INTRODUCTION

TO Jane Eyre

By Charlotte
Bronte

10th English
Language Arts

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 Key Facts about Jane Eyre
• Full Title: Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
• When Written: 1847
• Literary Period: Victorian
• Genre: Victorian novel. Jane Eyre combines Gothic mystery, a
romantic marriage plot, and a coming-of-age story.
• Setting: Northern England in the early 1800s.
• Climax: Jane telepathically hears Rochester's voice calling out
to her.
• Point of View: First person. Jane recounts her story ten years
after its ending.

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THE BELLS AND BRONTES
• The Brontës became a literary powerhouse when Charlotte,
Emily, and Anne all wrote successful first novels.
• Each sister published under a masculine-sounding
pseudonym based on their initials. Charlotte Brontë became
"Currer Bell"; Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights (1845-
46) as "Ellis Bell", and Anne Brontë published Agnes
Gray (1847) as "Acton Bell."
• Women could enter the marketplace as writers and novelists,
but many writers, including the Brontës and Mary Anne
Evans ("George Eliot"), used male pseudonyms to keep from
being dismissed as unimportant during Victorian England.
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THE NOVEL
• Published in
October 1847

• During the
Industrial
Revolution
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 Brief review of the
historical context
• Industrial Revolution, in modern history, the process of change
from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by
industry and machine manufacturing.
• These technological changes introduced novel ways of working and
living and fundamentally transformed society.
• This process began in Britain in the 18th century and from there
spread to other parts of the world.
• The term Industrial Revolution was first popularized by the English
economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852–83) to describe Britain’s
economic development from 1760 to 1840. (although it was
originally used by French writers.)

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 Context: Brief review
• Since Toynbee’s time the term has been more broadly applied as a
process of economic transformation than as a period of time in a
particular setting. This explains why some areas, such as China and
India, did not begin their first industrial revolutions until the 20th
century, while others, such as the United States and western Europe,
began undergoing “second” industrial revolutions by the late 19th
century.

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 Characteristics of the Industrial
Revolution
• The main features involved in the Industrial Revolution were
technological, socioeconomic, and cultural.
• The technological changes included the following:
• (1) the use of new basic materials, chiefly iron and steel,
• (2) the use of new energy sources, including both fuels and
motive power, such as coal, the steam engine, electricity,
petroleum, and the internal-combustion engine,
• (3) the invention of new machines, such as the spinning jenny
and the power loom that permitted increased production with a
smaller expenditure of human energy,

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 Characteristics of the Industrial
Revolution
• (4) a new organization of work known as the factory system,
which entailed increased division of labour and specialization
of function,
• (5) important developments in transportation and
communication, including the steam locomotive, steamship,
automobile, airplane, telegraph, and radio,
• and (6) the increasing application of science to industry. These
technological changes made possible a tremendously increased
use of natural resources and the mass production of
manufactured goods.

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 Major changes brought by the
Industrial Revolution
• https://www.britannica.com/video/
222419/did-you-know-Industrial-
Revolution

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What was hygiene like in Victorian Era?

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 Charlotte Bronte
• Born of Irish ancestry •Lived at Haworth, a
in 1816 parsonage

•Mother died of cancer when Charlotte was 5 years old.

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The Bronte sisters
• Charlotte had 3
sisters and 1 brother.

• While at the Clergy

Daughter’s School,
her 2 older sisters
(Maria & Elizabeth)
died of tuberculosis

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 Charlotte’s family con.’t
• The Clergy Daughter’s School at Cowan Bridge
became the model for Lowood, the fictitious girls’
school in Jane Eyre.

• Charlotte’s brother, Branwell, pursued a career as a

portrait painter but he was not successful. While in
London he developed a liking to alcohol and opium, a
habit that would later on prove to be fatal.

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 More on Charlotte’s Family
• In 1846, Charlotte & her sisters started publishing
poems and began writing novels. Anne and Emily
Bronte work also received great success.

– The Professor was Charlotte’s attempt to

fictionalize her love for a college professor she had
met at Brussels.

– In 1847 Wuthering Heights was sister Emily’s first

success. Charlotte followed with Jane Eyre.
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Marriage Bells
• In 1854, Charlotte
marries her father's
curate, Arthur Bell
Nichols.

• The next year, she

became pregnant, then ill.

• She died a month before

her 39th birthday
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16
Social Context
Jane Eyre

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 Schooling
• During the early 19th
century, it became
fashionable to educate
females.

• However, free education

was not yet available for
either sex.

• Only the very rich could

send their daughters to
elegant girls’ schools

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 Governesses
1. Less costly schools were 3. With the new stress on
formed by well-meaning female education,
benefactors in order to governesses were in
educate poor females.
demand.

2. Illness was common

because there was not a 4. Pay was poor, but it was
clear understanding of one of the only jobs
the relationship between available to educated,
dirt & disease yet impoverished young
women

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 Role of the governess
• Employers & other
servants shunned the
governess because they
felt she was “putting on
airs.”

• Her employers would

ignore her, too, because
she had a superior
education, which
intimidated many people.

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 Relevant topics
portrayed in Jane Eyre

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https://www.litcharts.com/lit/jane-
eyre

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 Charlotte’s Religious Views
• Father, Patrick Bronte,
was an Anglican
clergyman

• Due to her upbringing,

she often wrote about
religious hypocrisy—
those who preach one
doctrine but live by
another
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 A ground breaking novel
Why?
1. The heroine is small, plain, & poor

2. The heroine is the first female character to claim the right

to feel strongly about her emotions and act on her
convictions

3. This romantic ground had previously been reserved for

males

4. Such a psychologically complex heroine had never been

created before

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 What Gothic influence is
evident in the novel?
• Jane Eyre displays some characteristics
of the gothic novel:
– Imprisoned women
– A heroine who faces danger
– A Byronic lead
– Supernatural interventions at crucial
moments in the plot
– A romantic reconciliation

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Jane Eyre’s Romantic
Heritage
• The Romantic Movement
– Came into play in at the end
of the 18th Century.
– Championed for the rights
of the individual over the
demands of society.
– Believed that humans were
inherently good
– Valued imagination over
reason
– Inspired by nature

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Byronic Hero
• This term is created by the
famous poet George
Gordon, Lord Byron.

• Characteristics are…
– Proud
– Gloomy
– Mysterious
– Passionate
*Mr. Rochester is an example of
this type

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 Charlotte’s Quotes
• It is vain to say human beings ought to be
satisfied with tranquility: they must have
action; and they will make it if they cannot
find it.

• If we would build on a sure foundation in

friendship, we must love friends for their
sake rather than for our own.
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 Pre reading class activity
• Now you will be divided in pairs. You will
do a short reading and work on Activities 1
and 2.
• Be patient until you get your handout and
meet with your assigned partner.
• Make sure you turn it in before the class is
over.

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T
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N
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