Throughout the second half the 1800’s England was the most powerful country on Earth, undergoing rapid industrialization and experiencing tremendous social change. At the time, the “women’s question” was a societal conversation about the nature, identity and role of woman in society (Norton Anthology). With a growing middle class, and increased literacy rates, novels and periodicals became a popular medium which was often used to investigate and debate the "women's question" since “the fate meted to characters could reflect opinions of their behavior”(Waller). During the Victorian era, a woman’s fate and lifestyle were largely determined by their perceived social, personal and religious morality. They were expected to “angels of the hearth”, staying home, rejecting personal goals, sexuality and individual freedom (Norton Anthology). At the time Jane Eyre was published in 1847, the industrial revolution had changed England and women were working outside the home. The Victorian era was a time of great progress and change, however, these developments challenged the status quo and were seen as a threat and a corruption of the moral decency that made England great (Norton Anthology). Instead of recognizing woman’s increasing independence, the patriarchal society was judgmental and reactionary, expecting women to conform to traditional roles. English women wanted more rights and the ability to live a more balanced life outside the home, but there was substantial societal outcry over these “new women”, who were portrayed as “a predatory figure who rejected marriage, advocated contraception and wanted independence through paid work”(Waller). To many conservatives in patriarchal English society, these ideas pure anarchy.
Jane Eyre focuses on the experiences, thoughts and emotion of the title character and her journey into maturity. Throughout the story, she has some of the jobs and roles that were available to women in the Victorian era. However, Jane occupies a unique place in society, as neither servant or upper class master, she is poor but educated. She does not have an assigned and therefore socially acceptable identity that is defined by her relationship to men, family or money. This which allows her a level of relative freedom at the time. Through Jane’s thoughts and emotions about her experiences in society - particular in relation to men and money - Bronte examines the conditions of women in the 19th century. Inside the traditional bildungsroman love triangle was a critique of an oppressive and out of date patriarchal system of norms that prevented women from pursuing their talents and contributing to society. In short, she thought women were being oppressed and were not allowed to work and be happy on their own terms.
Victorian era England had a rigid class hierarchy. Jane is educated and independent, but poor with no familial support or husband to rely on for economic stability. Bessie clarifies the precarious situation that Jane finds herself in by reminding her that “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 poor-house" (Bronte 44). Because Jane is “kept” she has to conform to the expectations of others. She has no family, no inheritance and no husband; she is completely at the mercy of her aunt, who does not care about her, and later, her employers. Throughout the novel, Jane struggles with equality and to overcome oppression, but she is often just struggling to survive. At one point, she quits her job out of pride and almost starves to death. Growing up in an orphanage Jane had been aware of this reality her whole life:
I had nothing to say to these words: they were
not new to me: my very first recollections of
existence included hints of the same kind.
This reproach of my dependence had become
a vague sing-song in my ear; very painful
and crushing, but only half intelligible. (Bronte 46)
Jane’s only resource is her intelligence. She becomes a teacher, which was – along with nursing – one of the few careers available to women at the time. Even then, she eventually must rely on a man, Mr. Rochester, for employment. This leads to a sexual element to the story that also illuminates the reality of life for 19th century women.
Along with this economic and gender oppression, the novel examines repressed Victorian sexuality. As society was modernizing, things were changing quickly, and to preserve societal stability, social norms were rigidly enforced. It was “a time of turbulence and change from which the family provided a haven of stability and security” (Waller). Women’s sexuality was perceived as a threat to everything wholesome and inherently English. This middle class traditional morality is similar to the idealized norms of the American 1950’s, where good women were “in the kitchen”. A good 19th century English women is an "’Angel at the hearth" — “a Madonna-like wife and mother from whom all morality sprang” (Waller) Any deviation from this norm was a threat and challenged the traditional patriarchal society.
In addition to class hierarchy, Jane must fight against this patriarchal sexual oppression from the men in her life. Brocklehurst, Rochester, and St. John Rivers are all typical Victorian males, who today would be perceived as misogynistic. All three try to define Jane according to traditional Victorian models and keep her dependent and submissive. In her journey to independent maturity Jane must reject middle class patriarchy, escape Brocklehurst, reject St. John, and marry Rochester, which is only possible after she is rich from an inheritance, and he is pitiful and weak. At the end, Rochester is dependent on Jane and this is probably one of the more radical aspects of the novel – the idea that once women are financially independent they can really assert themselves as individuals.
In the book, sex is equated to madness. In their book The Madwoman in the Attic: The woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination, Gilbert and Gubar offer a critique of a Victorian society “in which passionate woman are viewed as monsters or madwomen” (11). Bertha is a representation of the fear middle class England felt over women’s potential sexual liberation. At this time in Victorian England, women who were sexually promiscuous were diagnosed with mental disorders, labeled “hysterical” and put in mental institutions (Gilbert and Gubar 16). Sexuality was one of the greatest taboos at the time and Bronte examines the way the different characters express their sexuality, and the consequences for their actions. Mr. Rochester married Bertha even though he “was not sure of the existence of one virtue in her nature: I had marked neither modesty, nor benevolence, nor candour, nor refinement in her mind or manners" (Bronte 166). He married her because his "senses were excited" (Bronte 167). Sexually, Bertha turned Mr. Rochester on, and by Victorian standards this is immoral. Rochester is a conflicted character, who seems to have some repressed Freudian Madonna- whore complex. Ultimately, Rochester is blind and Thornfield Hall burns down as symbols of the immorality and destructiveness of lust.
