…………3

2. Jane Eyre and feminist literary criticism………………………………4

3. Jane Eyre as a Bildungsroman…………………………………………6

4. Conclusions……………………………………………………………7

5. Works cited…………………………………………………………….8
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1. Features of the Bildungsroman as a genre

Just at a time when the novel had not yet gained literary respect from the upper and educated

classes of Europe, the introduction of the novelistic genre bildungsroman irregularly broke

through. According to a recent study by S. Graham, the Bildungsroman genre has been one of

the most significant genres in Western. In turn, this term is the result of the compound

combination of two German words, “bildung” meaning education and “romano” referring to

“novel”. At the same time, the shortest form of the term “bildung” can be made up from the

word “bild” which alludes to form or image.

Appropriately, this genre is known as the ‘novel of formation’ and “the emergence of the

Bildungsroman at the end of the 18th century can be linked to the historical specificity of

political fragmentation and particularism in the German-speaking territories of the time”

(Laura 2021: 42). Moreover, with the publication of Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister’s

Journeyman Years, a number of axes are established, which are to be used to define the

Bildungsroman genre.

Likewise, the genre, which was first mentioned in a lecture by a professor named Karl Von

Morgenstern, has its own characteristics. As Manuel López Gallego rightly points out, “a

bildungsroman is a literary genre characterised by the evolution of the main character

throughout its pages”. This progression is a development from childhood through

adolescence to adulthood, which is perhaps the period in a person’s life that requires more

changes than any other.

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The search for the identity of the central character of the story is what stands out the most.

For that reason, the protagonist will always be someone young. In addition, one of the not so

outstanding features of this genre is the gaining of knowledge that it attributes to the reader

by having that person reflected in the experiences of the character(s).

2. Jane Eyre and feminist literary criticism

The stories that belong to this genre must have almost the same main theme. According to

Susan L. Cocalis, “the education of a model sovereign or citizen, appears in the context of

social criticism”. It can be analysed in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre how society

remains unjustifiably stagnant. “[...] John and his wife are very decent people; but then you

see they are only servants, and one can’t converse with them on terms of equality”. The

imposed status is recognised and an attempt is made to maintain the existing hierarchy.

Moreover, the quotation goes like this: “[...] one must keep them at due distance, for fear of

losing one’s authority” (Brontë 1897: 90). It is clear that the author intends to make the reader

see that the utopia of the novel is what needs to be changed in reality, thus turning it into a

kind of critique. It is noticeable that to be from a good family they must maintain their honour

and authority, otherwise they lose all their value because it depends on what people think of

them socially. “No; I should not like to belong to poor people” (Brontë 1897: 20).

Unfortunately, this stigma of society is highly represented in the work, usually against lower

class people.
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As Tobias Boes has already remarked, the term 'Bildungsroman' has long been one of the

most probable lexical terms in literary studies. This is partly due to the ideological condition

that the philosopher Dilthey added to it. Basically, with the historical context in which the

genre arised and in comparison with French or English works that belong to realism, the

bildungsroman genre that emerges is almost the opposite of what it has become.

Regarding the current feminist perspective, it is necessary to analyse that Jane Eyre in

particular encompasses several of the criticisms of the genre to which it belongs. Firstly, the

novel does not have a feminist viewpoint on which to rely because feminism did not exist. It

does not address a struggle that improves the situation of the protagonist. However, it shows

how important the canons of society are. In this case, they are aesthetic: “if she were a nice,

pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a

little toad as that” (Brontë 1897: 21).

Nevertheless, Jane Eyre does not fit in with all the feminist criticisms of its novelistic genre,

as the main character does not want to conform to society but instead breaks away from the

usual gender expectations and tries to find her own identity. The personality of this character

fits in with a contemporary feminist perspective, whereas older bildungsroman novels set

limits on stereotypes. They were usually written by a male author and they were also

developed by male characters. There was also a lack of representation of the female voice.
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3. Jane Eyre as a Bildungsroman

Jane’s character created by the author is very representative due to the fact that it is one of the

first bildungsromans written by a female writer and with a woman as the main character.

