The plot of Jane Eyre follows the form of a Bildungsroman, In the novel, there are five distinct stages of development, each linked to a particular place: Jane’s childhood at Gateshead, her education at the Lowood School, her time as Adèle’s governess at Thornfield, her time with the Rivers family at Morton and at Marsh End (also called Moor House), and her reunion with and marriage to Rochester at Ferndean. From these experiences, Jane becomes the mature woman who narrates the novel retrospectively. The main relationship which affects the character of Jane is that of Mr.Rochester, and this relationship also changes throughout the novel, from Master/Governess, to companions, to lovers, to distrust and eventually to marriage.…
Bronte demonstrates her stance on feminism by creating characters that defy the stereotypical ideal woman during the Victorian era. Jane’s characterization opposed many desired virtues of the Victorian era because the ideal woman at the time was docile and selflessly devoted to her family as demonstrated in Patmore’s poem which reads, “ Man must be pleased, but him to please/ Is woman’s pleasure.” (Document E) As opposed to the character of Jane Eyre portrayed as a strong, stubborn woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind and has control of her own choices. Since she has no familial male figures present in her life, Jane has the opportunity to make autonomous decisions on what she wants, contradicting the standard rule of male ownership of…
She doesn’t want to condemn Rochester to further misery, and a voice within her asks, “Who in the world cares for you?” Jane wonders how she could ever find another man who values her the way Rochester does, and whether, after a life of loneliness and neglect, she should leave the first man who has ever loved her. Yet her conscience tells her that she will respect herself all the more if she bears her suffering alone and does what she believes to be right. She tells Rochester that she must go, but she kisses his cheek and prays aloud for God to bless him as she departs. That night, Jane has a dream in which her mother tells her to flee temptation. She grabs her purse, sneaks down the stairs, and leaves…
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.…
Though Blanche, from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, thinks that opposites attract and thus that she will marry Rochester, Brontë has different ideas about foils. Near the end of the novel Jane marries Rochester effectively quieting Blanche’s ideas. However, Brontë does use foils in the novel for a different reason. She uses characters will opposite personalities to reveal more about them, and to keep the reader from overlooking many of the major characters’ traits. For instance, without Blanche, who is a foil of Jane, one may have thought Jane a simple and plain governess and nothing more. Similarly, without St. John the reader could have missed Rochester’s passionate side, or with no Mrs. Reed how supportive Miss Temple really is. Using foils, Brontë reveals more about the personalities of the major characters, and keeps the reader from overlooking many traits. One can see that Jane and Blanche are opposites from before they even meet. While Jane is rather plain and unattractive on the outside, Blanche is described as beautiful with, “the noble bust, the sloping shoulders, the graceful neck, the dark eyes and black ringlets” (183) Even Jane cannot deny that Blanche is beautiful. In addition, Blanche grows up in a rich noble family while Jane is an orphan who was sent to a lowly boarding school. The opposites do not stop at their looks and backgrounds, for even Jane and Blanche’s personalities are completely different. Jane is an independent, passionate, and respectful young woman, although she often seems very practical and rational. Blanche flaunts herself, gossips, talks about marriage, and can be very rude as shown when she says “she (Jane) looks too stupid for any game of the sort” (194). While Jane was in the room, Blanche speaks loudly and rudely of her without a second thought. In addition, Blanche only wants Rochester as her husband for his money, and for the title of a wife. She likes the fact that he is not handsome because as a…
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.…
The novel Jane Eyre is a story about a stoic woman who fights her entire life through many trials and tribulations until she finds true love and achieves an almost nirvana-like state of being. The manner, in which Charlotte Bronte writes, her tone and diction especially, lends its self to the many purposes of the novel. The diction of Bronte usually had characteristics of gothic culture and showed the usually negative and angry inner thoughts of Jane. The tone of the novel was there sympathetic towards Jane and displayed her as an intelligent and kind person who has been given a terrible lot in life. This allows the audience to feel connected with Jane because most people have gone through times in their life where they have felt similar emotions to that of Jane. This common thread between Jane and the audience allowed Bronte to better explain the internal struggles of Jane Eyre.…
This study guide is meant to serve as an outline for independent study for “The Odyssey” Unit Exam. The Exam will be fifty questions total and will include the following testing formats: multiple choice, True/False, one essay question and matching. Student will need a #2 Pencil for testing.…
