The nature of the text Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte is varied in the crossing between different genres. It is a critique of 19th century Victorian life, with a bildungsroman plot, and aspects of a gothic horror story.
             Always present in the story is the aspect of social realism in 19th century Victoria. Through the viewing of the text, the responder receives a sense of social class, wealth and gender differences.
             Within the genre of social realism social class is present. Through the character of Mr Rochester, it is seen that he is very high on the social ladder of the community. His ownership of Thornfield hall and his power over servants and people of lower status show the presence of social class in the text. Another factor that adds to the presence of social class is Rochester's marriage to Bertha. The marriage secured Bertha into a much higher social class than she was before she was wed. This was a common thing for a woman to do at the time to obtain a higher class and wealth.
             Wealth plays a very large part in determining a characters social status in the text. The marriage of Mr Rochester and Bertha introduced wealth to Bertha. This newly attained wealth gave Bertha power and brought her up from the lower end of the social ladder to the higher end, before she soon after became insane. The people of the powerful, wealthy social class forced Mr Rochester to lock Bertha in the attic and never to speak of her because they didn't accept this illness. This also shows that the male half of society had power over the female half, and in many cases the only way for a female to obtain wealth and power was through marriage.
             Inside the text there is always the aspect of gender differences. In nearly all cases the men had power over the women within their social class. The only place where women had power over men was in royalty. Mr Rochester showed one example of the power that the men had over women. He had...