According to Elisa Martínez Garrido, her article exposes how Jane tells her story in first

person, which evokes the reader’s feelings and makes them empathise with her and her

challenges. The protagonist is an orphaned girl, abandoned by her remaining family and

mistreated since she was young as well. Likewise, this character belongs to this novelistic

genre because she tells the progress of her own life from when she fights with her cousin in

her hateful aunt’s house until she reaches adulthood, marrying Rochester.

As far as marriage is concerned, it is specified that the protagonist will only marry when she

finds a strong and real love connection with someone and not by popular convention. She

would not marry if she did not want to. “[...] he had talked of his future wife dying with him.

What did he mean by such a pagan idea? I had no intention of dying with him [...]” (Brontë

1897: 256), as the dialogue ends up stating a page later: “any other woman would have been

melted to marrow at hearing such stanzas crooned in her praise” (p. 257). However, Jane is

described as a “hard little thing”.

To sum up, Jane Eyre is the object of study due to the fresh perspectives offered by the

female writer. Unlike other novels, the woman who is the protagonist does not simply accept

the social status in which she is, like Helen, who is another female character in the story that
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conforms with her social class and the stereotypes. In addition, Jane does not think that the

quality of the education she received was favourable and for that reason she likes to read. To

conclude, it is important to highlight Jane’s innovative attitude towards finding a husband.

She preferred a real connection before a mediocre society-driven marriage.

4. Conclusions

The bildungsroman genre is rather a sub-genre of novels that emerged suddenly and the term

came into use after a professor named it in a conference. It also encompasses the process of a

young person’s maturation into adulthood. This essay takes up this genre because it describes

perfectly the analysed work of Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre. Moreover, when the genre first

appeared it was submerged in several feminist criticisms for only offering the story of male

characters written by male writers. This certainly did not represent the entire reading public

and exposed a dominant male perspective. It was also not very self-reflexive for the female

characters.

This work has as its main character a little girl who starts out seeming impolite but is only

against many ideologies spread by society. Besides, the protagonist is very interested in her

education to the point that she ends up being a teacher where she studied.

It is true that sometimes this genre has not focused on a story of struggle against a patriarchal

society. However, with this story it has been different because at all times it shows, with the

behaviour of the protagonist, a constant rebellion towards everything around her, society,
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love, education, motherhood… In short, Jane refuses to respect the conventions of the time,

even though she finally fell in love and got married with an already married man.

Works cited

- Beaty, J. (1996). Misreading Jane Eyre: A Postformalist Paradigm. The Ohio

State University Press.

- Boes, T. (2006). Modernist studies and the Bildungsroman: A historical survey

of critical trends. Literature Compass, 3(2), 230-243.

- Boes, T. (2007). Beyond the" Bildungsroman": Character Development and

Communal Legitimation in the Early Fiction of Joseph Conrad. Conradiana,

39(2), 113-134.

- Brontë, C. (1897). Jane Eyre. Service & Paton, London.

- Cocalis, S. L. (1974). The Early German" Bildungsroman" and the Historical

Concept of" Bildung": Thematic, Structural, and Formal Characteristics of

the" Bildungsroman" in the" age of Goethe.". Princeton University.

- Gallego, M. L. (2013). Bildungsroman: historias para crecer. Tejuelo:

Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura. Educación, (18), 62-75.

- Garrido, E. M. (2000). Bildungsroman y crítica de género: Novela rosa y

narrativa de mujeres. Cuadernos de filología italiana, (1), 529-546.

- Graham, S. (Ed.). (2019). A History of the Bildungsroman. Cambridge

University Press.
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- Laura, H. L. (2021). Rewriting the Nation: German-Turkish Transformations

of the Bildungsroman. Журнал Фронтирных Исследований, 6(2 (22)),

37-67.

- Morgenstern, K., & Boes, T. (2009). On the Nature of the Bildungsroman.

Pmla, 124(2), 647-649.

- Thamarana, S. (2015). Origin and development of bildungsroman novels in

English literature. International Journal of English Language, Literature and

Humanities, 3(6), 21-26.