Published in 1847, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is one of the most famous novels from the Western literary canon. Originally published under the pseudonym, Curer Bell, the novel quickly gained popularity and accurately captures the moral dilemma presented by Victorian society.
The plot
The novel is an autobiography of the life of Jane Eyre. It begins at Gateshead Hall where Jane, a young orphan, lives with her aunt Mrs Reed and her three children- John, Eliza and Georgianna. The cruelty she faces in this home is carried forward as she is sent to Lowood Institution, a place where she is further oppressed and disciplined. Ultimately Jane reaches Thornfield Hall where she acts as a governess and meets and falls in love with Rochester. She is faced with a moral dilemma when she finds out about Bertha Mason, his wife and leaves, running into St. John Rivers. During her stay with him, Jane learns more about her duty. She teaches children at a school, slowly learns more about her family and finds out about a large fortune left behind for her. Rivers subsequently offers a chance to move to India as a missionary and live a life governed by duty, married to him, a life Jane cannot fathom. She rushes back to Thornfield Hall where she finds out that Bertha Mason committed suicide. In his attempt to save Mason, Rochester also loses his eyesight as well as one of his hands. Finally, Jane establishes her life with Rochester at Ferndean with two servants and has a son at the end of the novel.
Autobiographical elements
There are several instances that resemble Bronte’s own life. One of the most profound is the death of Helen Burns, who is assumed to be based on her sister, Maria. The bond that Maria and Charlotte shared is visible in Jane’s close relationship with Helen. Her young death due to tuberculosis and the pain the protagonist feels finds a parallel in Charlotte’s own life.
Another autobiographical element is Jane’s beauty or lack thereof. There is a constant fixation on her appearance as “pale” and “plain”. This was because Bronte believed that her sisters were wrong to create only beautiful women as protagonists. She modeled Jane after herself, someone who is “plain” but can still create a life for herself and be the star of her own story.
Another interesting element is Jane’s treatment of the parents of the students she is teaching. Charlotte herself was trained as a governess but was always treated as inferior by the parents. So instead, she uses Jane to counter that hostility with which she was treated. Jane in the novel, meets the parents of all her students, even farmers, as a sign of respect for them, countering the hate she had herself received.
The Bronte sisters were imaginative, educated women trapped between the culture and economics and the cold truth of a society which could use them only as “higher servants”
– Terry Eagleton
There are also several autobiographical elements in the representation of Jane’s childhood. In Lowood, Mr Brocklehurst teaches the girls restrained and denies them of any luxuries. In her own life, Charlotte’s father, Patrick, was a committed Puritan and burnt his daughter’s new shoes, for being emblems of unnecessary luxury.
Lastly, Bronte was assumed to have been in love with Mr Constantine Heger, a married man much like Rochester.
Gothic elements
Thornfield Hall, a huge mansion which ultimately burns down is one of the most important Gothic elements in the novel. The other is the character of Bertha Mason. Her captivity, her escape, her “savage” and glaring “red eyes”, all add an element of horror and mystery to the novel.
The red room incident in the first few chapters also brings an element of horror to the novel. It is also one that transforms her from obidient and submissive to openly defiant and rebellious. So, the gothic elements assist in marking Jane’s transformation and helping the development of her character. This can be seen when Jane tells Mrs Reed “you treated me with miserable cruelty”, showing that she is not the servile subject that the Victorian society wanted to create.
A commentary on society
Jane’s strength
Jane Eyre’s popularity and the kind of warm reception it still garners is because it presents a rebellious girl in an environment that only wants to dominate her. Jane is strong. Some quotes that showcase her strong-will are:
Reader, I married him.
During an age where women were married off for dowry and used by their families for their own gain, Jane is the one who marries Rochester. The sentence Bronte writes is not- Reader, he married me or we got married, but I married him. She is actively making decisions in her own life. This is also one of the reasons why it is important for Jane to be an orphan in the novel. Without any pressure from her family, Charlotte is able to develop the character of a woman who is ruled by her own independent will.
I am no bird and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.
Education vs Containment
There is a stark disparity in the way the children of the wealthy are treated in contrast to poorer children. The first display of this is at Gateshead Hall where Eliza, Georgianna and John Reed are all allowed to do as they please.
John Reed is the most privileged of them all, being the only son. He treats Jane with contempt because he is aware of his class and knows that she is in fact their ‘poor cousin’. For this reason, Bronte compares John Reed to a “slave-driver” and to “Roman emperors”. His behaviour in the novel is also of a tyrannical manner. He is allowed to behave harshly, including an instance when he throws a book at her, and she is continuously punished for his behaviour. While this represents his chauvinistic attitude towards women, John Reed also deprives Jane of opportunities to educate herself so she can stay in the same class position.
A similar idea of containment is seen at Lowood. Mr Brocklehurst’s own children are seen wearing items of luxury while the women at the institution are expected to forgo any desire for luxury. How they sit, eat, walk, think, all is regulated to a point where they are educated but contained. They are not free thinkers who want to change the world. They are women who have been given knowledge so they can further perpetuate their class positions. They are educated enough to serve the wealthy.
Conclusion
Jane Eyre is a social commentary where in one critic’s words:
every page burns with moral Jacobinism.
She preaches the ideas of equality and social mobility that was directly opposing the ideas of the ruling classes in England. Bronte creates in the midst of Victorian society, where duty was forced over any passion, a character who exercises her independent will. She lives her life on her own terms. While Bronte adds several moments of domesticity, due to the atmosphere that surrounded her readers, she created characters that raise questions for the ruling class. They question this sense of duty, a burdening responsibility thrusted onto each individual to maintain the social hierarchy and to act in a certain way.
Jane Eyre is an eye-opener for the 19th-century women and unfortunately, even some women from the 21st century.
