The Literature Book

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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.” This plea

for equality among the sexes runs

throughout the novel as Jane Eyre

progressively builds a case for

women’s need for liberty,

independence, and action.

These feminist aspects of

the novel did not go unnoticed by

Brontë’s contemporaries. While

many early reviews praised the

novel, some criticized its radical

content and “unfeminine“ view of

womanhood. Jane Eyre, however,

quickly became one of the most

influential literary heroines of her

At first she is penniless, but fate

restores her fortunes, and draws

her back to Rochester.

Domestic slavery

Jane Eyre’s compelling story

is far more than an English

Bildungsroman. Brontë infused

the work with the antislavery

and revolutionary rhetoric that she

and her sisters had read in many

19th-century political tracts. In

Jane Eyre, this political language

is not used in reference to

humanity in general, but with

specific regard to middle-class

women in Victorian society and

the domestic constraints placed

upon their lives. In one of the most

passionate passages of the novel,

Jane tells her readers that women

“suffer from too rigid a restraint, too

JANE EYRE

time. After the publication of

the novel a new type of female

protagonist was apparent in

Victorian literature—a plain,

rebellious, and intelligent one.

She offered a counterpart to

the passive, sweet, pretty, and

domestic heroines who were

usually championed by male

authors such as Charles Dickens

and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Female spaces

Jane Eyre opened the door for other

female writers of the period to

explore the limitations of women’s

lives and their desire for equality.

It was a theme that was apparent in

many of the great Victorian stories.

George Eliot’s Middlemarch, for

example, criticizes patriarchy

and its moral weaknesses, and

Some feminists view Bertha Mason—the deranged, imprisoned wife of Edward Rochester,

Jane Eyre’s employer—as a metaphorical reflection of Jane and her own status in society.

Bertha Mason is Jane’s antagonist, but can be considered her psychological gothic double,

a feminist version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde.

Jane hears voices.

Jane has been taught to

repress expressions of her

emotions as a child and

young woman.

Jane reacts “like a mad

cat”upon being locked

in a room as a child

by her aunt.

Jane is imprisoned within

the domestic household.

Bertha is considered

to be insane.

Bertha enacts her rage,

turbulent emotions, and

passions.

Bertha growls “like some

strange wild animal.”

Bertha is literally

imprisoned.

Jane Eyre Bertha Mason

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