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Charlotte Bronte and Women of the 19th Century

            Some of the nineteenth century novels that have been written by female writers focus on the development of women in a patriarchal society. Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyer" is one such novel that has faced a lot of social criticism. Published in 1847, the novel faced a lot of social criticism as Bronte challenges the 19th century idea of a women and creates the character of Jane who demands respect, wants to work , is bold and shows the act of passion.
             Charlotte Bronte herself experienced a childhood without a mother which is why her novel somewhat depicts her feelings and emotions regarding a girl having to face society without having a motherly figure to look up to. It is possible that the reason behind Jane's character and nature has a lot to do with a missing mother figure. The missing mother is a stoke characteristic in a Victorian novel. Jane questioning various social and moral negotiations is due to her experience of a maternal loss. The whole concept of a misguided child that a lot of Victorian critiques wold call her throws light on the importance of a woman in the society, not only as a mother but also as a mentor. Jane is an orphan in the novel who spends her childhood in a family that does not completely embrace her. She can't look up to her aunt Mrs Reed as an alternative mother figure so she finds comfort in Bessie who is a social inferior. She manages to look up to Helen Burns and Mrs Temple but doesn't mould into either of them. In the end Jane marries , not out of duty or to just become a mother but for love which was very unlikely in that era.
             During that era a woman was expected to be calm and compassionate. The only tasks that was considered nobel by a woman were to knit, play the piano and embroidering bags. She was not given the permission to be expressive about her feelings and opinion. Bronte in her novel rebuilds the character of a woman. Jane voices her opinion about how women should be allowed to work on her talents instead of taking care of just the house, she should be given a chance to be educated and work.


Essays Related to Charlotte Bronte and Women of the 19th Century

1. The Importance of Family in Jane Eyre

... to Reed's family. This could be linked to the Victorian and 19th century orphan hood. According to Laura Peters, the orphan was identified in Victorian culture as one who was "bereft of protection, advantages, benefits, or happiness previously enjoyed."(Peters, 2000, p. 1). This means the life of orphan was vulnerable and miserable. Moreover, they were regarded as dangerous threats because they were homeless and outsiders. As if it was their fault ... nineteenth century society. Men and women inhabited separate spheres that controlled what actions each gender could do. Most of the women...

  • Word Count: 2175
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

... sees the end of her internal conflict. In Jane, Charlotte Bronte has created a character who has many different and contradicting aspects of her self that invokes a great sense of realism. This varied and intense personality that is in conflict with itself has great authenticity. The idea that outwardly decorous young women would think rebellious thoughts, although widely accepted as a fact, was considered scandalous in its written form. I feel, in terms of 19th century ... , which has a gripping plot, but I feel that it also is of interest because it reflects some of the changing views ...

  • Word Count: 1788
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Charlotte Brontë and Feminism in Jane Eyre

When I was deciding what kind of approach I should use for the novel of Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre, I was reading the author's CV and I was surprised that she published her novel just as some of her other works under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Was it because she wasn't sure of the success which had avoided her till that time, or was it because in her novel Jane Eyre she opened the 13th chamber in question about status of women in society in the beginning of the 19th century? The status of women is society. There were undoubtedly some other writers who dealt with this question, e.g. Jane Auste...

  • Word Count: 975
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre Autobiography

... magnify the intricacies of its own composer and context and reflectively, the developed or regressed reader and the context it is presently read in, be allowed. Thence, some of the aspects of the life of Charlotte Bronte that relate to the novel Jane Eyre will be analysed, for context creates the mind of the composer and the mind of the composer creates the soul of the text. Charlotte Bronte was born in 1816, the third child of Reverend Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. The couple had six children before Maria Bronte died of cancer ... . Wooler could definitely be seen within the...

  • Word Count: 728
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. Women's Roles and Struggles in Jane Eyre and Charulata

 Comparison and Contrast: Roles and Struggles of Women in "Charulata" and "Jane Eyre" Abstract Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre and Sattyajit Roy's movie Charulata are the products of taking materials from the nineteenth century throw two different societies. Through the ups and downs of their protagonists, they have become able to show the deprivation, injustice, inequality and humiliation by which they suffered from. This term paper contains comparison and contrast of the roles and struggles of women of the society in the perspective Jane Eyre and Charulata. Keywords : Pastoral and urb...

  • Word Count: 2056
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

6. A Room of One

... women writers of the early 19th Century: Jane Austen, the Brontes, and George Eliot. As to why the early 19th century writers were all novelists, women's common social role seems to have been the reason. Functioning at the heart of the family, she observes, women's training inevitably includes the observation of character and the analysis of emotion. These are faculties women acquire 4 unconsciously in the course of daily activities and they are more easily put to use in a novel than elsewhere in fiction. However, for Charlotte Bronte ... who yearned for wider horizons, her creations su...

  • Word Count: 1692
  • Approx Pages: 7

7. Gender and Masculinity

... of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of accomplishments; meanwhile strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine notions of beauty" for women (10). Boys got to concentrate on their education, along with their success, while women were taught to do chores around the house, take care of younger children, and look pretty to please their husbands. Furthermore, during the 19th century, women writers were not respected as serious authors. Charlotte Bronte, author of ... Jane Eyre, was forced to publish her works under the male nom de plume, Currer Bell, in order...

  • Word Count: 915
  • Approx Pages: 4

8. A Feminist Approach to Wuthering Heights

... her father and her husband B. Catherine, Isabella and the contradiction between the two characters C. Conclusion III. Works Cited "The book is unique. There was nothing like it before, there has been nothing like it since, there will be nothing like it again." George Sampson, 1941, The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature I. INTRODUCTION The main aim of this research is to trace 19th century British writer Emily Bronte's feminist notions ... ' syndrome, but such writers as Elizabeth Gaskell and the Bronte sisters had already made a notable contribution to the flourishing of fe...

  • Word Count: 5526
  • Approx Pages: 22
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Victorian period

... change is revolutionary: destruction and reconstruction. The Victorians recognised that they were breaking down the systems of: Christian orthodoxy under the rule of the church, civil government under the rule of the king and nobility, the social structure of fixed classes, each with its recognised rights and duties and the economic organisation. That was "the old European system of dominant ideas and facts" which Arnold saw dissolving in the 19th Century. As the older doctrines and institutions were attacked and until they could be modified ... property. Divorce remained so expensive h...

  • Word Count: 1835
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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