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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. Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre Autobiography

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. ... Charlotte Bronte was sent away to the Roe Head School in 1831, where Mrs. ... Bronte was thus victim to the 19th century predicament for women in Victorian society; she was too poor to live in unemployment but too "lady" to work in the main employments available as the...

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

2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

In this novel, I believe Charlotte Bronte created a very modern heroine, one who expanded beyond the conventional mannerisms and thinking of the time and period. ... 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. ... I feel, in terms of 19th century literature, Jane is a revolutionary character. ... In the narrative, Charlotte Bronte not only invites us into Jane's consciousness, but also establishes the mystery and suspense in her story. ... Yet Charlotte Bronte has created here no ...

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

3. A Feminist Approach to Wuthering Heights

INTRODUCTION The main aim of this research is to trace 19th century British writer Emily Bronte's feminist notions in her novel Wuthering Heights. ... Women's position during Victorian Age and Bronte sisters Women writers and female characters had been part of novel-writing since the time of Aphra Behn and Delarivier Manley, and it is a commonplace that women were the main readers of the genre in the eighteenth century. ... The Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte, not only contributed much to growth of the novel, but also to the position of women at this time. ... Char...

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

4. The Importance of Family in Jane Eyre

Women had very strict choices at that time. ... This could be linked to the Victorian and 19th century orphan hood. ... It could be stated that Charlotte Bronte has presented Helen as a sister for Jane. ... It could be argued that the life of Jane shows a parallelism with Charlotte Bronte's life. ... At the age of eight, Charlotte was sent to school with three of her sisters. ...

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

5. Charlotte Brontë and Feminism in Jane Eyre

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? ... "Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel...... " (260) Charlotte Brontë gave her heroine empowerment in a patriarchal society which denied women education. ... I am thinking whether many women in this century would have acted the same as Jane - with the same pride and self-denial. ... Charlotte B...

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

6. Gender and Masculinity

Women on the other hand, are taught that they are supposed to behave femininely. ... 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 for her writings to be read and become successful. ... Women were not even granted the right to vote until 1920. ... "Men endeavor to sink us [women] still lower", preventing women from having any authority (Wollstonecraft 8). ...

  • Word Count: 915
  • Approx Pages: 4

7. "Femininity"

In our society we have strict rules especially for women which I think that obligates people in Saudi society to see women as a figure of honor and idealism, a woman who follows all religious and custom rules is the "Saudi feminine ideal" for most of Saudi men. ... Islam in our society obligates women to obey men but from my point of view there are limits for those obligations. Women should have the right to cooperate and anticipate in a way or other. I don't say that men and women should be equal in everything but some how in certain things they should. ... As in "Jane Eyre" the novel by...

  • Word Count: 502
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. A Room of One

Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" is a representation of twentieth-century feminist thought. ... Women, the narrator says: have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting man as twice his natural size. ... Behn's success led to very many women earning money through writing in the Eighteenth Century, forerunners of the successful 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 t...

  • Word Count: 1692
  • Approx Pages: 7

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