The female body's manipulation in Jane Eyre increases the significance of women's feelings and furthers the ways in which women's objectivity affects their gender and societal roles. The patriarchal Victorian culture of the 19th century is depicted by Jane Eyre's concentration on the various critiques of the female body. Brontë portrays women in the book as complex beings who are restrained and bound by society standards in their respective positions. However, the intersection of class and gender provides an engaging look into how class plays a role in the fluctuating degrees of the freedom certain women have whilst still being oppressed by the patriarchy. MAYBE MENTION FEMALE SILNCE AS A REPRESENTATION OF MANIPULATION OF FEMALE BODIES maybe …show more content…
Although she is treated by Mrs Reed as a person beneath Jane, and treats her as a working-class person, Jane is never seen to be a working-class girl. She is raised alongside other middle-class children in a middle-class household, it is the mindset that those at Gateshead have that separate Jane from the other children. Her treatment from a societal standpoint as the daughter of a woman who chose to lower her class for a man, seems to be the root of the dislike of Jane for Mrs Reed who reinforces class expectations through passing it down to the younger generation of her children. When John Reed argues with young Jane, he calls her a ‘dependent’ (footnote) and implies that she is stealing from the family, alienating Jane further as an orphan but also as a young girl trying to establish her place in …show more content…
By viewing Bertha as Jane’s foil provides a view of Jane’s outbursts of emotion. Bronte presents similarities between the two through use of animal comparisons. In her younger years, John Reed called Jane a ‘rat’ and Bessie compares her to a ‘mad cat’ in response to Jane’s outburst after being hit by the book. Highlighting how easy it is to dehumanise women for being loud or showing any kind of emotion that is not what Victorian society deem as appropriate. This parallels Bertha’s upbringing, told by Rochester in Chapter… give Bertha more of a backstory. The history of mental illness in Bertha’s family, paired with her father’s abuse towards her is like the trauma Jane experienced in her younger years. Both women navigate their lives and shape their personalities from these experiences. This outburst and Jane’s subsequent confinement to the red room parallels Bertha’s confinement to the third-floor room in Thornhill, hidden away from the world as Rochester deems her as a risk to his
Jane develops a *find quote about jane thinking her crush on Rochester is childlike* but is morally derailed when it is revealed that Mr. Rochester has been hiding his feral wife in the attic. This presents Jane with the arduous decision of choosing to stay with her love or to leave in the night. Jane chooses the latter the author, Emily Brontë writes, ***find quote**. Though this must have been a difficult decision, Jane choose, out of her selfless nature, to pursue an uncertain and dangerous path just to preserve a principled world. This is not only an impressive response when she was tested but it is a display of feminism.
Charlotte Bronte uses character foils in her novel, Jane Eyre, to display the centrality of affection, emotion, and passion, in
It is ironic that Jane is seen as the guilty party in the incident with John Reed because John started the fight when he slapped Jane. Then when John’s sisters, Eliza and Georgina, go to “tattle tale” on Jane, their mother blames Jane for the whole situation. Jane compares John to a “murderer,” “slave-driver,” and “Roman Emperors” (Bronte 9). During this comparison, she is implying that he is a very cruel and awful person. That he would beat her and boss her around.
Bronte 's Jane Eyre transcends the genres of literature to depict the emotional and character development of its protagonist. Although no overall genre dominates the novel exclusively, the vivid use of setting contributes towards the portrayal of Bronte’s bildungsroman (Realisms, 92) and defines the protagonist’s struggles as she grapples with her inner-self, and the social expectations of her gender. The novel incorporates Jane’s frequent conflicts, oppression, isolation and self-examination as she defends her identity and independence. Set amongst five separate locations, Bronte’s skilful use of literal and metaphorical landscapes, nature, and imagery, skilfully intertwines with the plot and denotes each phrase of her maturity.
In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë explores a love story between two characters, Mr. Rochester and Jane, which is formed from deception. Mr. Rochester lies to Jane on multiple occasions. He does not admit who he is to Jane right way, creates a facade as a gypsy, and finally falsifies his past marriage with Bertha. Deception serves as a problem in their relationship, but ultimately they are able to put it behind them and find happiness together. When the character of Bertha Mason is introduced, it is revealed that Mr. Rochester has a past he wishes to forget and his interest for Jane stems from his hatred of Bertha and their unsuccessful marriage.
