Jane Eyre
Critical Examination of Jane Eyre as a Bildungsroman
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte boasts a multitude of themes such as gothic, romance, fantasy, social class, religion, morality and the supernatural. However, first and foremost it is a novel of growth and development within a restricted social order. It follows the protagonist, Jane’s ‘coming of age’ story in a chronological order from Gateshead to Lowood to Thornfield and Moor House to Ferndean. At each place Jane begins a new emotional phase. All the elements described here sum up to Jane Eyre as a Bildungsroman. I will outline in my essay what makes Jane a female Bildungsroman, along with her prolonged, arduous and successful journey to adulthood and maturity which become evident in her position in society by the end of the novel.
Bildungsroman follows a person through their life, displaying their successes and failures, their struggle between personal desires and society’s norms. The protagonist overcomes these trails and is independent at the end. It allows the readers to witness the innocence and morality of a young character, and choices he/she makes to fit in the world. It starts with an emotional loss, which sends the protagonist on his/her journey, and a protagonist who is also socially confined, often poor, sensitive and looking for answers and experiences. By the end of the novel, the same protagonist is mature, happy and financially well off often by the way of an inheritance. “The Bildung narrative in Victorian novels thus traces the growth to mature consciousness of an individual who, without parents, though sometimes with inadequate foster parents (sisters, uncles, cousins), develops a powerful internal life that is imaginatively well beyond the constraining realities of actual life” (Levine 82-83). All these elements can be traced in Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre is a plain heroine, but her physical appearance isn’t the only unusual thing about her. She is the emotional equal of any man. She is
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte boasts a multitude of themes such as gothic, romance, fantasy, social class, religion, morality and the supernatural. However, first and foremost it is a novel of growth and development within a restricted social order. It follows the protagonist, Jane’s ‘coming of age’ story in a chronological order from Gateshead to Lowood to Thornfield and Moor House to Ferndean. At each place Jane begins a new emotional phase. All the elements described here sum up to Jane Eyre as a Bildungsroman. I will outline in my essay what makes Jane a female Bildungsroman, along with her prolonged, arduous and successful journey to adulthood and maturity which become evident in her position in society by the end of the novel.
Bildungsroman follows a person through their life, displaying their successes and failures, their struggle between personal desires and society’s norms. The protagonist overcomes these trails and is independent at the end. It allows the readers to witness the innocence and morality of a young character, and choices he/she makes to fit in the world. It starts with an emotional loss, which sends the protagonist on his/her journey, and a protagonist who is also socially confined, often poor, sensitive and looking for answers and experiences. By the end of the novel, the same protagonist is mature, happy and financially well off often by the way of an inheritance. “The Bildung narrative in Victorian novels thus traces the growth to mature consciousness of an individual who, without parents, though sometimes with inadequate foster parents (sisters, uncles, cousins), develops a powerful internal life that is imaginatively well beyond the constraining realities of actual life” (Levine 82-83). All these elements can be traced in Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre is a plain heroine, but her physical appearance isn’t the only unusual thing about her. She is the emotional equal of any man. She is