Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre Enduring relevance. It has been suggested that a key element. In Jane Eyre’s enduring relevance to readers is the novel’s examination of society and its expectations. To what extent does your personal understanding concur with this view? In your response, you should critically analyze and evaluate the techniques, themes and structure of the novel.

The enduring power of Charlotte Bronte’s Victorian novel Jane Eyre lies. In its ability to elicit various emotions amongst responders through. The controversial social exploration of 19″ century England. The modern audience can interpret the novel as a dark satire of religious hypocrisy. And as a powerful commentary into the oppressive nature of rigid social and gender inequality in the Victorian era.

Through the compelling story of fascinating Jane. And her subversion of traditional Victorian social. Gender and religious expectations. Bronte relays a significant message about the importance of an individual mind. When attempting to break free of oppressive forces. Such a powerful message gives the novel an enduring power to move and influence readers in different ways.

The patriarchal system of Victorian England oppressed the identity of women in society. However, through Jane, Bronte subverts the traditional Victorian expectations of women. Resulting in my understanding of Jane as an enduring feminist hero. The overarching patriarchal values evident in 19th century. England is first manifested through the character of cousin, John Reed. The hyperbolic language. And extended syntax in description “every nerve in Jane feared him.

For the terror he inspired”, emphasizes the great influence John has. As the sole Reed male, thus personifying the oppression of feminine identity due to gender inequality. However, Jane’s emphatic diction towards John “you are like a murderer!” reflects her feminist tendency and refusal to submit to a patriarchal power. Jane’s resilience highlights her individual mind and potential to escape the entrapment of gender inequality.

Jane’s subversion of the passive identity of conventional Victorian women is further illuminated. Through her ultimate superiority over Rochester, her love interest and employer. Rochester’s final “blind and crippled state” is a plot twist. Which allows Jane more control, thus symbolizing her triumph over gender inequality. Allen’s (1954) belief that “Rochester’s mutilation is a symbol of Jane’s triumph in the battle of the sexes” confirms my interpretation.

Despite my feminist appreciation for Jane Eyre, Victorian audiences were critical of Jane’s subversion of traditional Victorian values. Eastlake’s critique “Jane is destitute of all conventional feature of female attractions” demonstrates the 19th century expectations of women to compliant and inferior. Therefore, it is my belief that Jane’s unique identity as a feminist Victorian figure is a significant factor in the novel’s enduring power to powerfully move the modern audience.

The inequality embedded in the Victorian class structure oppressed the individual identities of the lower class. It is my understanding that Jane’s awareness of the limitations. Of social prejudice result in her compelling character. And thus adds to the novel’s enduring power to captivate readers of different contexts. Bessie’s aphorism “you are less than a servant; you do nothing for your keep” juxtaposes with John’s haughty claim “you ought to beg”, emphasizing the lack of mobility within the Victorian social hierarchy and consequently the lack of opportunity within the lower class for individuals to forge their identity.

Jane’s chance encounter with Rochester is a typical plot device of the Victorian Romanticism genre; however she disregards the meeting with pragmatic diction, “an incident of no incident, no moment, and no romance”, highlighting her shrewd understanding of her personal limitations as a lower class individual in a strict social hierarchy. However, the novel’s bildungsroman format emphasizes Jane’s ultimate subversion of the rigid 19th century English social hierarchy.

The confident tone in Jane’s assertion “I am an independent woman” reflects Jane’s triumph over the strict Victorian social immobility. Direct address and first person narration in “Reader, I married him”, epitomizes Jane’s newfound freedom of choice. It is my understanding that through Jane’s struggle to gain “independence”, Bronte criticizes the hierarchical oppression in Victorian England. My interpretation is mirrored by Chase’s (1948) analysis of Jane Eyre as “an argument for social betterment”. Bronte’s unromantic commentary of social stratification in 19th century England offers the modern audience a compelling insight into the oppressive nature of social prejudice. However, Jane’s ultimate triumph evokes a sense of accomplishment within the reader, giving the text a significant enduring relevance to society.

Overruling faith in religion can result in sanctimonious and hypocritical acts by people in positions of high religious power, oppressing individual thoughts in society. The oppressive regime of authoritarian figure Brocklehurst is a caricature of the religious platitudes of the Victorian era, giving the novel an enduring relevance by offering a gripping narration of the superficial piety existent in 19″ century England. There is irony “Christian” belief that individuals must be “clothed in shame faced sobriety” as his daughters are described with rich visual imagery and itemization “splendidly attired in fufasfkjjrs, silks and velvets’.