For example, Bertha is described as a ferocious, bestial, and unkept animal confined within the isolated attic of Thornfield. Brontë makes the similarities between her protagonist and her alter-ego obvious. Jane is a “mad cat” (44) with a fiery temper lurking within her and Rochester often equates her with aspects of the sublime such as witchery and sorcery. This supernatural motif can be seen as an objectification of sorts, but it also indicates that despite her physical plainness, Jane holds power over Rochester because her mind has completely bewitched
Her refusal to submit to her social destiny shocked many Victorian readers when the novel was first released and this refusal to accept the forms, customs, and standards of society made it one of the first rebellious feminism novels of its time (Gilbert and Gubar). This essay will discuss the relationships Jane formed with the men she encountered throughout the novel and will attempt to identify moments of patriarchal oppression within the story. The first act of patriarchal oppression Jane experiences is quiet early on it the novel, during her childhood years spent at Gateshead. It is here where she must endure to live
From the way Mr. Rochester describes her, it is unclear that Bertha actually was insane before he brought her to Thornfield. He states that “her nature [was] wholly alien to [his], her tastes obnoxious to [him], her cast of mind common, low, narrow, and singularly incapable of being led to anything higher, expanded to anything larger” (353). It may be that Bertha was odd, or had a mild mental illness, but being locked in the attic at Thornfield drove her mad and made her attempt escape by whatever means necessary. By equating mental illness with a demonic, evil creature from folk lore, the characters of Jane Eyre and Bronte herself voice the Victorian era’s negative view of mental illness. The descriptions of Bertha as a vampire or as a demon are unfair since “she cannot help being mad,” as Jane notes (347).
Bronte 's Jane Eyre transcends the genres of literature to depict the emotional and character development of its protagonist. Although no overall genre dominates the novel exclusively, the vivid use of setting contributes towards the portrayal of Bronte’s bildungsroman (Realisms, 92) and defines the protagonist’s struggles as she grapples with her inner-self, and the social expectations of her gender. The novel incorporates Jane’s frequent conflicts, oppression, isolation and self-examination as she defends her identity and independence. Set amongst five separate locations, Bronte’s skilful use of literal and metaphorical landscapes, nature, and imagery, skilfully intertwines with the plot and denotes each phrase of her maturity.
In Charlotte Bronte’s novel “Jane Eyre” Edward Fairfax Rochester plays a contributing role in Janes development and growth as a character and human being in the Victorian time period. Not only does he play a large role in her independency, but in her emotional and spiritual growth as well. She grows around him whether she likes it or not. Due to Edwards manipulative and seductive nature, jane has to grow and develop in a way that has her frequently questioning her own ideals, whether that be spiritually or morally, and strengthening her independence by constantly refusing her feelings for him and adapting to punishing situations. Edward also opens Janes eyes to a world that is bigger than she realized due to his company at the house, wealth, and opportunities at the favorable Thornfeild manor at which she was employed by him.
The passage from the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte illustrates the relationships between the characters Jane, John, and her aunt. The relationship that is focused on the most in this passage is the relationship between John and Jane. Through Jane’s point of view the readers clearly see’s her perspective of each characters and their treatment of her. The author’s use of syntax also demonstrates to the reader Jane’s attitude towards John and her aunt. The most detailed relationship in the passage is between Jane and John.
The ambiguity of whether Rochester has once loved Bertha, or whether he merely thinks that he has “loved her” (p. 323), before he disdains her hints that Jane may be another Bertha if she is out of control. Bertha indeed symbolizes an essential element of Jane’s self-identity. This is reinforced by the mirror-image Jane sees as Bertha tears her veil, which resembles that of Jane in the red-room. The grotesque faces are surprisingly alike in how Jane feels on seeing them.
We can claim that Rhys’s main aim was to remove Bertha from the character of the non-identified wife locked away in Thornfield, give her the proper soul and identity, inform about her childhood and youth, thus the reader will understand her state of mind in Jane Eyre and will not consider her only the insane Rochester’s wife, but as Antoinette Cosway. Obviously, Jean Rhys removed the cover of the mystery from the eerie, unhuman laugh and screams of the unknown character in Jane Eyre and showed their new, more rational and surprising origin. Moreover, Rhys enabled the reader to understand the reasons of Bertha’s madness and her hopeless condition and hoped her character will no more arouse the aversion, but sympathy and mercy. Evidently, the novel is narrated from
Jane's battle to make her voice heard and to express reality of her own involvement. Jane Eyre is especially the result of the particular time and place in which it was composed, a situation in which a lady, particularly an financially distraught one, needs to battle enormously with the goal that she may talk about her own vision of reality. As indicated by the commentator Maggie Berg, Jane Eyre mirrors the opposing way of Victorian culture, a general public that was on the move, and one in which individuals were compelled to find better approaches for finding and characterizing personality. The world that Charlotte Bronte possessed was overflowing with divisions. While a few ladies fomented for more prominent rights, society all in all commended the picture of the virtuous, benevolent lady, joyfully limited to the home.
Charlotte Bronte takes us on a journey from the point which Jane Eyre, the protagonist lives with her aunt and cousins whom very much dislikes her in Gateshead to her going to a boarding school in Lowood, after which she becomes a governess in Thornfield where she falls in love with Mr. Rochester her employer whom she later finds out is married to a mad woman by the name of Bertha Mason, upon her discovery of this she picks up and leaves Thornfield, she then ends up at Marsh End where he meets her relatives. The novel carries us through ever important event in her life, which introduces us to new aspects of her personality, up until her eventual marriage to Mr. Rochester. The novel fits this theme as its protagonist chooses individualism as she refuses to take the role subservience as that of a traditional female of the Victorian era society, she stands up for her rights and want she believes in, she ventures in her own unique thoughts, and stands by her views even if it means disagreeing with those superior to her. Jane comments on the role of women in society and the greater constraint imposed on them. V.S Naipaul’s