The Woman Question in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre Essay

A woman in the works of Bronte is a freedom-loving and independent being, equal to men in intelligence and strength of character. A distinctive feature of women stories is the romanticization of success, but not the romantics of work, as we see it in the works of Charlotte Bronte. The central Charlotte Bronte’s novel, in which the problem of emancipation is clearly traces, is Jane Eyre. It drew and struck readers’ attention by the main character, a courageous and pure girl, leading a lonely struggle for her existence and human dignity. The novel has become a milestone in the history of struggle for women’s equality. We claim that Bronte advocates if not yet political equality, but the equality between men and women in family and work.
The novel Jane Eyre tells the story of the fate of an educated orphan girl, who must fight her way in life herself. After high school, she starts working as a governess in the house of an arrogant and rude gentleman Rochester. Their relationship is the rivalries of will, intellect, values and ideas about life. They are separated by their background, social status, ways of thinking and behavior. In the novel, love overcomes all the vicissitudes of life, but the heroine is special for not giving up her principles for the sake of feelings.
In addressing women issue, as well as in literary works, Charlotte Bronte’s approach is close to her favorite novelist George Sand, who in the 1940-ies came to the conclusion that the salvation for women was not only in the right to freedom and equality in love, but the stubborn independent labor. Like George Sand, Ch. Bronte does not separate the fate and the struggle of women from the fate of the poor, oppressed classes: her character is subjected to insults and humiliation, primarily because she is poor. In the soul of Jane Eyre there is a spontaneous protest against social oppression. Even as a child Jane openly rebels against her wealthy hypocritical aunt and her rude, spoiled children (Talairach-Vielmas 127-37).
Having become a pupil of the orphanage, she in a conversation with Helen Burns expresses the idea of the necessity to resist. “When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should — so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again” (Bronte 94-95). That spirit of protest and independence not for a moment leaves Jane Eyre and gives her the image of a living fascination; it defines many conflicts she faces in her surrounding.
Jane’s explanation of the nature of love itself takes the form of a brave declaration of equality: “Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings?… I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart!… I’m talking to you now, defying custom and convention, and even drop all the earth!” (Bronte 234)
At the top of happiness, being the fiancй of her beloved, Jane Eyre keeps composure and sobriety. She is the guardian not only of her honor, but of her independence as well. She is scared by the danger of becoming a slave, her husband’s toy. Jane Eyre rejects luxury gifts of the groom, persistently reminding him that she is poor and ugly, and continues to serve as governess. Proud in her humbleness, she piously cherishes her personal dignity. The thirst for individual honest work and independence is one of the most attractive features of the heroine.
Having learnt that her lover is married, Jane leaves home and wanders penniless on the highways. She has to sleep in the field, under the haystack. Nobody gives her a shelter; she cannot get bread, even in exchange for an expensive steenkirk. In a country of unemployed and homeless people, every poor person is suspected of theft by well-off people and condemned to death by starvation (Garland and Stevenson 405-408).
The modern reader may be surprised by Jane Eyre’s behavior. After all, Mr. Rochester is married to a violent insane woman, and by English law he cannot divorce her. His unhappiness and his sincere love for Jane should have broken her resistance. He invites her to go to Italy with him, where nobody knows them, and live happily with him for the rest of her life. He would continue taking care of his sick wife. What prevents infinitely loving Jane from accepting his offer?
Of course, Charlotte Bronte at this point remains the daughter of her time, when any non-official union was considered a disgrace and crime. But the decision of her heroine is psychologically understandable: Jane Eyre is of proud and pure nature; the very thought of having to live in a lie far away from home, depending upon the slightest whim of an autocratic and short-tempered (though beloved) man is unbearable for her (Talairach-Vielmas 127-37). And she prefers misery and separation.
Jane has one and most important weapon she is always ready to use: the pride of the poor but honest person, who would rather die than take something for mercy or commit an act contrary to her human dignity. However, it is not only she who is proud and ambitious.
“Do you think I can stay and become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!” (Bronte 256)
She honestly warns him that she has “no angel” temper, that she has her own feelings and ideas about life and happiness. If he expects some heavenly qualities from her, his expectations are vain. But Rochester is far from such expectations, he loves Jane the way she is: “… to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break – at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent – I am ever tender and true” (Bronte 289). What he sees in Jane is an ideal, his ideal of woman. However, this ideal is not only Rochester’s.
Jane, as seen and depicted by Charlotte Bronte, is the ideal of modern woman; it is exactly what she should be like: with the “soul made of fire”, “Promethean spark” of intelligence, an honest heart, and above all – “a free human being with an independent will”, as Jane proudly declares herself to Rochester (Bolt 269-289). Jane got married to Rochester as an equal, as a beloved and just as warmly loving. She ultimately won in their long duel: her idea of happiness, home and love triumphed.
Adoption of such a consciousness and such a new heroine in literature was one of the hallmarks of the realistic understanding of life and penetration into the essence of social processes. Ascension of the new heroine in the minds of readers on a pedestal, which was previously held by a traditional, romantic hero, is one of the main qualities of realism of the writer. Jane Eyre was a new heroine in English literature, compared with the commonly accepted ideal of the Victorian “sweet femininity”, which, as a matter of course, assumed the presence of the “angelic” nature and subordinate position in the family (Stoneman 147-154).
Brought up in the traditional notions of purpose and duty of a woman, pastor’s daughter Charlotte Bronte now performed against the age-old wisdom, incepted by church officials into the human minds, speaking of a woman as a bustling and sinful being, and therefore, a being which was subject to strict control and guidance of men. Previously, a woman was portrayed in novels in a familiar role: she had to arrange her life, i.e. to marry a noble man, become the mistress of the house and achieve a certain social status, according to her husband. Therefore, her main task in life was to be charming and “force” to marry her (Stoneman 147-154). The heroine of Charlotte Bronte, covering her “unfeminine” individuality under the male pseudonym, was quite different; Jane Eyre is a true “personality per se”.
In Bronte’s novel, the theme of women’s emancipation sounds clearly, and they later became the banner of the feminist movement which developed in the 20th century. Defending self-esteem, her sense of emotional and moral significance, Bronte’s heroine is capable of making independent decisions, achieve goals, as well as to bear the full responsibility for her mistakes without placing blame on others (Bolt 269-289). Charlotte Bronte was the first writer to show the public the sufferings of a woman who saw all the paths of life closed, except for the path being shown to her by nature, but on this way troubles and disappointments were also waiting for her. The writer encourages the society to look at the ugly fate of women, the lack of opportunities for their development as full-fledged members of the society. Therefore, in the 21st century, Bronte’s novels, and Jane Eyre in particular, remain to be one of the most popular classical works of the 19th century, and the problems raised in them are still relevant and continue to excite the modern reader.