Feminism in Jane Eyre Novel free essay sample

Furthermore, I will apply Gilbert and Guber’s idea about women in the Victorian era and use it in the analysis of Jane and her development. The idea is that women at the time had to overcome oppression, starvation, madness and coldness in order to arrive at the â€Å"end station† – wholeness. A secondary focus will be to analyse how some of the other female characters in Jane Eyre affect her life throughout the novel. In each period of Jane’s life it is obvious that the feminine characters affect her development in various ways. Some of these characters will appear in more than one period in my analysis. Furthermore, I will study the narrative of Charlotte Bronte with a contemporaneous theory that the feminine characters can be related to. The novel can be seen as a critique of the Victorian patriarchal society where great differences between men and women and between different social classes where a fact. We will write a custom essay sample on Feminism in Jane Eyre Novel or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page According to Gilbert Gubar, Jane Eyre shocked Victorian reviewers as they saw the novel as â€Å"‘Anti-Christian’ refusal to accept the forms, costumes, and standards of society† (338). Jane Eyre was first published as Jane Eyre an Autobiography in 1847 under the pseudonym of Currer Bell. The edition used here was published in 2003 and Michael Mason has edited an introduction and notes about Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte. The name Jane Eyre is significant for this analysis as Jane is a character who no one pays attention to in the first stage of her life. Gilbert and Gubar explain this in The Mad woman in the Attic: â€Å"Jane Eyreher name is of course suggestive-is invisible as air, the heir to nothing, secretly choking with 3 Maria Holmstrom Mid Sweden University English C-net ire† (Gilbert Gubar 342). Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman, which is a novel that tells the story of a character’s process of successful self discovery (Barry 135). As a reader, we follow Jane through her life from childhood to the stage where she has reached the feeling of wholeness. In the last period of her life she has managed to become rich and reached the feeling of being e qual to men as she now is a free woman. â€Å"Are you an independent woman? A rich woman? Quite rich, sir. If you won’t let me live with you, I can build a house of my own close up to your door† (Bronte 483). According to literary critic, the novel is a proof for women that there was a possibility to change from less powerful to equal in this society (Mason Introduction). Jane’s life can be divided into 5 periods: †¢ Jane at Gateshead The first period of her life takes form in Gateshead where she is raised by her aunt. In this part we meet Mrs Reed, the aunt and the servant, Bessie. Here she meets and overcomes oppression. †¢ Jane at Lowood The second period starts when Jane leaves Gateshead to attend School of Lowood. Here, Mrs Temple, a teacher and a student, Helen Burns take part in her life. In this section Bessie appears too. She will meet and overcome starvation in this period. †¢ Jane at Thornfield Period three in Jane’s life is the stage where she has become a governess and leaves school to work at Thornfield Hall in the mansion of Mr Rochester. In this part she falls in love for the first time in her life and it will be the most important change in her life. The feminine characters in this part are, Mrs Fairfax, the housekeeper, Jane’s student Adele, the servant Grace Poole, the baroness’s daughter Ingram and Bertha, Mr Rochester’s first wife. In this period Jane has to meet and overcome madness. Maria Holmstrom Mid Sweden University English C-net †¢ 5 Jane finds her family In the fourth period of Jane’s life she leaves Thornfield Hall to become an independent woman. She learns to know Mr John Rivers and his sisters Mary and Diane who appear to be her cousins. Jane meets and overcome coldness in this period of life. †¢ Jane marries The fifth and final period in the novel and in Jane’s development is when she returns to Thornfield and finds out about Mr Rochester. The last feminine character that affects Jane is again Bertha. In this part she reaches her â€Å"end-station† – wholeness. Aim The aim with this essay is to investigate Jane’s development into wholeness and how the feminine characters have affected her in this struggle. Method The method used is to analyse Jane in her five periods of her life using relevant secondary literature sources found on the web. I will use the famous work, The Madwoman in the Attic, chapter 10, by Gilbert and Gubar which is an analysis of Jane Eyre and I will apply it to this investigation regarding the chosen theme. To analyse the narrative of Charlotte Bronte concerning the feminine characters I will use the French feminist theory. The primary source used is the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Theory The French feminism which originated in France in the 1960’s has one perception â€Å"The women as to the man† (Selden 171). Furthermore, it registers the difference between groups where the social and cultural is manipulated in the way that one group domi- 5 Maria Holmstrom Mid Sweden University English C-net 6 nates and oppresses another. I see the aforementioned themes as central in Jane Eyre and it is interesting how the theory can be traced in this novel. The parent’s position and importance against children is reflected in the novel Jane Eyre. In the article â€Å"Feminist criticism and Jane Eyre† Ross Murfin explains that the French feminists associated language with separation from the mother. A child enters the linguistic realm just as it grasps the separateness from its mother, at the time when the boys identify with their father. The language the children learn reflects the binary oppositions and its logic: father/mother, brother/sister, phallus/vagina etc. Moreover, the French feminists explain that the structure of the language is phallocentric-it privileges the masculine by associating them with things and values appreciated by the masculine culture (Murfin). Its distinctions represent the world from the male point of view. Additionally, language forces women to choose: either they can represent themselves as men imagine and speak as them or they can choose â€Å"silence† and by that become â€Å"the invisible and unheard sex† (Murfin). Furthermore, the feminists mean that it is essential to recognize the position of the father: as legislator over the function as superior reproducer