A Marxist/Feminist Critique of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre
From the opening of Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre, we can tell that Jane is not a "normal" Victorian girl. From the first chapter of the story we are presented with two themes. The first theme being that there is great tension and conflict between the classes. The second theme we are presented with is that of the oppression of women during the Victorian age.In chapter one we are told that Jane is a poor orphan living with her Aunt. She has no immediate family and the people who are supposed to be her "family" are cruel towards her. John Reed, Jane's cousin, says to her, "You are a dependent, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you out to beg, and not live here with gentlemen's children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mama's expense."(10) John obviously feels as though Jane is not worthy of his family. He implies that she is of a lower class because she is not of "gentlemen's children". While Jane is technically not of the poor class, she is not of the wealthy class either. She is almost in a limbo between servant and master. This is also a recurrent theme throughout the story as she becomes a Governess, a woman who is held in higher regard than a servant but not the maste
Chapter two is also contains a great example of Jane's apparent limbo between the classes. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: ever more absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. Jane buys into the notion that because she is not beautiful that she is a "useless thing" and that she will have to find a "use" for herself that is outside the realm of beauty and class. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight tell: it groveled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing; and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face". I hold myself supremely blest-blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine. Jane in many ways can be considered a proto-feminist model of how women should act. " (25) This shows that because Jane is not as beautiful as her cousins or other women, she will be limited in her ability to succeed in life. Bronte, through Jane, is trying to make people realize that women are not only to be locked inside and only allowed to do things within the home. She is not only stifled by her class, but also her gender. Throughout the book we see Bertha as a madwoman locked in the attic. Aside from rejecting traditional views of class, Jane also belittles society's attempts to limit women's activities. Bronte writes,"Women are supposed to be very calm generally; but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a constraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrowed-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. " (111)This is a direct social critique of how Victorian women were supposed to act.
Common topics in this essay:
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Bertha Rochester,
Reed Jane's,
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Acceptance Essays
