Aspect of Jane Eyre

¶ … Cultural Reflection of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

In Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre, we are introduced to a timid, insecure orphan child who is set extraordinary odds to find happiness and eventually love in 19th Century England. Jane Eyre is the story of a reluctant and fairly plain woman who believes that she is unloved because of these physical traits, yet she is strong-principled, intelligent and possesses a desire to do better in life and become independent. Of her greatest obstacles to overcome, the crude Victorian society is the hardest, and Bronte pits her character against many Victorian taboos and religious fervor that she herself must have witnessed in her own life.

Charlotte Bronte herself was born and raised in Victorian England, one of three sisters who all became published authors. "The prejudice against women in the nineteenth century was such that the three sisters were forced to adopt male pseudonyms for the initial publication of their novels because they knew that their books were unlikely to be published if they had used their own names" (Longman Literature, viii). Bronte had plenty of material therefore to fall back on as she wrote Jane Eyre, though chose to show the stringent lifestyle of Victorian England through the story and characters rather than preach the injustices against women and social bias.

Jane Eyre was an orphan in Victorian England who went to live with her uncle and his family in Gateshead. Before she does, she contemplates the possibility of being sent to a 'poorhouse'. "You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poorhouse" (Chapter2, pg7). Poorhouses were notorious for their ill-treatment and diseases that spread through these institutions designed to tuck away the socially unacceptable and poor away from the rest of society.

At one point, when Jane Eyre is forced to walk instead of taking a carriage, because "he could take me no further for the sum I had given, and I was not possessed of another shilling in the world" (Chapter 28, pg 343) she learns first hand that poverty does indeed arouse the suspicion of others and despite her neat appearance and gentle, well-spoken manner, nobody in the village were interested in hiring her.

For Jane Eyre, who was well aware of the anti-social means she was utilizing for food and work, the realization that she was visualized as the lowest form of society were hard for her to bare and remember: "but at this day I can scarcely bear to review the times to which I allude: the moral degradation, blent with the physical suffering, form too distressing a recollection ever to be willingly dwelt on" (Ch28, pg350).

Bronte also puts forth the importance of appearance through her use of mirrors. While mirrors often symbolize the contrast between reality and appearance, Bronte utilizes mirrors as a way to reflect upon the other characters in the story. Blanche Ingram, for instance is a reflection opposite of Jane Eyre. She is confident and rather an accomplished woman who is also very self-centered and elitist compared to Jane. Blanche pursues Mr. Rochester merely for the social stature and wealth that marrying him would bring, while Jane realizes true love and despite his physical appearance and loss of sight after the fire, still loves him and wants to care for him. In this regard, appearance also plays a part in defining the real meaning of love, a theme that is intertwined with that of marriage.

Marriage was as lifelong career for women in the Victorian Era. Women were also taught to think of sex as a "shameful necessity to be endured for their husbands' sakes" (Longman Literature, xv) while direct references in novels to sex were never made in Victorian novels as they were deemed upsetting to readers. Sexual references and passions were always hinted at rather than explored and announced. Women were on a much lower social rung than men during Victorian times and this is displayed by much of their literature that attempted to showcase these social inequalities.

Bronte also demonstrates the scorn of divorce through Mr. Rochester's mad wife, which forces him to hide her existence to Jane. Mental illness in these times, was something you did not parade in public, and often times, relatives were often 'forgotten' by their families were they inflicted with mental illness or insanity.

Jane, on the other hand, feels obligated to follow the conventions and laws of the time: "Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments [as this], when the body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be" (Ch27, pg338). Jane's rediscovered individuality has her returning to Mr. Rochester, even though social conventions are against her. She achieves what appears to be impossible for any Victorian woman - equality: "no woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: ever more absolutely bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh" (Ch38, pg484). When Jane Eyre returns to Thornfield she is able to do so because she has overcome social and moral conflicts through intellectual and emotional growth.

Education plays a key role in Jane's intellectual growth. Charlotte Bronte's own level of education was somewhat uncommon for her time. Jane Eyre is in turn a governess, and in Victorian society it was upper class families that were able to employ tutors and governesses, although a decent education for girls and women wasn't considered to be very important, after all, they were destined to a livelihood in marriage, or as an 'old maid'. Jane Eyre's education at Lowood seems to run parallel with gaining the knowledge to become a governess, as Mr. Brocklehurst so plainly puts it: ".... my plan in bringing up these girls is not to accustom them to habits of luxury and indulgence, but to render them hardy, patient and self-denying" (Ch8, pg68). This rings true with the overall view of the Victorian era, and the treatment of women in society. Unless they were wealthy and like Blanche Ingram, women in the era were hardy and very self-denying.

During Bronte's life, the Victorian Era saw resurgence in Christianity and the virtues of the religion seemed to go hand-in-hand with the laws of society. It was in essence a type of social control and "good behaviour, and acceptance of one's position in society, people were taught, would be rewared in heaven" (Longman, xvii). Bronte's father was a clergyman and it is evident that she held the foundations of the religion in high regard, but perhaps not so for the various interpretations in society.