Essay on Jane Eyre

To what extent do the characters in Jane Eyre represent changing attitudes towards women in the 19th century?

Jane Eyre escapes from reality in the early part of the novel, but gradually uses reason and femininity to overcome the oppressive religious and societal forces of Victorian England in order to progress the rights of women. In this essay I will be using both texts from the internet and Gilber and Gubar, Brody and Brooker and Widdowson from the study guide to support my essay. I will be covering several points, including: Jane is a moral gothic character, the morality and class wars of the 19th century progressed the rights of women, insensitive portrayals of madness and the metaphor of the mirror. In this essay I argue that Jane Eyre is an icon for mentally ill women, as a moral, gothic and a feminist character of the 19th century. The novel Jane Eyre to a moderate extent progresses the rights of women in the 19th century.

The novel Jane Eyre presents Jane as a moral gothic character. Moral means to live an ethical life and gothic is associated with the darkness in the human spirit. Jane embodies this role, because she refuses to accept the forms and social norms of society (Gilbert & Gubar, 1979). She escapes into vivid fantasies, she loves the Arctic and her imagination, which displays how she was not a typical or average women of the 1800s. Jane is a gothic and feminist icon in that she argues for the social progression of women and better rights for women in general and well as being dark and full of strong emotions. eg. ‘I am no bird and no net ensnares me, I am a free human being with independent will.’ (from page 256 of Jane Eyre) and ‘the vehemence of emotion, stirred by love and grief in me, was claiming mastery’ (from page 255) The feminist undertones are shown as Jane breaks through strong oppression at Gateshead, starvation at Lowood and madness at Thornfield, plus the duel relationship between her alter (her madness) and Bertha’s madness (Spark Notes, 2010). The opposed elements of fire and ice are used to characterise Jane’s experiences. Jane goes through fire, through her episode in the first chapters of the novel and coldness, through her starvation at Lowood. Jane says that “something spoke out of me” and  “the rushing of wings, something ... near me” which illuminates her relationship with god and her gothic fantasy prone personality (Spark Notes, 2010).  Jane encounters patriarchal characters in Mr. Rochester, who looks down upon her as a plaything and a virginal possession (Gilbert& Gubar, 1979). However she passes through this oppression, by using the coping mechanism of deliberation (Gilbert & Gubar, 1979). Jane’s character traits and escape into fantasy, show how she was rational gothic, who experienced both symptoms of ‘mental illness’ and unconventional attitudes towards her peers.

Bronte’s anger towards the way women were treated in the 19th century largely informs her depiction of Jane Eyre. In Jane Eyre masculine values still prevail, which indicates that society in the 19th century was regressive. For example: ‘I consider that when a dependent does her duty as well as you have done yours, she has a sort of claim upon her employer for any little assistance he can conveniently render her...’ (from page 255 of Jane Eyre) The feminist and psychoanalytic movements of the 19th century brought new insights about women, explaining that the two human genders were not dissimilar (Brooker, Widdowson, 1996). There was a transition in the 1840s to a capitalistic form of production, which is displayed in difference between the labour of women in previous centuries and the 19th century, embodied by Jane’s role as a governess (Brooker, Widdowson, 1996). In Jane Eyre there is still a patriarchal division of industrial labour. An example of this servility and patriarchy is: “‘that I never should, sir: you know'- impossible to proceed.” The industrial revolution was great for lower-class women, offering them new factory jobs in place of household work, but it did not do much good for the lower class and Jane (Brody, 1983). Engel’s argues that since women have entered into labour, what was left of male domination had dissipated (Jackson, 1994). This notion is incorrect, since women in the 19th century were not fully emancipated as shown by the oppressive stance of many of the characters in Jane Eyre, in particular the treatment by her cousin and aunt at the beginning of the novel. It is said that Jane had ‘no security of employment, no access to university minimal wages’ and was somewhere between servant and family member, which isolated her as a governess (Brody, 1983). Thus, even though the industrial revolution had opened up the world for Jane, she was still subject to internal inhibition due to economic and psychosocial constraints, thus Jane Eyre only moderately progresses the cause of women.