The vast contrast in lifestyles highlights Brocklehurst’s disingenuous preaching of religious morals and unjust subjugation of the Lowood students’ freedom of expression and identity. My understanding of the effect of character Brocklehurst is supported by Charlie Smith’s belief that “Jane Eyre is an expose of tyranny in [Victorian England]” (2001). Student, Helen Burns, embodies the consequence of allowing hypocritical religious authorities oppress the lower class.

The paradoxical nature of her mantra “love your enemies; bless them that curse you” is a biblical allusion and reflects oppression of individual passion. Helen’s acceptance acts as a foil for Jane’s own rebellious passion. Jane’s rhetorical question, “does it [heaven] exist?” emphasizes her shrewd doubtfulness of the hypocritical religious teachings of the institute. Bronte’s representation of religion as an oppressive force highlights the importance of independent thought in order to maintain personal identity. This significant message gives

Jane Eyre an enduring power to move readers in different ways by emphasizing the dangers of blind submission. Charlotte Bronte subverts the traditional representations and expectations of social class, gender and religion in her novel Jane Eyre, offering a controversial insight into oppressive Victorian England.

Her emphasis on the oppressive influence that rigid social hierarchy, gender inequality and hypocritical religion has on individual identity gives the text significance by providing the novel with the enduring power to impact readers of different contexts. Therefore, through the critical study of Jane Eyre, it has become my understanding that it is a text’s ability to elicit powerful emotion within a responder that gives a text enduring significance and power within society.

Jane Eyre: A Critical Analysis of Gender Relations in Victorian Literature Modern society tends to view the Victorian era as one of oppression and constraint, despite the social and cultural upheaval of the time. This contradiction refers, in large, to the constraints imposed on the female gender. Women in Victorian England were viewed as inferior to their male counterparts, and were allocated clearly defined roles within society. Their treatment is a subject that is explored and critiqued throughout the literature of the time, and subsequent analysis by literary commentators.

As Maynard comments (1984); ‘Few observers of the Victorian Scene have failed to point out the unusual degree of sexual restraint imposed upon social life and published literature’. However, it is in the work of the Bronte sisters that one witnesses the most comprehensive, and sometimes startling account of the social and gender restraints of the time. This paper will concentrate on the novel Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, and published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell.

The adoption of a male pseudonym in itself reflects an underlying social prejudice towards female novelists, as outlined by the author; ‘Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell… while we did not like to declare ourselves women… we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice’ (Smith, 2000). This somewhat disturbing observation by the author sets the tone of the novel itself, and implies what it is exactly that set the Bronte sisters apart from their contemporaries; their ‘unfeminine’ style of writing.

Jane Eyre is, in effect, a love story, and concentrates on the main character’s quest to find true love. It cannot be classed, however, as a solely romantic novel as the character’s quest for love involves a struggle for equal treatment, social acceptance, and value. In doing so, she questions and refuses to conform to an array of social norms associated with the era. Jane’s desire to be loved is evident in the opening stages of the story, in her conversation with Helen Burn’s; ‘if others don’t love me I would rather die than live…

I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse, and let it dash its hoof at my chest’ (Bronte, 1847). This somewhat distressing insight into the young Eyre’s mindset captures her quest for ‘true love’, as opposed to the loveless relationships and marriages associated with the time. This association is witnessed by Jane’s eventual husband, Mr Rochester, in his first marriage;  ‘Bertha Antoinette Mason, she was wanted by my father for her fortune. I hardly spoke with her before the wedding. I lived with her for 4 years.

Her temper ripened, her vices sprang up, violent and unchaste’ (Bronte, 1847). Rochester’s summary of the ‘marriage’ is a disturbing insight into the arranged, and socially acceptable, marriages of the time. Bronte sets her protagonist apart from her peers in her views of love, but further cements this difference in her continued criticism of the attitudes of the Victorian class. This is apparent in chapter 17 in particular, when she questions her growing feelings for Mr Rochester; ‘You have nothing to do with the master of Thornfield, further than to receive the salary he gives you for teaching his protege…. o don’t make him the object of your fine feelings’. (Bronte, 1847) It becomes clear, however, that despite Jane’s attempts to restrain her emotions, she is fighting a losing battle and is becoming increasingly enraptured with Mr Rochester, reacting in a heated manner upon receipt of a letter from him; ‘And while she broke the seal and perused the document, I went on taking my coffee… Why my hand shook, and why I involuntarily spilt half the contents of my cup into my saucer, I did not choose to consider’ (Bronte, 1847).

