Victorian mores are the unspoken rules known and observed by society. In the eighteen-hundreds several mores were very important including justice, Christianity, high standards of honesty and morality, and women’s roles. All good people are part of a family, a Christian family and women are to serve men as they stand unequal to them. Marriage is simply a tool to gain more money and connections, and only people of the same social class are worthy of each other. Whichever social class someone is born into they remain in unless of course they are rich or beautiful, the poor and plain are simply there to be the butlers, maids and governesses of those who are high up. Several of these mores are demonstrated and contradicted in Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 masterpiece Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is the life story of a young heroin that faces incredible odds and terrible situations and still manages to follow her heart and morals through an exciting life that leads her to a blissful ending. Charlotte Bronte uses her narrative to display several of the Victorian mores and demonstrate why they’re important, and alternately disprove the significance of others.…
Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre was produced in the Victorian era, when social elitism was in its prime and there was great segregation between the upper and lower estates. The former was composed of the clergy and nobility and was defined by wealth, privileges and lavish lifestyles. The middle class, conversely, were the most frustrated by the exclusiveness of the upper estate. Possessing skill, intelligence and assertiveness, they believed that rank and power should derive from talent and merit, rather than from noble birth. Through the demonisation and infliction of a tragic downfall upon “Master Reed”, Brontë condemns the life of pleasure and honour, the lifelong inactivity so heavily indulged by those born into the aristocracy. By characterising Mr Brocklehurst as excessively and hypocritically pious, Brontë highlights the upper clergyman’s propensity to masquerade as a great nobleman, rather than to exercise the competence and benevolence integral to his role. Finally, Brontë implements a love of “servitude” and disdain for a “still … doom”, as well as the ambiguous social position of a governess in her protagonist, Jane Eyre, rendering her an agent for the middle class’ philosophy on worthiness of privilege. Ultimately, Brontë’s Jane Eyre calls for the reformation of the Victorian social structure as the extremities involved in social elitism ignore the inherent needs of man.…
While reading this book, the reader may pity Jane. Charlotte Bronte creates a consistent thread until the end of the book. Jane struggles with the same problem throughout the work, which is betrayal. She deals with it a place that was supposed to be her home, school and the work place.…
In the novel Jane Eyre, our protagonist Jane faces many difficult situations that can be solved by different solutions. In one specific situation, Jane is faced with a complicated problem that demands her to decide either to marry Mr. Rochester and live comfortably while feeling personally restricted or to leave Rochester and start a sudden life on her own. Jane eventually decides to leave Mr. Rochester and runs away from Thornsfield, going through many trials and tribulations and eventually marries Rochester in the end. Although many people may feel that Jane’s runaway was inconvenient and unnecessary because the end result was similar, I believe that Jane’s journey away from Thornsfield was important and significant to her.…
In Charlotte Bronte’s, “Jane Eyre” the concept of the ideal Victorian male is severely challenged. Characteristics of loyalty, honour, wealth, moral uprightness, and intelligence are seen to be a part of an equation that equals the ideal Victorian male. However, these distinctive characteristics are deemed unrealistic and through Jane’s narration questions can be raised as to if any of the male characters in Jane Eyre match the “ideal Victorian male”. Male characters depicted in the novel such as John Reed, Rochester and St John Rivers appear to be greedy, dishonest, hypocritical and inconsistent within their ways. They break the ideal Victorian male characteristics and by the end of the novel the characteristics of a feminine hero outshines the male characteristics to create a new type hero for the time period. However, all three male characters in the novel contribute in Janes’ journey from childhood to adulthood and her transformation into a strong, heroic woman.…
At the opening of her incredible journey, Jane Eyre is a timid, shy, and headstrong girl. Through the course of her journey, her character does not exactly "change", but rather expands and develops. Her first growth starts at the Lowood School, where she finally finds herself in a society with which she can relate and grow. The second advance appears in the place of Thornfield, a place of many wonders. Then, in the region of Morton and Marsh End (or Moor House), Jane really evolves into the person she is truly meant to be.…
Bronte critically challenges what was generally portrayed about women’s feelings and their emotions in the 19th century. Bronte’s view about women is that they “…are supposed to be very calm generally: but [they] feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do.” The use of first person, through Jane, articulates Bronte’s feelings directly as they happen, providing a more detailed and insightful response to readers. The way in which Bronte communicates her views about women’s feelings and their emotions, using very assertive language, would have evoked fiery debate among Victorian readers because the expected values of women in this time period would have involved them being emotionless and entirely dependent on their master’s, either being their father or husband.…
Jane Eyre consists of several themes which all play a part in the novel, with religion being a major theme. The Christianity religion, more specifically, is one of the main themes. In this research paper I would like to examine the relationship between Jane Eyre and the Christianity religion. I also want to look at how Christianity plays its role in the novel. There are a few different types of Christianity represented by four characters in the novel; Mr. Brocklehurst, Helen, St. John, and the Jane herself. I want to look at how Jane’s religious beliefs evolved from the beginning of the novel until the end. I also want explore more into the religion of Christianity, and compare it with the other three characters already stated. One can view the different types of Christianity through these characters, and what it may sometimes look like. I would like to end the paper with answering the question, is Jane Eyre a Christian or just a spiritual person, and what research led me to this conclusion.…
