Charlotte Bronte's Treatment Of Women In The 19th Century

In the nineteenth century, individuals, including Charlotte Bronte, were discriminated against because of their gender and role in society. Because she was woman who was succeeding in literature, she was judged. Bronte had to deal with the harsh society, just as Jane had to struggle with living with her rude family, the Reeds, and frustrating marriage with Rochester. Frank Magill confirms that, “One can imagine that the novel appealed to women then, and today, because it reflects the frustratingly limiting condition of women in the nineteenth century” (300). Women enjoy this novel because it clearly explains the hardships females faced back then and, unfortunately, still now. They are known to be complete opposites of men; being stereotyped as inferior and not important. Bronte is able to take real life scenarios that females experienced in the nineteenth century and apply those situations into Jane’s life.
Women were limited with their education; it could not interfere with their work. Passionate studying was seen as harmful to the family. These obstacles were similar to the real life limitations placed on women. Joyce Moss states, “In Victorian England, the major barrier facing women was the prevalent belief that the female mind could not sufficiently acquire and retain intellectual material...women received only a limited education in certain appropriate subjects” (181). Men had the role of providing for the family. They also had the opportunity to attend school throughout their whole lives. Women, however, were seen as too weak and illogical to do this. They had the basic domestic chores of taking care of the children and house.