Jane’s employment as a governess by Mr Rochester further complicates her situation and her increasing love for her employer. Hedgecock summarises the role of the governess in Victorian society (2008): ‘in ordinary Victorian life, the governess is the genteel spinster, self-effacing, having no ambitions outside the home in which she is subjected to a life of dependency’. Eyre, however, was not willing to conform to ‘ordinary Victorian life’, nor was she willing to fit the mould of the unassuming governess.

Eyre’s constant struggle with her feelings for Rochester is impacted throughout by the norms of society at the time, and her resilience to them. She is unwilling to marry Rochester while Bertha is still in the picture, as it would equate her to a mistress, a position that she wholly disapproves of and one which Rochester wishes her to take: ‘As a married man you will shun me, keep out of my way: just now you have refused to kiss me’. (Bronte, 1847). Despite Eyre eventually marrying Rochester, when his wife has passed away, she refuses throughout to conform to and comply with the social etiquette of the time.

Just like her creator, she is almost masculine throughout the novel, thus portrayed through her personal values and strength of character. It can be understood that Charlotte Bronte depicted herself through the life of Jane Eyre, and used her fictional character as one whom modelled and almost mimicked Bronte as a person. Eyre possessed the same strong drive in seeking equality and independence as a woman. Her refusal in accepting the conformities of the time mirrors Bronte.

Bernstein (1997) sets the scene for those non-familiar with the Victorian era: ‘in the larger cultural context of Victorian England in which women are not accorded by law or by custom much opportunity to act on their own behalf’. This supports the motive behind Bronte and her actions. It portrays the gender roles, which strongly influenced people’s behaviour and identities. This ‘social rule’ fuelled women’s endurance of the condescending attitudes about a woman’s place, intelligence, and voice. Thus, in turn, Jane became subjected to an uphill battle to become independent and recognized for her personal qualities.

Bronte attempts to illustrate how personal virtues are better indicators of character than class. The red-room mentioned in the novel is a metaphorical image for Jane’s entrapment in the life she is expected to lead. A life of entrapment from society, limiting her freedom due to her independent streak, race and foremost – gender. Eyre’s struggles in attempting to overcome the oppression are all of a display through the feminine movement, in which the Bronte sisters each played a significant role in setting off. Eyre displays characteristics of masculinity, such of which in Victorian era would only be confined to that of male prominence.

The strong connection made between both author and character is evident to the reader. In conclusion, Jane Eyre captures the struggle and oppression faced by the women of Victorian Britain. Despite the eventual happy-ending to the novel, the lead character is forced to overcome strict social and gender restrictions in order to be with her true love. We see throughout the novel, however, that Eyre is an exceptional character at the time and represents only a small number of women who were quietly moving against society’s expectations of them.

Charlotte, the eldest of the Bronte sisters, received reputably the most critical recognition with her creation, Jane Eyre. Overall, the three Bronte sisters are highly known in English literature for their historical prominence that made them significant to the era of the Victorians. Their livelihood painted the path in which their work followed and their upbringing greatly influenced their beliefs and outlooks. The three sister’s strong and willing characteristics aided them in delivering what can be perceived as staples in literature, and for centuries become only stronger with growth and eminence.

As Winnifrith (1988) stated; ‘the Brontes had the courage to break away from the almost universal belief that sinners merited eternal punishment’. This reflects upon their independence and strength in striving for their own beliefs and expressing their opinions. These opinions were of such strong stature, resulting in the power to in script their everlasting effect on the literature of the Victorian era and even on English literature as a whole. Bibliography Bernstein, Susan David. Confessional Subjects: Revelations of Gender and Power in Victorian Literature & Culture. USA: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. United Kingdom: Smith, Elder and Co, 1847. Hedgecock, Jennifer. The Femme Fatale in Victorian Literature: The Danger and the Sexual Threat. New York: Cambria Press, 2008. Maynard, John. Charlotte Bronte and Sexuality. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Smith, Margaret. The Letters of Charlotte Bronte: Volume II: 1848-1851, with a selection of letters by family and friends. United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, 2000. Winnifrith, Tom. The Brontes and their Background: Romance and Reality, Second Edition. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1988.

