Comparison of Middle-Class Masculinity in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre and Charles Dickens Hard Times - Essay Example

140663 Middle masculinity was used abundantly in most of the Victorian novels to accentuate the effect of the novel and to contrast with the still delicate feminity of the time. Also it was depicting the reality of the then British society, without exaggerating it. Anything else would have been unreal and unwelcome to readers, as it simply did not exist during that time, in spite of having the long reign of a highly popular Queen. The literature and culture of Victorian Britain was entirely different from what we see it today. Times, no doubt, were definitely changing, and society was not as conventional as it used to be in 18th century. But the metamorphosis was taking place at a very slow, almost unrecognisable pace, and the genteel society was unprepared for being shocked. Dickens, who serialised his works in popular dailies, always had kept an eye on the social rigidity and had no great desire to annoy his audience. Many times, he had bowed to readers’ wishes and altered many endings of his works. Hard Times shows the same willingness to please his clientele. “Before the institution of the railway, therefore, travel was the ideological and culturally imagined province of masculinity, founded on designations of entitlement, autonomy, and agency, and emblematized by male members of the moneyed classes”. By Dorre (2002). Depiction of men in forefront of society, women being the rarely visible second sex, being adhered to the strict codes of Victorian way of life, was inherent in all works of the period. This was followed by another disastrous time when un-liberated women were contrasted with the liberated woman, favoring the first type. In Jane Eyre, Rochester is manliness personified, brooding, unhappy, wronged, and slightly misunderstood (even though adored to some extent) by society. He is the provider, controller, inheritor and law maker of the family and respected as a just man of action in the region. He unhesitatingly takes his decision to marry Jane, outside his class, a mere working woman, when women working were rare and anathema and he does so disregarding all public opinion with dignified and ‘devil may care’ manliness. “Rochester was sovereign over his home and its inhabitants as well……...Like any male figure, Rochester is in control of his home and expects his delegated work to be carried out. Finally, St. John Rivers, like Rochester, was seen as the sovereign or authority figure over his home as well.” http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/breen2.htm He also knew that he was indulging in bigamy and he takes that too in his stride. He disregards her lack of money and absence of looks, but judges her by her personality. He rules his fortress with iron hand, even in his absence; his personality so vibrant that even the servants were unaware of the confined presence of the first Mrs. Rochester, even though from the beginning, instead of being cowed down by such overpowering masculinity, Jane has been a contender for attention. In their first encounter she is in a position to help him, because he had fallen off his horse. “If even this stranger had smiled and been good-humoured to me when I addressed him; if he had put off my offer of assistance gaily and with thanks, I should have gone on my way and not felt any vocation to renew inquiries: but the frown, the roughness of the traveler, set me at my ease”. [Brontë, p. 97] Bronte, sometimes refers to masculinity as gruff, mysterious and ill-tempered even though Rochester could be endearing and lovable whenever he chose. “Brontë does not value heroism in a man; instead she wishes him to be rough around the edges, misshapen and ready to be reformed. Men are not beautiful and righteous; it is the women who must be so, as counterpart to the men”. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/covert15.html Masculinity of early days was connected with power, authority and chivalry. Men in those days were expected to actively pursue the female sex partners. Lot of story line significance was connected with Rochester’s masculinity. His status was higher by class, wealth and he was a man, whereas Jane was of lower class and a mere working woman, something like a servant, even though Rochester does not think so from the beginning. That shows his gentlemanly behaviour. In nineteenth century masculinity is defined by greater freedom, superiority, unquestioned commanding and male dominance. Hard Times was called a ‘fairytale of the industrial age’ though written in sombre hard lines, without the usual compassion and mesmerizing wit. Middle class characters in their ivory tower were facing the extraordinary changes brought by the industrial revolution. The arrogant businessman, Bounderby is the sly villain of the story, the representative of new breed of all-grabbing industrialists. It is not a historically accurate picture, but simply circumstantial. Mr. Sleary, as the more virtuous businessman, was pitted against Bounderby. In Hard Times two women represent two different types of women of the day. Luisa Gradgrind represents industrialization, and Sissy Jupe represents fancy and imagination and both were part of Victorian society. George Bernard is supposed to have said that Dickens wrote Hard Times only to make his middle class readers uncomfortable. Victorian masculinity cannot be imposed on the important figure of Stephen Blackpool; but he is one of the favourite candidates. Hard times has gendered labour at home and on the job. Male characters in Hard Times are not as masculine as Edward Rochester. They to have the middleclass masculinity of Victorian days, but compared to the raw, on-your-face masculinity of Rochester, they pale into insignificance. Sad experiences of the working class during economic restructuring, no doubt, led to a shift from the role of housewife to the role of a second class worker, for women. But their feminine and lower status remained unchanged. Exactly like that of Jane Eyre. Even though she was a governess, working for her livelihood, it did not give her any exalted status. Instead of giving her the additional power, the society of Victorian times looked down upon the working women and was not yet ready for women being liberated from the traditional role. Hard Times was going through the same crisis, in spite of industrialisation stepping into Britain and women were stepping out of their cocooned area. Hard Times does not have the stereotyped masculinity that Jane Eyre has. Here it is a bit subtle and subdued by circumstances as the times were really changing. Stories and mindsets of ‘second sex’ were still persisting. Decline of masculinity came with the introduction of modernity and the origin of modern capitalist society brought a transition unseen by traditional society of earlier years. Rationalisation against divinity, magic, superstition and religious blindness also made masculinity decline. “Gender should be seen as the ideological result of a material struggle over the sexual division of labour is mistaken