The 19th century was a time of great change and upheaval. With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, values and customs were being challenged in various ways. Chartism became an influential ideological group as the ideas of Greek philosophers became more influential, and women began questioning their roles in society (Bossche, 47-48). This state of transition is illustrated in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, in which the novel’s eponymous protagonist, Jane Eyre, shares her struggles to love with a restrictive society in a self-written Künstlerroman (Wyile, 123). Set in 19th century Victorian England, Charlotte Brontë develops the theme of the corruption of love as a result of class elitism and social conventions in her novel Jane Eyre.
Charlotte Brontë was the third child of to Reverend Patrick Brontë, curate at St. Michael’s Church in Haworth, and Maria Branwell April 21, 1816 in Thornton, United Kingdom (Oplt, 3). As a result of her father’s social position in the community as well as by their home’s isolated nature, Brontë grew very close to her siblings, Maria, Elizabeth, Patrick “Branwell”, Emily, and Anne growing up (Karson, 13). Following the death of their mother at a young age, their father was left to educate them and allowed them access to many Romantic novel including “George Gordon, Lord Byron; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Samuel Taylor Coleridge; and Sir Walter Scott –not the usual literary diet of Victorian children” (Oplt, 3). He sent Maria, Elizabeth, and later Charlotte to the Clergy Daughters’ School, whose horrible living conditions would become the inspiration for Lowood school and the reason Charlotte was brought back home after consecutive outbreaks of tuberculosis and typhoid claimed the lives of her older sisters (Oplt, 4). Charlotte began writing early in life with her siblings, creating the world of Angria, in which her writing style and use of fairy-tale motifs and romantic landscapes would become finely tuned (Oplt, 5). She would eventually become a governess, a role that she despised, for many families, but began to have romantic attractions for M. Heger, who would inspire Mr. Rochester, whose wife reduced Charlotte’s interaction with her husband (Oplt, 23). Falling into despair and loneliness, she returned home to aid her father, who was losing his eyesight, her brother, who had become a burden on the family as an alcoholic and drug addict (inspiration for John Reed), and to reunite with her sisters Emily and Anne. The three sisters, began writing, publishing two books (Charlotte’s The Professor was rejected) and starting their writing careers as Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Karson, 18). Victorian society at the time of Brontë’s life was extremely restrictive and full of hypocrisy between social classes. Women were encouraged to marry for social status and embrace the genteel ethos, and those those who did not generally became governesses expected to “shed traditional feminine gender traits in submission to a more practical and genderless appearance” (Bossche, 56; Godfrey, 856). According to Nilay Ayyildiz, marriage in the Victorian period was based on finances, in which both partners wish to elevate or maintain their social status (148). For women, the only way to preserve their independence and social stability without a husband “involves attaining a precarious gentility,” shown when Jane finally reunites with Mr. Rochester only after she has obtained her inheritance, becoming his equal (Eagleton, 119). In Jane Eyre, Brontë strategically critiques the views of all aspects of Victorian society with literary prowess.
Brontë’s novel holds many elements of her Angrian writings, which are important in the analysis of her writing. She uses a great deal of imagery to depict Jane’s world, painting vivid pictures of the environments as a representation of Jane’s perspective on life. For example, Jane’s imprisonment in the red room creates an “atmosphere of supernatural” as she describes numerous visions of ghosts and paints a picture of a cold room devoid of sympathy, corresponding to her ill-treatment at the hands of the Reeds, specifically John (Gordon, 44-45). Similarly, her descriptions of Lowood reflect her attitude towards the school. When she arrives at Lowood, it is described as “dreary” and “uniform” with her rooms being “bitter cold,” reflecting her initial reaction towards the institution (Brontë, 68-70). Similarly, when her situation at Lowood becomes more pleasant, she uses imagery of flowers, sunshine, healing, and growth to portray her growth as an individual. As seen, Brontë uses a motif of nature as a representation of Jane’s psyche, especially through the changing seasons. Jane enters Lowood and it is winter, a reflection of the cold and sterile atmosphere of the institution under Mr. Brocklehurst. Similarly, when Mr. Brocklehurst leaves and the children are given more freedom, the scenery is full of life and hope. Nature is shown to be a representation of many individuals throughout the novel. Mr. Rochester uses a metaphor to the lightning-struck chestnut tree in the garden as a representation of his crippled state of being, to which Jane replies stating, “green and vigorous. Plants will grow about you…your strength offers them so safe a prop” (Brontë, 630). Similarly, Schorer points out that “nearly every important scene in the development of the passion of Rochester and Jane Eyre takes place among trees” (35). As nature reveals Jane’s psyche, the locality of the novel reveals Jane’s growth through acceptance and rebellion (Gordon, 43). Each of her five home’s has a dominant male figure: John Reed in Gateshead; Mr. Brocklehurst in Lowood Institution; Mr. Rochester in Thornfield; St. John Rivers in Marsh End; and Mr. Rochester yet again in Ferndean (Gordon, 43-46). In each of those homes, she must overcome the gender-based oppression imposed by each dominant male-figure (less so in the case of Ferndean). Her rebellion against domestic comforts for want of independence represents her growth as a person.
Narrated in the first-person, Brontë’s choice in narration reveals to the reader the inner feelings of Jane, allowing her to provide her critiques on Victorian Society. According to Earl Knies, the success of Brontë’s Jane Eyre lies not in its plot (which he claims is full of absurdities), but in its deep characterization of complex characters despite the weaknesses of first-person narration (58-59). In most conventional novels narrated in the first-person, there is an inherent weakness as the hero of the novel (in this case Jane) is not able to be present in all locations so as to lose valuable information, but as Knies states: “None of these difficulties are apparent in Jane Eyre.There are simply no details of plot which do not have an immediate bearing on Jane” (62). As a result, the “intensely personal relationship that they develop with the central character as a result of the limitations of narrative perspective” is one of Brontë’s many victories in the characterization of Jane (Wyile, 116). Additionally, another of the great strengths of the novel is the frankness of the direct address prompts, leading to a deeper connection to Jane as she speaks to the reader directly (Wyile, 119). In fact, this frankness in speaking to the reader leads Jane to appear more genuine and “makes us more willing to accept the good things [Jane and Lucy] they must tell about themselves” (Knies, 63). It is this frankness, combined with Jane’s unconventional ideas that would lead many early readers of the novel to be shocked at its controversial language and ideas.
Through the perspective of Jane, Brontë delivers a scathing analysis over Victorian society’s restrictive social conventions and class elitism. In