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.…
Today, Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece Jane Eyre continues to sell even 150 years after its release and has been mimicked ever since. What makes Jane Eyre so captivating to a modern audience is the plainness of the eponymous main character, a trait that is not found in many classic novels. It seems as though readers always turn to Jane Eyre when they feel the way she does throughout the majority of the novel; depressed and useless. Charlotte Brontë’s excellent use of character development amazingly turns a rather bleak story into an optimistic one of triumph and love. Charlotte Brontë uses her abilities as a writer to manipulate Jane’s voice throughout the novel by creating parallels between herself and Jane as a narrator by simulating the development of her character through her own description of events in Jane’s life, and as Jane recalls specific events from her childhood leading up to her marriage to Mr. Rochester she includes with beautiful detail the emotions she felt at every important moment, encapsulating the development of her character from her lonesome days at Gateshead to her wicked but motivating years at Lowood Institution and ending with the memories of her life in Thornfield…
In the novel Jane Eyre, author Charlotte Brontë emphasizes the religious aspect of life during the Victorian Era. Near the beginning of the preface Brontë states, “Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness in not religion”(Brontë, 1). With this statement, Brontë criticizes pseudo-religious manner in which many members of Victorian society live. She chastises her contemporaries for leading a life where empty words of justice and virtue are preceded by inconsistent behavior. Through the actions of the Reed family and Mr. Brocklehurst, Charlotte Brontë denounces the Victorian aristocracy for their self-righteous attitudes and their paltry treatment of members of lower social classes.…
What defines a family? What magical bond of love has the ability to connect a group of people? The quest for true family is a subject heavily explored in the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The singular protagonist, Jane Eyre, is a "poor, obscure, plain, and little" (Bronte 292) young woman living in nineteenth century England who is orphaned at an early age. Knowing little about the cause of her parents' death or the possible existence of any relatives, Jane is brought up at Gateshead under the tyrannical presence of her aunt and three cousins, and she experiences abuse on all different levels: emotional, physical, and mental. After breaking free of this "family", many years later, Jane comes into contact with the Rivers family. She forms a close relationship with three benevolent people who turn out to be her cousins, and Jane finds the closest thing to a family in her life by residing with them. There is concrete evidence in Jane Eyre, as mentioned in Oates’ introduction, that Jane’s familial relationships in her lifetime strengthen her and define her as a person. Jane’s longing for a true family, which is painfully brought out by the cruelty of the Reeds, is satisfied by a newfound relationship with the Rivers siblings at Whitcross.…
Bronte presents the female characters in many different ways. One early example we see of this in chapter one is Jane’s passion as you speaks out a John. “You are like a murderer – you are like a slave-driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” This is the first time we see Jane’s true passion as she is speaking out to John. By doing so, she is breaking the social norms of that time.…
Love is a huge concept in Jane Eyre. Her entire life Jane looks for love whether it is the kind of love between family, friends, or a partner. Jane 's need for love is so great that, according to Charles Burkhart, "Love is a religion in Jane Eyre."(academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu) Many people judge Jane and don’t get along with her because they can’t see past her plain face or her unladylike mind and personality. Jane even points those things out in herself. Jane desires to find a life of independence in place of the love she can never seem to find. For Jane finding someone to love, in any type of way, and to love her back was hard to find. Jane tries to find her independence after all the love she has ever had is ripped away from her. “I desired…
Jane Eyre is written in the style of an autobiography and through the powerful first person narrative with very direct references to the ‘readers’, Charlotte Bronte explores the strict social structures and attitudes predominant in the Victorian era. In my opinion, the social hierarchy of that period is crucial in the novel as it helps to develop the plot because if Jane wasn’t poor and an orphan, she would never have been brought up in the traumatized and distressing way as she was. It is these circumstances which shaped her as a person and fueled her individuality and fiery spirit. Perhaps Bronte uses Jane as a vehicle to show her own aggravation at society’s narrow-mindedness and prejudices towards women and people in lower socioeconomic classes. Through Bronte’s book we receive a very vivid image of what life of a woman in the Victorian era was like and experience all of Jane’s struggles. The author intended the readers to empathise with Jane and feel her pain so that society could change their outlook on gender equality. It can be said that women in this period were oppressed and seen as inferior beings and Jane Eyre is one of the first feminist novels. Firstly, it is written in the female narrative which was not very common at that time, additionally from the perspective of a middle class woman; a governess. The fact that this book is so unconventional and such a daring book for that time alludes to the fact that Charlotte Bronte was trying to get a message across here to the society which immediately renders the society’s attitudes one of the most key issues addressed in the novel.…