Nicholas Scelzi Mrs. Pinto English 10H Period 2 April 14, 2013 Jane Eyre as a Bildungsroman Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, is a Bildungsroman. A Bildungsroman is a novel in which the protagonist engages in a moral and psychological growth. A Bildungsroman generally exhibits the growth and development of a particular individual within a confined social order. The character, to travel on this road to adulthood and development, must have some sort of loss or discontent.

The path that the character travels is long, arduous, and gradual and is lodged with hardship and adversity between the needs, desires and views of the protagonist and the norm of society. Ultimately, the spirit and values of the social order becomes evident in the protagonist and the protagonist displays a new position in society. In the opening chapter of Jane Eyre, Jane, the protagonist, is abused emotionally, physically and verbally by her antipathetic family. Her cousin John, who demands that Jane refer to him as Master, is especially belligerent.

While reading and minding her own business, Jane is disturbed and attacked by her malicious cousin for no good reason. This is the first time Jane stands up for herself and yells back at her cousin, only to receive a worse punishment and become imprisoned in the red-room at Gateshead, which is the same room in which her late uncle was waked. She soon hallucinates and sees illusions of her ghastly uncle. Jane later attends an orphan school called Lowood, where she is, yet again, treated cruelly.

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However, there is a single girl who is content and uncomplaining: Helen Burns, a young girl who has faith that God will. Jane admires this and soon befriends Helen. Helen grows ill and dies, but her last words reassure her strong-rooted faith in God and inspire Jane to have the same faith. Jane remains at Lowood for eight years, six as a student and two as a teacher, furthering her education and accelerating to the top of her class. When Jane leaves Lowood, she gets a job as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her employer.

She discovers, however, that he is already wedded and faces the inner conflict of whether or not to stay with him. She decides it is essential that she must leave and move on. Ten months later, after finding home with her unbeknownst cousins and inheriting a fortune of five-thousand pounds, she returns to her love, Mr. Edward Rochester, and finds out that his insane wife killed herself. She accepts his proposal and they marry and live happily thereafter. Jane, who was once an abused orphan, grew to become mature, educated and moral woman. She was a tortured and passionate girl who wanted nothing more than to love and be love. She could not restrain her passion and lashed out at her family for abusing her. However, as the novel progressed, she grew able to control herself, without, though, losing her passion or moral values. She became a giving, selfless, and charitable woman. This shows Jane’s coming of age and development and proves the novel Jane Eyre to be a bildungsroman.

Both authors Charlotte Bronte and Charles Dickens give determined attention to the bleak and hard aspects of life and, specifically, to the life of children. In the Chapters 1 & 2 of Hard Times to Chapter 6 of Jane Eyre, they vividly portray difficulties and hardship faced by many poor children at school. Thesis The chapters under analysis are based on similar settings and themes portraying educational system of the Victorian era, attitude towards children and their role in society.

In the chapters under analysis, the authors portray school life of the protagonists and their grievances. ‘Fact and Figures’ dominate in the chapters underlining the role of cramming in education. In Hard Times, in the opening scene in ‘a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a schoolroom’, the dominant adjectives are ‘square, hard, dry’, and the first paragraph of Chapter 2 emphasizes this theme by using many of the declaratory titles which Dickens had contemplated giving to this novel. T.Gradgrind teaches children:

‘A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over” (Dickens). In Jane Eyre, girls follow strict rules during classes: “there were sundry questions about tonnage and poundage and ship-money, which most of them appeared unable to answer” (Bronte). Another important detail is that girls should read the Bible every morning which dictated social norms and social order.

In the chapters under analysis, the authors create a similar prototypes of teachers and educational systems typical for their times. As the first passage makes clear, the Gradgrind educational system and the ethos of the industrial town are at one in being designedly quite rightly if ‘The Gradgrind Philosophy’ is accepted – monotonous, and in embodying an aridly limited sense of life’s possibilities and priorities. But already one challenge to that ‘Philo¬sophy’ has appeared the circus at which the Gradgrind children are caught peeping.

The same philosophy is followed by Miss Scatcherd who supposes that a teacher should be severe and irreconcilable to pupils’ faults. Jane comments: “it seems disgraceful to be flogged, and to be sent to stand in the middle of a room full of people” (Bronte). A doctrine of Christian endurance is similar in the chapters. Both authors pay a special attention to the process itself and organization of education. They underline that educational process should be based on daily activities and planning process.

The chapters though starting in a schoolroom are concerned with more than education but growing up and new perception of the world. Success for the protagonists means fight in whatever direc¬tion. To the attainment of any end worth living for, a symmetrical sacrifice of their nature is compulsory upon children. Jane comments: “I could not comprehend this doctrine of endurance; and still less could I understand or sympathize with the forbearance she expressed for her chastiser” (Bronte).