but also basically as an effect of the linguistic system. The theory explains that when a child accepts its needs of the sexual differences or the regulated need it can socialize (Selden 175). The woman setting herself free from the man represents the rupture, the destruction of the patriarchy system (Selden 177). Both Jane and Bertha can be referred to this theory since they try to set themselves free from the patriarchal society. Some French feminists have said that the Freudian concept phallus is a term used to explain penis envy. However, it does not mean the physical object but a symbol of the power that goes with it (Barry 131). The theory can be applied on some of the feminine characters since one of the themes in the novel is the patriarchal system and the power of the man or in some cases women. Moreover, the theory describes in what way the woman is the silence of the unconscious that precedes the course of 6 Maria Holmstrom Mid Sweden University English C-net 7 events and stays outside and challenges by interrupting the conscious order (Selden 177). In the Victorian society it was regarded as a â€Å"sin† to refuse the social destiny by higher social classes. The opinion of many Victorians did not support the way Jane acts in the novel. She is seen as an â€Å"‘anti-Christian’ refusal to accept the customs and standards of the society† (Gilbert Gubar 338). Jane’s five periods of her life into self discovery Jane at Gateshead The novel begins in the dark mansion of Gateshead where Jane was sent to be raised by her uncle, Mr Reed. Unfortunately, Mr Reed dies and he leaves Jane alone with Mrs Reed who makes life miserable for Jane. Jane is not as angel-like as her aunt expects and she is not regarded as good enough. Therefore Jane lives under tyranny and is treated like air by everyone. Indeed, Gilbert and Gubar suggest that â€Å"Jane Eyre-her name is of course suggestive-is invisible as air, the heir to nothing, secretly choking with ire† (Gilbert Gubar 342). Jane has to overcome oppression in this period to be able to continue her path to self-discovery (Gilbert Gubar 339). Mrs Reed sends her son John to punish Jane several times and one day she fights back against Mr John and hits him in the head. The punishment this time is to be locked up in the red- room: â€Å"Mr Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed his last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was born by the undertaker’s men; and, since that day, a sense of dreary consecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion† (Bronte 21). I agree with Gilbert Gubar (340) in their analysis of the red-room as a symbol of the society that Jane lives in and feels trapped in as she is constantly harassed and picked upon during her childhood. In this room Jane considers whether to escape the house through flight or through starvation or escape through madness. The power to control her own life is taken away or to refused because of her interiorized position in the family. This is an obvious sign of what the 7 Maria Holmstrom Mid Sweden University English C-net 8 French feminists mean by a social class is manipulated in the way that one group dominates and oppresses another (Selden 171). Jane is oppressed by Mrs Reed and her son John why she chooses to escape through madness. She starts to see ghosts and screams and sobs and the next thing she remembers is when she wakes up in the nursery. Gilbert Gubar mean that self starvation, madness, and death are associated with female feelings of powerlessness and rage (Barry 136). Phallus or penis envy according to the French feminist is a term that does not refer to the physical object but a symbol of power that goes with it (Barry 131). Mrs Reed can be related to this theory of male oppression and female rage as it is obvious through her actions that she functions in a male capacity. According to Gilbert Gubar, Mrs Reed is surrounded by patriarchal limits and as I see it Jane is well aware of this as she asks, â€Å"What would Uncle Reed say to you, if he were alive? † (Bronte 36). I interpret this question as a way for Jane to challenge Mrs Reed and to liberate herself and overcome madness. The woman who tries to become free from the â€Å"man† represents the rupture, the destruction of the patriarchy system, in relation to French feminism (Selden 177). This description of rupture can be referred to Jane as she interrupts the order of Mrs Reed, and this causes her to be sent away to school. The only person that Jane can trust is Bessie, the servant, who soothes Jane after what happened in the red room. Bessie teaches her to find comfort in songs and acts like a motherfigure to Jane because she has no such figure in her life (Rich Sparknotes). The only one that bids Jane farewell when she leaves Mrs Reed’s house is Bessie the night before: â€Å"I’ll kiss you and welcome: bend your head down. Bessie stooped; we mutually embraced, and I followed her into the house quite comforted [ In the evening Bessie told me some of her most enchanting stories [†¦] Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine† (Bronte 49). Bessie gives Jane love and strength to go on just as a mother would have done. Here we can see the importance of parental-figures and their position in relation to the child. According to the French 8 Mar ia Holmstrom Mid Sweden University English C-net 9 feminists it is important to be aware of the position of the father as legislator over the function as superior reproducer but also on the whole as an effect of the linguistic system (Murfin). Jane lost her mother, her father and her uncle who should have acted as a father to her, but died. As the French theory asserts, a child can not socialize if it does not accept its needs of the sexual differences or the regulated need (Selden 175). As Jane trusted her legislator (her father, uncle and finally her aunt) who fails her totally, she will have problems to socialize. Jane at Lowood Attending School of Lowood is the first step in Jane’s way to self-discovery. Here she learns how to govern herself and her anger and to become a governess. At Lowood she will overcome starvation to be able to move on in her life (Gilbert Gubar 339). Even though Lowood is a poor and hard place Jane explains that she would never â€Å"exchange Lowood with all its privations, for Gateshead and its daily luxuries† (Bronte 87). She also refers to the Bible where Salomon exclaims: â€Å"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith† (Bronte 87). It is interesting how the author describes the first feminine character that Jane confronts.