Jane Eyre: Gender Roles - Research Paper Example

? 2 November Jane Eyre: Gender Roles Gender roles can be defined as “shared culturalexpectations that are placed on individuals on the basis of their socially de?ned gender” (Williams et al 702). The history of the world provides innumerable evidences for the undermined gender role of women and subjugation of women’s rights by men (Ifegbesa 29). Jane Eyre is one of many books that speak of violence displayed by men against women. Violence is conventionally understood as a practice that causes physical offence, whereas it actually constitutes several types of offensive behaviors that may not necessarily be physical. The definition of violence according to The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women is “Any act…that results in…physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty whether occurring in public or in private life” (Fox 15). The novel Jane Eyre provides evidences for the numerous ways in which the revolutionist women in the Victorian Era were silenced by the society. Violence against Jane Eyre originates in her belongingness to the Victorian Era. The character of Jane Eyre is from the nineteenth century. That was a time in which the “fear of the intellectual woman became so intense that the phenomenon . . . was recorded in medical annals. A thinking woman was considered such a breach of nature that a Harvard doctor reported during his autopsy on a Radcliffe graduate he discovered that her uterus had shriveled to the size of a pea” (Gibert cited in Warhol and Herndl 28). Victorian era that lasted from the year 1837 till 1901 in England placed a lot of emphasis upon the gender roles. The emphasis was so robust that the society could be divided according to the respective functions of the men and women, “more commonly known as the ideology of separate spheres” (“Victorian Women”). Women have remained subjected to male violence during the Victorian Era. Therefore, it is beyond any doubt that in order to be praiseworthy, Jane Eyre has to comply with the expectations associated with an ideal woman in the Victorian age. Submissiveness, simplicity, passivity and submission in all respects have to be the key traits of Jane Eyre’s personality. In addition to that, she is expected to have an emotional desire for male partnership and love due to her belongingness to the Victorian age. Contrary to the societal expectations associated with her, when Jane Eyre tends to challenge the conventional social institutions, she is discouraged and is forced into social isolation till the time, she accepts her inferior role in the society and lives according to it. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; 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, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex. (Bronte 114). Jane Eyre’s crime was not childishness but femininity. Throughout the novel, Jane Eyre’s childishness has been emphasized upon. In the start, a considerable portion is dedicated to her childhood. Later, when she is shown a grown-up mature woman tutoring at Lowood and serving as a governess at Thornfield, it is said that she looks like a child. This provides the audiences with a subjective ground to assert that Jane Eyre undergoes all the bad experiences in her life due to her childishness, but that is far from the truth. Critics may attribute Mrs. Reed’s humiliation towards Jane Eyre as a consequence of the age difference between the two, specifically when Jane Eyre asks Mrs. Reed why her behavior with her is so rude and Mrs. Reed retorts that she is not fond of addressing others’ queries. She tells Jane Eyre that being younger to her, she is not supposed to question her and that she is supposed to conform to the norms while talking or remain quiet. But an in-depth analysis of the novel suggests that at different points in time throughout the novel, Jane Eyre is humiliated by different people and most of them happen to be men. The humiliation hardly ever lessens even when she becomes a grown-up woman. In addition to that, it is not only Jane Eyre that is subject to insult by men. There is also another character i.e. Bertha that becomes victim because of her being a woman. There is a strange connection between Jane Eyre and Bertha as both are locked up in isolation and their connection with the rest of the family is distorted when either of the two craves for significance, recognition and equality in the society. Therefore, there is no doubt in the fact that Mrs. Reed’s bad behavior is not towards a child, but is towards a girl. Jane Eyre’s revolutionist nature saps her ability to understand her inferior role in the society. Jane’s personality is featured in the very introduction of the novel. She is habitual to finding reason for her punishment which happens to be the fundamental reason why she is reprimanded. Jane Eyre is unable to understand why she has to be treated like a servant. When she has an encounter with John Reed, she is locked up in the red-room. John Reed not only insults Jane Eyre, but also assaults her physically. Mrs. Reed says to Jane Eyre, “For shame! For shame! What shocking conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your benefactress’ son! your young master!” (Bronte 8). To this Jane Eyre replies, “Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?” (Bronte 8). The same attitude reflects in Jane’s activities as an adult. Jane Eyre actually manages to live a different lifestyle than most women her age would do in her time. Not many women in the Victorian Era ever got an opportunity to earn like Jane Eyre did. By doing the job of a governess, Jane Eyre locates a way to adopt a middle class standard of living. It was very difficult for a woman in the Victorian Era to be an orphan and yet get hired by an institution for teaching. This speaks of the fact that Jane Eyre’s disapproval for inferiority of the female gender eventually led her to achieving goals beyond expectations. Owing to her belongingness to the female gender, Jane Eyre has been shown in the role of a servant throughout the play. During her days in the Gateshead Hall, Jane Eyre encounters the unfavorable consequences of being a poor girl. John Reed humiliates her intensely. Jane Eyre is made to realize that being a penniless orphan, she is dependent upon the Reeds. Owing to her financial dependence upon the Reeds, John Reed inculcates a sense of inferiority in her mind. John Reed says to Jane Eyre, “Now, I'll teach you to rummage my book-shelves; for they are mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years” (Bronte 7). John Reed makes use of the word “teach” rather than “tell” in order to make his manner sound sarcastic. In conventional practice, this word is used when someone wants to elaborate a concept to another person with due kindness and nobility, but the word means the exact opposite here. By using the word “teach”, John Reed not only wants to make Jane Eyre realize that she is his relational subordinate, but is also his intellectual subordinate. The consistent and frequent use of such personal words as “I”, “my”, “mine” and “me” encourages Jane Eyre psychologically to submit herself to John Reed because everything belongs to him. John Reed tends to gain control over Jane Eyre on an emotional level. In the later portion of the novel, Jane Eyre is discussed in the role of a servant to the house’s master while being in charge of Adele’s education at Thornfield. Thus, be it her childhood or adulthood, Jane Eyre is meant to serve because she is a woman. Concluding, Jane Eyre is the life-long story of a woman from the Victorian Era who is assaulted throughout her life for her disapproving instinct towards the inferior role of woman in the society. As a child, Jane Eyre is assaulted by John Reed. As a teenager, she is assaulted by Mr. Brocklehurst and as an adult, she encounters Mr. Rochester who uses Bertha for becoming wealthy and after acquiring that, abandons her because of her madness. Oppression happens to be one of the most obvious themes of Jane Eyre wherein people belonging to the more dominant gender humiliate Jane Eyre in an attempt to prove their superiority over her. Wherever she goes, she encounters gender-conscious males who feel that they are important because they are men. Works Cited: Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Carleton Publisher. 1864. Fox, Vivian C. “Historical Perspectives on Violence Against Women.” Journal of International Women’s Studies. vol. 4. no. 1. Nov. 2002. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. . Ifegbesa, Ayodeji. “Gender-Stereotypes Belief and Practices in the Classroom: The Nigerian Post-Primary School Teachers’.” Global Journal of Human Social Science. vol. 10. issue 4. Sep. 2010. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. . “Victorian Women: The Gender of Oppression.” n.d. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. . Warhol, Robyn R., and Herndl, Diane P. Feminisms: an anthology of literary theory and criticism. USA: The State University, 1997. Print. Williams, Dmitri; Consalvo, Mia; Caplan, Scott; and Yee, Nick. “Looking for Gender: Gender Roles and Behaviors Among Online Gamers.” Journal of Communication. Vol. 59. 2009. Web. 3 Nov. 2011. . Read More