Pressure of schooling and severe attitude of their tutors forces the children to mature and understand the role of religion and schooling in their life. The children speak as mature adults which unveils their independent thinking and mature personalities. Readers quickly sense the inevitability of the children’s movement towards savagery, though the authors relate the novels with such economy and intensity that its predictability does not become monotonous. In these chapters, both children assume leadership for their calm rationality.

“Only a few feeble stragglers said Yes: among them Sissy Jupe” (Dickens). In the chapters, both authors use characters of children in opposition to the main characters. This technique helps them to underline the importance of liberation in the world of cruelty and misunderstanding. In sum, Charlotte Bronte and Charles Dickens portray that suffering is undergone in order to expand the human spirit, to delve into matters previously kept hidden, to grow through pain. They grow up into small adults emulating the ‘real’ world they have left behind and to which eventually they return.

Director Cary Faking in his adoption of Jane Ere (2011, uses a variety of film techniques to reveal key Ideas and to engage a modern audience. Set In the Victorian Era In England, Jane Ere tells the story of weekender young woman who overcomes tragic life circumstances before embarking on a Journey searching for independence, a sense of belonging and the true meaning of love.

Faking uncovers the theme of isolation and loneliness through different sound effects and music, whereas the idea of emotional despair is illustrated carefully through different camera angles. Cane’s characterization throughout the story emphasizes her courage and spirit. Faking portrays the dews of isolation and loneliness through the film techniques of music and sound effects. The director shows this by adding non-dietetic sounds to the dietetic sounds in the movie, representing this in the opening scene, which depicts Jane running across a field, crying.

There are many dietetic sound here such as, the mind howling, ex. thunder, Jane crying and leaves crunching under her feet, which sets the scene for the audience. Subsequently a sad and lonely violin tune Is heard, making the audience empathic with Jane and adding emphasis to the sadness of the dietetic sounds. This also makes the audience curious as to what the cause of her distress is. Later in the movie, Faking highlights the pain of isolation and loneliness through sound effects, which is heavily displayed when Cane’s Friend, Helen, receives a edge as punishment for ‘misbehaving’.

During this scene the only sound heard is the whipping noise; emphasizing the characters pain, which subsequently causes the audience to feel empathy for her by this highlighting of her pain. Fustian’s use of music and sound throughout the movie is effective in making the audience feel empathy for Cane’s loneliness, pain, and Isolation. Faking presents the theme of emotional desolation through deferent camera angles and positions. This theme Is revealed in the scene at the opening of the movie when Jane arrives at the crossroads.

The director uses this scene to demonstrate emotional despair by using a diverse range of camera angles, such as using a very low camera angle to display Cane’s pain and sadness. A Tracking camera shot is used to make the audience feel connected to Jane. Following this, a bird’s eye view shot is used to show Jane at crossroads, heightening the dews that she is small and insignificant against the landscape. The crossroads also symbolizes of the choices that she has to make.

This idea is exposed in the flash back scene of Jane Ere at Elwood School, dews she s ignored and made to stand on the stool for the rest of the day without food and water. Faking uses a variety of camera angle shots to show the emotional despair dodged Jane Ere at Elwood. A mid shot is used to make the audience feel like they are in the scene with Jane making them feel the same feelings as Jane. Following this, an upwards looking shot Is used to make the audience feel her QED and Isolation. The director’s use of a variety of camera angles shows the emotional despair Jane goes through during the movie.

Director Faking Illustrates Cane’s courage and parity through the characterization of Jane in the movie. This is shown in the scene in The scene shows Cane’s courage and spirit through her ability to stay strong even when she is upset. The actress demonstrates this through her characterization. The actress’s body language such as sitting up straight and holding back tears show Cane’s strength. The audience is impressed by Cane’s courage and spirit in this upsetting situation, as she is able to not become too emotional. Fustian’s characterization of Jeannine shows her courage and spirit, highlighting to the audience how important courage is.

Faking effectively uses the film techniques of sound effects, camera angles and characterization to covey the ideas of loneliness, emotional desolation and courage. Ball searching for independence, a sense of belonging and the true meaning of love is resolved when she reconnects with Rochester and finds her place in the world. A modern audience continues to be engaged by the story of Jane Ere due to the suspenseful nature of the gothic romantic plot and its distinctive characters who challenge and evoke a range of emotions.