Jane Eyre Context and Critics

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Created on: 28-03-19 15:06

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Jane Eyre Context & Critics
- Victorian Society
  - Governesses
    - Often caught between upper and lower classes
    - Hated by upper-class women as they had a terrible reputation for promiscuity
      - Bronte herself was a governess who fell in love with an unsuitable man
        Often caught between upper and lower classes
      - Unclear exactly when novel is set
    - Atypical for midle-class women to work - one of the only acceptable positions
      - Jane is made respectable when she inherits - she is financially stable, and doesn't have to work
  - Childhood
    - Upper-class children looked after by governesses and servants - often had little contact with their parents
      - Jane is unusual as a very passionate 10 year old - an unacceptable quality in a young Victorian girl
    - School attendance not compulsory until 1880 - Jane privileged because she is educated
      - As an orphan, Jane is reliant entirely on charity (Lowood is a charity school)
  - Women
    - Jane Eyre lives in a patriarchal society
      - Middle and upper-class women were not expected to work and were instead seen as homemakers
        strong female protagonist
      - Upper-class women, such as Blanche Ingram, were expected to make advantageous marriages
        Typical for upper-class women to be portrayed as searching for marriage in texts of the time e.g Austen, Mrs Gaskell
        
        Married Women's Property Act 1882
- Religion
  - Evangelical Christianity
    - St John Rivers
      - Eventually leads to his death during his time in India
  - Catholicism
    - Eliza Reed
      - Some critics claim that the novel is anti Catholic
        Elizabeth Rigby - 'Pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition
        Is the ice to Jane's fire - almost makes her agree to marry him - it is clear that she would have been very unhappy
        Contrasted by his more sympathetic sisters, although they support the marriage
      - Eliza enters a convent and becomes Mother Superior - another route for women who didn't want to marry
  - Patrick Bronte was an Anglican Priest
    - Bronte was religious and knew the Bible extensively
- Critics
  - 'Lady Eastlake' aka Elizabeth Rigby
    - The author has 'long forfeited the company of her own sex'
  - Gilbert and Gubar
    - Bertha is a political symbol of the struggle against the patriarchy
      - Child in dream = orphaned alter-ego
  - Rob Worall
    - 'Jane refused to subscribe to the Victorian mantra'
Anne Crowe
- 'to Jane the moon is a mother-figure'
- Critics
  - 'Lady Eastlake' aka Elizabeth Rigby
    - The author has 'long forfeited the company of her own sex'
  - Gilbert and Gubar
    - Bertha is a political symbol of the struggle against the patriarchy
      - Child in dream = orphaned alter-ego
  - Rob Worall
    - 'Jane refused to subscribe to the Victorian mantra'
Empire
- Bertha = Creole
- Catholicism
  - Eliza Reed
    - Some critics claim that the novel is anti Catholic
      - Elizabeth Rigby - 'Pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition
        Is the ice to Jane's fire - almost makes her agree to marry him - it is clear that she would have been very unhappy
        Contrasted by his more sympathetic sisters, although they support the marriage
    - Eliza enters a convent and becomes Mother Superior - another route for women who didn't want to marry

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Jane Eyre Context and Critics

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