The portrayal of Bertha in Jane Eyre is a racist portrayal of ‘insanity’ and thus presents a demeaning view of women in the novel. In Jane Eyre’s days mental asylums were becoming more common. The public were starting to see it as necessary for there to be humanitarian treatments of the ‘insane’ (Iwama, 2003). Bronte likens Bertha to a vulgar animal, with wild mannerisms and a shoddy appearance. Bertha’s mother is referred to a ‘the Creole’ and is described as an alcoholic and lunatic, which was a common stereotype of ‘Creoles’ (Iwama, 2003). A Creole is: ‘A person of mixed Black and European ancestry who speaks a creolized language, especially one based on French or Spanish.’ (Answers.com, n.d.) Thus it can be shown that Bronte is likening Bertha to a people who were judged in the time to be inferior. Bertha is described as a confined Victorian wife and is claimed to be central obstacle preventing Jane and Rochester’s happiness in this text (Janee, 2007). Jane Eyre presents the supernatural as mysterious and dreadful, which is a romantic depiction on the strange experiences of Jane (Janee, 2007). Bertha is largely mute and isolated and thus has little tidal effect on Jane and Rochester’s patriarchal marriage. In this way the view of the mad women in Jane Eyre is mixed, with Bronte both progressing the cause of the mentally ill cause and muting it, which shows that Jane Eyre only progresses the cause of women’s rights to a moderate extent.

Bertha is an external double of Jane, because they both experience madness, but cope with ‘insanity’ in very different ways (Lewis, 2001). Like Bertha, Jane is full of anger, which is displayed in the red room scene, where Jane escapes into madness. Her escape into madness mirrors the aggression of Bertha later in the novel (Lewis, 2001). Jane’s stifling of her selfhood generates the projected double, which then emerges as the stereotype of female madness (Lewis, 2001). Jane is imprisoned by her feminity: 'too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation', which is the stifling of her true self (Lewis, 2001). The use of the mirror in Jane Eyre creates a duality of selfhood between Bertha and Jane, who overlap each other in their madness (Lewis, 2001). Similarities abound between the two, although Jane finds an adequate coping mechanism by which to deal with external stresses, while Bertha is overwhelmed, turning inward, thus achieving an autistic isolation. Thus in all these ways Bertha is the external double of Jane. Thus this shows how Jane Eyre is a progressive novel for mentally ill women and feminists alike.

Mary Wollstonecraft advocates the supremacy of reason in guiding human affairs. This reason must be used in order for Jane to progress human rights. Also, Wollstonecraft claims that unrestrained sexuality leads to disorder and that there is no double standard of sexual behaviour in the 19th century. (Brody, 1983) In this way reason can be used for the sake of inhibition in order to regain respectability. Wollstonecraft’s enlightenment ideas indicate that societies can find truth through reason. (Brody, 1983) Wollstonecraft never yields the argument that all moral evil begins in patriarchy, thus she accepts that Jane must submit to men in part in order to achieve adequate progression of her feminity. The sexual relationship between Jane and Rochester could be seen as demeaning to Jane, in that Rochester flirts with Jane and tries to use his power as a man to control her. This view is false since Jane has a free choice on whether to submit to his power over her. Overall, Wollstonecraft presents important insights about the character Jane in this novel and the use of male sexuality to gain power, but since the 19th century society is still regressive, Jane Eyre only moderately progresses the rights of women.

Jane Eyre progressed the rights of women in presenting Jane as a strong, moral and individual women, who was able to deal with madness and oppression through rationality. The industrial revolution and changes in mental health progressed the rights of women, although institutionalisation yielded a drop in standard for mentally ill women, such as Bertha. Bertha was the projected double of Jane, with the image of the mirror being symbolic for the duality of self (the mad and the sane). Overall, Jane Eyre to a moderate extent progresses the rights of women and is a important feminist text of the 19th century.













REFERENCES


Answers.com (online), ‘Creole’, http://www.answers.com/topic/creole-1, [Accessed 21 April, 2010].

Brody, M (1983). ‘Mary Wollstonecraft: Sexuality and Women’s Rights (1759-1797)’. D Spender (ed). Feminist Theorists: Three Centuries of Women’s Intellectual Traditions. London: The Women’s Press, pp. 40-47.

Brooker, P & Widdowson, P (eds) (1996). Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre: A Practical Reader In Contemporary Literary Theory. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 107-131.
Gilber, S & Gubar, S (1979). ‘A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane’s Progress’, The Madwoman in the Attic. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Iwama, M. 2003, 'Bertha Mason's Madness in a Contemporary Context', The Victorian Web (online), http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/iwama8.html, [Accessed 15 March, 2010].
Jackson, M. 1994, ‘The Position of Middle-class Women as Context for Brontë's Jane Eyre’
Victorian Web (online), http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/73cbwomen.html, [Accessed April 11, 2010].

Janee. 2007, ‘Characterization (Jane and Rochester) and Symbols’, Blogspot (online), http://janeeyreoutsidereading.blogspot.com/, [Accessed April 11, 2010].

Lewis, L. 2001, ‘The Representation of the Doubleness of Selfhood.’, Literature Study Online (online), http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/bronte_rhys.html, [Accessed April 11, 2010].
Spark Notes (online), 2010, ‘Jane Eyre’, http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/janeeyre/themes.html, [Accessed April 11, 2010].