In chapter XI, Jane explains her restlessness by describing how it is in human nature to find or create action. Jane’s unhappiness with her stagnation at Thornfield begins to wear her down, with no company of her own age or emotional/mental state to help absorb her heat. When the other people of thornfield are engaged in their own personal activities, Jane looks from the attic out towards the horizon longing for “a power of vision which might overpass that limit.” Jane wants to see more, she wants to be able to go into a world that is busy and full of life, somewhere that can tend to her flame instead of simply holding it. Agitation arises from within Jane when she is tranquil. Jane thinks to herself that “human beings” aren’t to be content with “tranquility”.…
Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, and Tyra Banks, modern-day renowned television celebrities, are examples of strong, independent women who influence and inspire many people. In Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, the main character of Jane is an orphaned girl who feels abused and neglected living with the Reed family. As the story progresses and she gets older, she makes friends such as Helen Burns, the girl she met at Lowood, and sheds her feelings of loneliness. As she befriends more people, she overcomes her hesitant tendencies and expresses herself openly. In the same way as the aforementioned celebrities, Jane develops into a strong and confidant woman who ends up falling in love with Mr. Rochester. Jane is initially lonely and doubtful but throughout the book her personality blossoms into one of confidence as she learns to stands up for herself. As a result, she becomes a strong and assertive woman who expresses her opinions candidly and grows to love Mr. Rochester.…
It always comes back to the classics. Anyone old enough to live during a time where a certain culture was at its peak will always be the first to tell everyone about it. Whether it be music, film, or literature, the classic pieces are always the trailblazers. When one thinks of modern classics in terms of novels, a few names come to mind. Infinite Jest, House of Leaves, or even Alan Moore’s Watchmen have all made a significant impact on the world of literature. Nearly every piece of modern art takes from their predecessors. For example, Hamlet is the story of a prince who tries to avenge the death of his father, killed by his own brother for the throne. This sounds very similar to the plot of Disney’s The Lion King, a movie that…
Jane, the protagonist in Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, is considered to be the strongest female character of her time period. However her road to becoming a strong, independent women is not smooth sailing. In the novel, male characters’ roles and interactions with Jane threaten her quest for equality throughout her life, the most prevalent being Mr. Brocklehurst, Mr. Rochester, and St. John Rivers.…
Rochester, which only made her feel envious of Blanche because she thought that there was no way that Mr. Rochester would love her over Blanche. Jane was soon proven wrong when Mr. Rochester told her that he truly love her and he was just using Blanche to make her jealous; after that, they quickly decided to get married. That was the positive that came from her first problem that soon became part of the second. For the majority of the time, Jane assumed the person that did the mysterious acts of setting Mr. Rochester’s bed on fire and destroying her veil was Grace Poole because Jane didn’t know here and because of the insane sounding laughter the where Grace was. This was proven wrong when a man named Richard Mason interrupts Jane and Mr. Rochester’s wedding by saying that Mr. Rochester was already married. It turns out that Mr. Rochester was already married to Richard’s sister Bertha, who Mr. Rochester keeps locked in the because she has gone mad. The whole time, it was Bertha who was commenting the worrisome acts throughout the…
Bildungsroman is a novel genre that narrates a hero or heroine's process of psychological maturation and focuses on experiences and changes that accompanies the growth of the character from youth to adulthood. "The term "Bildungsroman" was introduced to the critical vocabulary by the German philosopher and sociologist Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1941), who first employed it in an 1870 biography of Friedrich Schleiermacher and then popularized it with the success of his 1906 study Poetry and Experience" (Boes 231). To be a Bildungsroman, the hero or heroine in a novel will experience certain forms of pain or loss that pulls him or her away from either family or home and into the journey of desiring self-identity. At the end of the story the hero or heroine finally succeeds in the society. The plot of Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, generally follows this form. The growth of the main character, Jane Eyre, is distinctively divided into phases by places that she stayed at, starting from her tragic childhood to her final destination as Mr. Rochester's mistress. The changes of emotions and maturation of identities as Jane Eyre goes through her life provide evidence of a Bildungsroman.…