The novel uses Jane and Bertha as contrasts between a normal and moral version of a “new woman” represented by the self-controlled figure of Jane, and the animalistic qualities of Bertha. Bronte seems to be offering a middle ground for English society, allowing woman a more independent route, with moral and religious restrictions. For example, Jane will not marry Rochester when she finds out he is married.
Jane can be seen as a modern women. She just wants a job, a romantic life and to pay her own way. She is not asking for much, just a meaningful job without too much class or sexual oppression:
A new servitude! There is something in that," I soliloquized
(mentally, be it understood; I did not talk aloud). "I know there
is, because it does not sound too sweet; it is not like such words
as Liberty, Excitement, Enjoyment: delightful sounds truly; but
no more than sounds for me; and so hollow and fleeting that it
is mere waste of time to listen to them. But Servitude! That must
be matter of fact. Any one may serve: I have served here eight
years; now all I want is to serve elsewhere (Bronte 161).
These are the normal expectations for a practical working person. Although Bertha is a shadowy figure, she helps define the normality of what Jane is seeking. Both Jane and Bertha are symbols of a “new woman”; Bertha has taken her sexual freedom too far, and is portrayed as a passionate – yet crazy - person. Both defy the traditional construct of womanhood, and both pay a price. However, Jane successfully navigates this treacherous landscape and becomes an independent and passionate women who understands her sexuality and role in society.
Many see Jane Eyre as a “radical feminist”, however, her intention seems more rooted in pragmatism. Women were being economically forced out of their homes, so they should be given the same rights to pursue employment opportunities as men. Along with this would come some independence, including responsible expression of sexuality. Bronte shows the natural desire of women to contribute to society outside of the home. Jane is the new image of a woman, she has self-esteem, self-respect and wants independence and some equality. Basically Jane is asking for the right to have a life:
but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for
heir faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their
brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute
a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is
narrow-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 (Bronte 289).
Jane is making an argument for women to be allowed to use their talents, not to be confined to the home and to basically do what they want, within limits. Jane does not become a doctor or scientist, she just wants a modicum of freedom. She follows her own course, is moderate, religious and wholesome and “is awarded a happy, contented and conventional future as Rochester's wife/nurse and the mother of his children” (Waller).
Although primarily a love story with some rather unusual gothic elements, Jane Eyre is considered a “proto-feminist” tract that “has gone from being considered inappropriate reading for young women to being considered a book that every girl should read” (Gilbert and Gubar 34). Today, Jane Eyre is an interesting social commentary on Victorian England, and the message seems relatively tame. However, when it was published, Bronte used a male nom-de-plume and the novel was torn apart by critics, who thought it was perverted and an example of the degradation of English morals (Waller).
This critical reception of Jane Eyre is another good indication of where Victorian society was at in relation to the “woman’s question”. Elizabeth Rigby, who later became the royal Lady Eastlake, wrote “A Review of Jane Eyre” for the Quarterly Review in 1848. She was a British author and art historian who was one of the first woman to write critical essays for serious publications. She wrote a scathing review of the novel, and even questioned if was possible for a woman to write something so obviously masculine. She noted that Bronte could not accurately identify cookware, dishes and food, implying a lack of femininity, domesticity and social status. This would indicate that class/sexual repression seems to have been universally applied to woman, even by Rigby, who would be considered an “new woman” at the time. Even Bronte has trouble imagining real sexual equality. There is no way for Jane to work for an economically secure future, she must ultimately rely on an inheritance for independence from oppression and the complete realization of her dreams. Moreover, the ending represents a Victorian idea of sexual equality. For a man to accept equality in a relationship, he needed to literally be physically handicapped and completely dependent. These are signs that despite Bronte’s best intentions, feminism and equal rights were a long way off. Women in England did not get the right to vote until 1918, which was over fifty years after the publication of Jane Eyre (Norton Anthology).
Bronte’s novel was first and foremost a love story. It was popular and scandalous, and offered both entertainment and social critique. Jane Eyre became a heroine for women liberation, a modest and more domestic Joan of Arc, but independent and inspiring nevertheless. Bronte clearly shows the emerging trend for women in the 19th century was out of the home and away from the hearth, with increasing financial responsibilities and freedoms. For these reasons, Bronte can be seen as one of the 19th centuries great women writers, who addressed the “woman’s question”, sold books and helped change minds.
Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Paris: Flammarion, 1990. Print.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The madwoman in the attic: The woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination. Yale University Press, 1980.
"The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age: Topic 2: Overview." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age: Topic 2: Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.
Rigby, Elizabeth. "Review of Jane Eyre." Quarterly Review 84 (1848): 153-85.
Waller, Debra G. "Angel or Vampire — the Portrayal of Women's Morality and
Sensuality in Jane Eyre." Angel or Vampire — the Portrayal of Women's Morality
and Sensuality in Jane Eyre. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2014.
