Jane: biographical and literary significance

Jane

The Position of the Un-Favored Daughter, Jane as the Victim of Neglect "

Families are tremendously challenged by the perpetration of violence against one or all of its members. Yet, one of the most profound acts that challenges a family is rape. Rape has so many meanings and convoluted issues that are associated with it that many issues both very bad and very good can surface as a response to the rape of a member of any family. This is especially true with regard to families with more than one daughter. In this work, Jane by Steven Molen is an unfortunate account of the rape of a favored and beautiful sister by a mysterious man. Political and Feminist criticism of this work would determine that Jane is a victim of the societal romanticism of violent sexual acts, Jane wishes to endure just such an act to gain favor she seems to always have been denied because of her perceived secondary position to her sister.

Jane the sister not the victim of the act is so jaded by her position as the un-favored daughter that she seems to wish that the event had happened to her and though she feels at least some remorse for her sister, who is now "gone" emotionally and physically, institutionalized she seems to be profoundly effected by the continuation of focus that is limited to the "pretty" sister. Jane clearly romanticizes both the position of her sister as favored, the behavior that her parents see as valuable, her sociability and charismatic beauty and also her new found position as victim requiring constant attention and thought from Jane's neglectful parents.

Jane feels as if her secondary position on the family has once again stolen the potential recognition of her by her family. Instead of her family focusing loving attention on Jane to help her through the stress of the tragic violation of her sister they have instead chosen to continue to focus all their attention upon the now mentally ill Rachel. Rachel, likely suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is unable to sleep or even function normally. To some degree Jane feels that all of the things which have always made Rachel the favored daughter, her beauty, her vanity, her sociability and openness have made her the victim, to once again steal away the glory from the less favored child, Jane.

Jane's moral dilemma reverberates between her desire to feel sorrow and anguish toward her sister, in her time of need, evidenced by her reaction to Rachel's inability to sleep and constant visceral sobbing and her desire to gain the love affection and attention given to Rachel for herself. Though Jane seems able to perceive the foundational change that has taken place within her sister she still judges her as the social and easygoing young woman who would have taken the time left alone in the house as an opportunity to have friends over and socialize. Jane on the other hand will use this opportunity to put herself in a vulnerable state, leaving the door unlocked the paper out and herself unclothed, so she might feel the love and attention of her parents after the attack. She sees the attack not as a violent life changing event but as a romanticized avenue toward gaining the love and attention of her parents.

Sadly in addition to this Jane has romanticized Rachel's position as the victim. Jane feels that because she is not the pretty one, who resembles her mother and enjoys studying herself in the mirror she has again lost out on her parents' attention. She therefore romanticizes the violent act and wishes it upon herself so her parents may finally come to her aide and venerate her in the same manner as they have her sister. She wishes to make herself a victim, by leaving the door unlocked and leaving the papers on the doorstop so "he" may recognize her vulnerability arrive to do harm and then allow her parents to recognize her as equal to or just as valuable as her sister, who now as a shell of her former self is still garnering all the attention.

Though Jane does not graphically imagine the violence of her sister's attack she still seems willing to endure it, laying herself at the foot of danger, laying in wait and asking for it, as a way to garner the attention of her parents. This is even after her growth into a woman, as she has to return home to be there for her sister, who is now a shell of her former self, in the throws of PTSD and an acute mental breakdown, as a result of her rape. Jane sees her sister's fall as one that must have been extreme because she has always felt that her sister has held a venerated position, far above her own that must have been far to fall from.