CHARLOTTE BRONTË’S JANE EYRE

Introduction to the author, historical context, and literary considerations

CHARLOTTE BRONTË – A BRIEF HISTORY• 1816 – Charlotte Brontë born to an impoverished clergyman, Patrick Brontë,

and Maria (she is 1 of 6 children)→ Children: Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne

• 1821 – Age 5, Charlotte’s mother, Maria, dies

• 1824 – her father sends Charlotte, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth to Cowan Bridge School… Maria & Elizabeth Brontë both die in 1825; Charlotte & Emily return home

• 1831 – Charlotte (age 14), enrolls as a pupil at Roe Head School

• 1835 – 1838 Charlotte becomes a teacher at Roe Head, but is somewhat unhappy; she begins to write

• 1839 - 1841 - employed as a governess; unhappy in this role; difficult social status – not a servant, yet not the same social standing as the employing family

CHARLOTTE BRONTË – A BRIEF HISTORY CONT.• 1842 – Charlotte and Emily go to Belgium to continue their education; the

family is threatened by poverty at this time; the sisters begin writing poetry & publish a selection of poems under the pseudonyms: Acton Bell, Ellis Bell, and Currer Bell

• 1847 – Charlotte writes Jane Eyre while she cares for her father; it is an immediate success

• 1848 – Branwell Brontë (the only brother), alcohol & drug addict, dies. Emily later catches pneumonia, which develops into TB, & dies at age 30

• 1849 – Anne Brontë dies of TB at age 29

• 1852 – Arthur Bell Nichols proposes to Charlotte; she doesn’t accept until 1854

• 1854 – Charlotte becomes pregnant, but becomes ill and weak (varying speculations of causes…)

• 1855 – Charlotte Brontë dies at age 39 (with unborn child)

Title page to the first edition - 1847

Some tidbits about the novel…

• Published in 1847

• Published initially as an “autobiography” – “edited” by Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë’s pseudonym/alias)• Novel is not a true biography, but was influenced

substantially by Brontë’s life

• Jane Eyre was an instant success & there was much speculation about the mysterious author – some claimed that it could not possibly be a woman

• Some reviews were critical, calling it “anti-Christian” and “coarse” in regard to perceived breaches of decorum and morality

• In regard to the “Bell” pseudonyms, Brontë later wrote, “we did not like to declare ourselves women, because…

our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called ‘feminine,’ - we had a vague impression that the authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice.”

THE LITERARY PERIOD:

• Industrial Revolution brings a lot of change to English social structure; previously only aristocrats and gentry… Victorian Era sees the emergence of a middle class

• Women were second to men in every social class• Women’s rights become an increasingly important issue

• If a woman wanted to be “proper” and have a job, her only options were teacher or governess (experience of Brontë and her title character, Jane Eyre)

• Rare for a woman to achieve success as a writer

• The idea that women would should intellectually assert themselves went against the established social order

JANE EYRE AS A SOCIAL COMMENTARYAs you read, be on the lookout for how Brontë depicts and potentially criticizes these aspects of society:

➢Gender roles/relations➢The English Governess➢ Social class➢Evangelical religion

“Conventionality is not morality” - Charlotte Brontë

SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS: GENDER DYNAMICS• In 19th century England, men & women occupied separate

“spheres”• men occupied the public (& political) sphere• women considered better suited to the domestic sphere

• women had limited rights (e.g. education, career, voting, finances, owning property, etc.) – all belonged to men

• Middle class women educated in accomplishments (playing piano, singing, drawing, etc.) • Being accomplished = better marriage material• Marriage = financial security & social status

• Highly intellectual women were looked down upon & considered “unfeminine”

• Mostly, women were expected to be meek, virtuous, and self-abnegating… i.e. be pleasant, get married, have children

• 1840s – at the time CB is writing the novel - women’s rights & suffrage are an awakening force Bowles’s Drawing Book for Ladies is a manual for

drawing or embroidering flowers. Drawing and embroidery were part of a conventional female education in the 18th and 19th centuries.

SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS: GENDER DYNAMICS CONT.

• The title character, Jane, expresses emotion, passion, and discontent, thus “challenging” conventional female propriety• “Women are supposed to be very calm generally: by women feel just as

men feel; they need exercise for their faculties…they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too 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…”

• One particularly critical review from the publication, The Mirror, noted, • “It is the boast of the writer that she knows how to overstep conventional

usages – how in fact to trample upon customs established by our forefathers… [Jane Eyre] is one of the “many blows… aimed at our institutions, political and social.”

SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS: THE ENGLISH GOVERNESS• Young middle-class woman from an educated home responsible

for teaching anything from basic reading, writing, & arithmetic to music & foreign languages, and moral lessons• Responsible for training older girls in accomplishments (to ensure

marriageability)• Difficult & isolating role – the governess was neither servant nor

family • The Governess — "Ye too, the friendless, yet dependent, that find nor

home nor lover. Sad imprisoned hearts, captive to the net of circumstance." — Martin Tupper.

• A “low” position for a middle class woman; often viewed as a degradation, even though she was technically from the same social level as the family

• Governesses were paid, which put them at the economic level of the servants (the need to “earn” money was viewed negatively)

• One of few ways an educated, middle class woman could earn an income without losing her “caste”

• The ability to employ a governess was a mark of social status• Marriage was often the only way out

SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS: CLASS VALUES IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND

• Industrial Revolution brings a lot of change to English social structure; previously only aristocrats and gentry… Victorian Era sees the emergence of a middle class

• Victorians were obsessed with class and placing people in certain categories – there was great stratification between upper and lower classes

• Many elite believed that members of the lower class were deserving of their poverty because they failed to improve their situations

• Jane Eyre largely focuses on a rural setting – Brontë’s criticism isn’t at direct/obvious as some of her contemporaries (e.g. Dickens)

• As you read, consider which class Brontë seems to sympathize with? Who does she condemn? How does she portray different classes through certain characters?

SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS: RELIGION• Recall that some critics were shocked by the novel and

considered it “anti-Christian” and having “vague creeds” and “odd sorts of religious notions”

• The Evangelicals "stressed the reality of the 'inner life,' insisted on the total depravity of humanity (a consequence of the Fall) and on the importance of the individual's personal relationship with God and Savior."

• Pay attention to the religious beliefs/views of characters in the novel…➢ Consider how religious concepts such as faith, love,

spirituality, sin, morality, etc. are portrayed – and what differing philosophies are evident? Where does Jane seem to fall?

➢ What is Brontë attempting to suggest about Christianity through these characters?

NOVEL INSPIRATION & INFLUENCES

Charlotte Brontë

• Brontë’s Mother dies at an early age

• She & sisters sent to Cowan Bridge school; her sisters, Maria & Elizabeth Brontë, die after a typhoid outbreak at the school

• Attends another school (Roe Head) as a pupil; eventually she becomes a teacher

• Works as a governess

• Speculation about her being in love with a married instructor at the school she attended in Brussels

Jane Eyre• Orphan

• Attends Lowood Institution – note how Brontë characterizes the school in the novel

• Becomes a teacher

• Works as a governess

• Fall in love with her employer

JANE EYRE: GENRE CONSIDERATIONS• Written during the Victorian Era (1837 – 1901), but the story takes place

earlier and tends to embody more qualities of literature written in the earlier Romantic Period

• The storyline falls under multiple literary subgenres, including

•The Bildungsroman Novel•Romantic Literature/Romanticism•The Gothic Novel

→ Note that Jane Eyre will not meet every element for each genre – it’s a blend→ We will briefly discuss the elements of each genre…

GENRE: THE BILDUNGSROMAN NOVEL❖ bildung = education + roman = novel (German: a novel of education or formation)

