Women Writers - Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte
Women writers use their personal lives as stimulus when writing works of fiction. As seen in the classic author Charlotte Brontë and her novel Jane Eyre (1847) and also for the contemporary author Kathy Reichs. While Jane Eyre is a novel telling the life story of its title character, it is mostly based upon aspects of Brontë’s life. Kathy Reich’s uses her life and personally traits to develop the main character and her life in her novels as well. There are a few reasons why women use this technique but it all comes back to the point of the need women have to communicate and use written story telling as their outlet. Thus, writing about the personal life become more than just trying to find material to write about, it could almost become therapeutic. Either way, it is clear that women use their lives as writing material and Jane Eyre (Brontë, 1847) and Reich’s novels are examples.
Charlotte Brontë was born April 21, 1816 as one of five daughters born to Reverend Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell Brontë (Cody, 2004). Charlotte lived a sheltered life, spending most of her years confined to Haworth Parsonage (Cody, 2004). With Charlotte’s limited knowledge of the world, it should come as no surprise that the plot of her first published novel, Jane Eyre (Brontë , 1847), contains many parallels to her own life – some very likely intentional, while others may be subconscious or even merely coincidental. Regardless of her intentions while writing Jane Eyre (Brontë , 1847), it is clear that Charlotte Brontë drew heavily on her own identity and experiences in creating the character of Jane.
Jane Eyre’s childhood seems in some respects to have been modelled after Brontë’s. There are certain aspects of the story in Jane Eyre that seem to be based solely on Brontë’s own life; for example, her childhood. Even though Brontë’s father outlived all of his children (Cody, 2004), both of Jane Eyre’s parents died when she was a baby (Brontë, 1847). Brontë’s mother did die
Charlotte Brontë was born April 21, 1816 as one of five daughters born to Reverend Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell Brontë (Cody, 2004). Charlotte lived a sheltered life, spending most of her years confined to Haworth Parsonage (Cody, 2004). With Charlotte’s limited knowledge of the world, it should come as no surprise that the plot of her first published novel, Jane Eyre (Brontë , 1847), contains many parallels to her own life – some very likely intentional, while others may be subconscious or even merely coincidental. Regardless of her intentions while writing Jane Eyre (Brontë , 1847), it is clear that Charlotte Brontë drew heavily on her own identity and experiences in creating the character of Jane.
Jane Eyre’s childhood seems in some respects to have been modelled after Brontë’s. There are certain aspects of the story in Jane Eyre that seem to be based solely on Brontë’s own life; for example, her childhood. Even though Brontë’s father outlived all of his children (Cody, 2004), both of Jane Eyre’s parents died when she was a baby (Brontë, 1847). Brontë’s mother did die
References: ‘Kathy Reichs’, 2011 Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Encyclopædia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1377721/Kathy-Reichs [Accessed 26 April 2011]