Jane Eyre is a novel that represents critique of Victorian age assumptions about social classes and gender issues. In the nineteenth-century there was a belief that women and men belong in “separate spheres,” each with its own responsibilities. The women were expected to devote her self to the repetitive tasks of domestic labor and to minister to the needs of others while the men work and brought money.
Charlotte Bronte tries in her novel to state an exemplar has the opposite of the Victorian women aspects. The Victorian women were very dependable on men, not equal to them and they were allowed to learn only the things that made the woman get a good husband. Although some of the Victorian women work but only as a governess the society look in disrespectful toward them.
Jane Eyre symbolizes charlotte Bronte rejection of the position of the women and middle-class women in the society. “I am not an angel,” I asserted; ” and I will not be one till I die: I will be my self.” when Jane fight with her cousin john reed that is an evidence for her rebellious character against the male domination over female. John Reed represents the wealth upper-class child who has everything he pleased while Jane doesn’t have anything no family, money or even a position in the society, which made her try to have her independent and learn to work after that and earn her own money. Her cousin john reed was also being a tyrant to Jane ” I really saw in him a tyrant a murderer” Jane said.(chapter 1 page 24)
The Essay on Jane Eyre Book John Reed
In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, we are introduced to Jane, the orphan protagonist of the story. When the novel first begins, she is an isolated, powerless ten- year old living with an aunt and her cousins whom do not like her. Jane feels alienated from the Reed family; therefore she spends much of her time alone. Jane is faced with two factors; one she is a girl, and two she is poor. ...
Mr.Bocklehurst represents one of the male figures that Jane should overcome to reach her goal of independence .He is a personification of the hypocritical figure. He proclaims that their bodies should be starved so that their souls can be saved. He even wants the girls’ hair to be cut off. Then Brocklehurst suddenly notices her and warns the teachers against her deceitful nature.
As Jane reach maturity she encounters other male figures Edward Rochester and St.John Rivers. Jane feels that she and Rochester are kindred spirits because he was the first person who offers Jane lasting love and a real home. Although Rochester is Jane’s social and economic superior. Although men were considered superior to women in that period Jane was Rochester’s intellectual equal. When he propose to her and she refuse to take his money and jewels that clarifies how she is holding to her in dependence and dignity(I tell you I must go! Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? –a machine without feelings?).
And while she urged by Rochester to remain with him and to cease struggling ” like a wild, frantic bird,” she replies: ” I am no bird; and no net ensure me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”
In the other hand, St.John Rivers is a foil to Edward Rochester. Whereas Rochester is passionate, St.John is austere and ambitious. St.John represents the religious man who dies while doing his duty. When Jane refuses his proposal that was because he wanted her to sacrifice her independence and just be as a useful tool to him.
In this novel the author explore the fine line between the conventional nineteenth century path of marriage and subjection to male authority against the culturally subversive path of feminine independence.