❖ A literary subgenre that focuses on the psychological development & moral growth of its main character from youth or adolescence to maturity, in the context of a defined social order, to a point at which the protagonist recognizes his/her place and role in the world▪ a “coming of age” novel; a novel of self-discovery▪ a individual’s search for meaningful existence within society

❖ Protagonist usually gains maturity gradually and with difficulty

GENRE: ROMANTICISM• ~ late 1700s – mid 1800s (dates may vary)❖ After the Enlightenment Era & before the Victorian era, but

continues with both

• IN LITERATURE & ART:❖ FEELINGS, EMOTION, IMAGINATION & INTUITION take

priority over logic & facts (the ideals at the heart of the earlier Enlightenment Period)

❖ Emphasis on NATURE… Nature is a source of beauty, truth, and the sublime

❖ Focus on the INDIVIDUAL/individualism❖ Reflects the importance of SOLITUDE, personal REFLECTION,

& INTROSPECTION ❖ Many writers present a “solitary protagonist who is separated from

society because he has rejected it, or because it has rejected him.”

❖ Interest in the MYSTICAL and SUPERNATURAL

GENRE: GOTHIC LITERATURE• Gothic novels evolved during the Romantic Period

• These novels often reflect the “dark, irrational side of human nature …beneath the controlled and ordered surfaces of the conscious mind.”

• SOME GOTHIC ELEMENTS:➢ Sullen landscape:

➢ Barren countryside (think English moor), rugged mountains, dense forests, etc.

➢ Ominous weather – storms, lightning, thunder, fog, etc.➢ Sinister setting:

➢ Decaying mansions or castles with dark dungeons, secret passages, dark corridors, labyrinths, or winding stairs, spooky basements or attics, etc.

➢ Supernatural elements: omens, beings, &/or phenomena

➢ Characters: Damsel in distress, villain-hero, villain

EXAMPLES OF 19TH CENTURY GOTHIC LITERATURE…

THE BYRONIC HEROCharacter type popularized during the Romantic period by the famous Lord Byron; a.k.a the Romantic hero

• Characteristics:➢ An anti-hero – rebels against conventional modes of

behavior/thought in some way; possesses character traits that are not traditionally heroic

➢ Dark, handsome appearance➢ Wandering, searching, or brooding behavior➢ Brilliant, but cynical & self-destructive (a “broody babe

magnet”)➢ Haunted by some secret sin or crime; sometimes hints of

forbidden love➢ Heroic in the sense that he appeals to society by

standing apart from society➢ Superior, but wounded or unrewarded

AS YOU READ…• Note the GENRE ELEMENTS we have discussed…

• Bildungsroman – consider how Jane’s character matures and evolves… what events contribute to her development?

• Romanticism – how are Romantic ideals manifested in the novel? • Gothic – what gothic elements are present? How do they contribute to the novel?

• Note CHARACTERIZATION, direct and indirect… consider character relationships, contrasts, etc.

• Pay attention to LITERARY ELEMENTS and how/why/when they’re used

• Consider how the story is influenced by the narration/POV

• Note SETTING/changes in setting… consider how Jane changes/develops as her environments change

• Note Brontë’s portrayal of various settings (e.g. the school)

• SYMBOLISM – many archetypes! • Pay close attention to nature, colors, etc.

• SOCIAL COMMENTARY – what broader observations can be made regarding women’s rights/roles, religion, social class, etc.

SOURCES CONSULTED• http://www.victorianweb.org

• http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/gaskell/61n_s7.html

• http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture16a.html

• http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html

• https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century

• https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/videos/the-governess

• https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/engl-145-fall2016/2016/09/19/200/

• http://jur.byu.edu/?p=713

• Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period vol. 2A Seventh Ed.

• http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/gothic/gothic.html

• http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/B/ByronicHero.htm

• https://scholarworks.harding.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=tenor

• The Brontës: Charlotte Bronte and Her Family by Rebecca Fraser