Why Is Jane Eyre Still Relevant Today
Whether people believe it or not, social classes have always been a divider between different groups of people. Even if they aren’t as defined as they were one-hundred or two-hundred years ago they are still present in society today. People within the same class, most of the time economic, tend to live around, work or go to school with, and hang out with other people of the same class and that has always been that way; possibly even more so in the book Jane Eyre. Classes were even more separate than they are today when the book was written and published back in October of 1847. It was highly unlikely and even frowned upon if people from different classes interacted often and especially when they spoke out against the class systems. However, Jane was a different kind of person. She broke the mold and spoke out for herself when it wasn’t popular or could’ve gotten her in trouble. She even spoke out against men which was a big deal back in those days because
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women were basically owned by their husbands and were to respect men as people that were above them. In the book Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte controversially uses Jane to show how women were treated and how social class affected people during the Victorian era. One of the main reasons people were in such class systems and women were treated so differently then men was because of the industrial revolution going on at the time.
As Vanden Bossche put it in his analysis of the time and period and how it connects to Jane Eyre entitled “What Did "Jane Eyre" Do? Ideology, Agency, Class and the Novel” he said “when understanding the history of the nineteenth century as being driven by class interest, we can see class as one of the chief discursive formations through which the nineteenth century conducted political debate and sought to understand, manage, and come to terms with a diverse series of social conditions” (50). During the time period Jane Eyre was set in everything was revolving around what class someone was in. How they were treated, who they were allowed to interact with, and what they were allowed to purchase depended on one’s class. It makes sense Jane wanted to “rebel” against her class since she was in a lower one she was not given the same privileges as
others. The poor were obviously the lowest class in the social hierarchy and Jane started out her life at the bottom as an orphan meaning she was mistreated and unprivileged. In the novel Jane Eyre, John Reed mocks Jane saying, “You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us” (8). John constantly treats Jane horribly at the beginning of her life and the book reminding her of how she is an orphan and how she is completely dependent on the Reed family. This makes Jane feel that she is worthless and would thereby be in the lowest class possible also reminding her of John Reed’s dominating power over her. However, the more Jane continued to be looked at as inferior to others in higher classes and men, the more she desired her freedom. Once again in Jane Eyre Jane says, “I tired of the routine of eight years in one afternoon. I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing” (Bronte 72). Jane is desperate for liberty and this shows she is different from the other women of her time. While most women except their roles in the household Jane doesn’t want to do that. However, even if other women weren’t happy about their class or social status none of them had ever spoken out about it; Jane did. Jane starts to speak out against men even though she is a women of the lower class even though it is very rare to do so and isn’t the popular thing to do during the time period. Jane tells off Rochester in the book Jane Eyre saying, “I don't think, sir, you have a right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience” (Bronte 114). Again Jane socially defies a man when she is talking to St. John this time saying, “Again the surprised expression crossed his face. He had not imagined that a woman would dare to speak so to a man. For me, I felt at home in this sort of discourse. I could never rest in communication with strong, discreet, and refined minds, whether male or female, till I had passed the outworks of conventional reserve, and crossed the threshold of confidence, and won a place by their heart's very hearthstone” (Bronte 319).
women were basically owned by their husbands and were to respect men as people that were above them. In the book Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte controversially uses Jane to show how women were treated and how social class affected people during the Victorian era. One of the main reasons people were in such class systems and women were treated so differently then men was because of the industrial revolution going on at the time.
As Vanden Bossche put it in his analysis of the time and period and how it connects to Jane Eyre entitled “What Did "Jane Eyre" Do? Ideology, Agency, Class and the Novel” he said “when understanding the history of the nineteenth century as being driven by class interest, we can see class as one of the chief discursive formations through which the nineteenth century conducted political debate and sought to understand, manage, and come to terms with a diverse series of social conditions” (50). During the time period Jane Eyre was set in everything was revolving around what class someone was in. How they were treated, who they were allowed to interact with, and what they were allowed to purchase depended on one’s class. It makes sense Jane wanted to “rebel” against her class since she was in a lower one she was not given the same privileges as
others. The poor were obviously the lowest class in the social hierarchy and Jane started out her life at the bottom as an orphan meaning she was mistreated and unprivileged. In the novel Jane Eyre, John Reed mocks Jane saying, “You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us” (8). John constantly treats Jane horribly at the beginning of her life and the book reminding her of how she is an orphan and how she is completely dependent on the Reed family. This makes Jane feel that she is worthless and would thereby be in the lowest class possible also reminding her of John Reed’s dominating power over her. However, the more Jane continued to be looked at as inferior to others in higher classes and men, the more she desired her freedom. Once again in Jane Eyre Jane says, “I tired of the routine of eight years in one afternoon. I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing” (Bronte 72). Jane is desperate for liberty and this shows she is different from the other women of her time. While most women except their roles in the household Jane doesn’t want to do that. However, even if other women weren’t happy about their class or social status none of them had ever spoken out about it; Jane did. Jane starts to speak out against men even though she is a women of the lower class even though it is very rare to do so and isn’t the popular thing to do during the time period. Jane tells off Rochester in the book Jane Eyre saying, “I don't think, sir, you have a right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience” (Bronte 114). Again Jane socially defies a man when she is talking to St. John this time saying, “Again the surprised expression crossed his face. He had not imagined that a woman would dare to speak so to a man. For me, I felt at home in this sort of discourse. I could never rest in communication with strong, discreet, and refined minds, whether male or female, till I had passed the outworks of conventional reserve, and crossed the threshold of confidence, and won a place by their heart's very hearthstone” (Bronte 319).