and ultimately expresses the modern form which patriarchal ideology takes,” MacInnes (1998, p.2). Victorian household was slightly different from the previous households, where family was one community and servants were another and the women of the house did not work with servants. In Jane Eyre, there is another person, a governess, who neither belonged to servant community, nor to the family community and remains in between, but by her sheer middle place, she demanded more attention and different treatment from the servants. Rochester, from the beginning maintains that she was not one amongst the servants, but could not avoid the clash between his masculinity and her place in his household. Governess’ standing in the middle class family was rather awkward and hence, was an exception to the servant community. “The most critical precondition of middle-class domesticity was the withdrawal of the wife from direct involvement in the productive work of the household. The idea of a marital working partnership was virtually at an end among the Victorian bourgeoisie,” Tosh (1999, p.17). Victorian masculinity was more complicated because it is at a turning point. Women were becoming more visible; but at the same time, it was too early for the rampant and vigorous masculinity to fade away. The belief that men earned their living and that of their family and created their reputation in the world, when women raised the children and looked after home and hearth was still very much there in Victorian society. “For most of the nineteenth century home was widely held to be a man’s place, not only in the sense of being his possession or fiefdom, but also as the place where his deepest needs were met,” Tosh (p.1). In the latter part of nineteenth century, there were a few signs of women participating in earning family income, while men took slight interest in domestic matters. According to Trosh, Victorian culture gave opportunity for the first time for the wife to be the real companion and confident of the man. Mr. Gradgrind’s mighty observations about his children’s habit of peeping into the circus and not so veiled remarks of attention-mongering to his wife (‘As if, with my head in its present throbbing state, you couldn’t go and look at the shells and minerals and things provided for you, instead of circuses1”) was one of the instances. When Dickens describs the male characters like Gradgrind and Bounderby, he does so without much sympathy and with a certain amount of grim enmity that was absent in his earlier works. The reason was that Dickens was aware that the masculinity and gentlemanliness had been perishing from the Victorian England. Dickens was aware that most of the masculinity was already ebbing out of Victorian men and the rest of it too will vanish by the turn of century. He was conscious that industrial revolution will spread into homes and will bring the end of the masculine fiefdom. Also he knew that though it was on its way out, it had not completely perished. He was treating his men accordingly. Naturally Hard Times has a compromising masculinity compared to Jane Eyre, which has a vibrant one. In Hard Times all characters were shown with a certain kind of bitter severity. Bitzer is a man more of self-interest than of masculinity. He shows no gratitude towards Tom Gradgrind, while he tries to prevent him from escaping. It is not possible to call Stephen Blackpool as an ideal representative of masculinity and instead, we can call him a victim of industrialisation. Both his life and death represent more of persecution than masculinity or domination. Josiah Bounderby comes out as a cunning, unpleasant person and neither has the powerful personality, nor any admirable traits. Even the humility he shows gets exposed in the end as a false and timeserving one. Thomas Gradgrind, though not masculine enough to compete with characters of early Victorian days, is definitely a man of ‘fact and calculations’ (I, 2) and maintains a certain overbearing dominance at home with wife and children. But the robbery and events leading to his downfall are too pathetic to be connected with the clear-sighted masculinity. He was dominant enough to make Louisa marry Bounderby (I, 15). The way the lives of Tom and Louisa shaped, makes a sad epitaph of their father’s personality and outlook. Dickens so skilfully depicts the ‘surpassing feebleness’ (I, 4) of Mrs. Gradgrind against which her husband does look full of masculinity, even though it is not of the right kind! James Harthouse, with whom Louisa has an affair, is a gentleman of bored cynicism. He acts on a well-meant advice of “a good opening among the hard Fact fellows” (II.2) and joins the politics. Even his affair with Louisa was mainly to relieve him out of boredom and he comes across the pages as a masculine personality, slightly on the negative side. He is the best masculine portrayal that Dickens allows himself in Hard Times. He was from a good family, educated adequately and George Bernard Shaw described him as a Victorian ‘swell’ character. Even Harthouse cannot be compared with the compellingly masculine personality of Edward Rochester. He falls short in many ways. Jane Eyre was written by Charlotte Bronte to show the unwillingness of an educated and intelligent woman to accept the place ordained by fate to her, and how she strived and reached for more. Still, this has not diminished the masculine portrayal of Edward Rochester in any way. It has actually accentuated his personality. No doubt, his portrayal has a similarity with the male portrayals of Hard Times like Thomas Gradgrind or Harthouse. But he stands apart in his ways of accepting responsibility unflinchingly and even in the face of adversity. Starting from the ignoble entrance, he dominates the novel that has a woman oriented theme, with pronounced characterisation of Jane as the main protagonist. The masterly way in which he handles situations and even Jane, is more of early Victorian ways than the later one. He also could be patronising towards plain Jane (‘Young lady, I am disposed to be gregarious and communicative to-night’ p. 163), unhesitatingly commanding (‘But not without taking leave; not without a word or two of acknowledgement and goodwill,’ p.182), just and compassionate (This girl knew no more than you, Wood, of the disgusting secret; she thought all was far and legal..p. 320), and endearing (‘Do you know, Jane, I have your little pearl necklace at this moment fastened round my bronze scrag under my cravat? I have won it since the day I lost my only treasure, as a momento of her’ p. 470); but he never, even in the last scene, where he is blind and helpless, stops being in command of the situation. Victorians undoubtedly were the first society that initiated more freedom for women. It was not easy for women to emerge from men’s shadow of centuries and the credit goes to be heroines of Victorian society and the men who helped them to break away from the shackles. “Today, despite the electronic revolution of the home computer and the internet, the separation of work from home is still the condition of most people. Styles may have been transformed; but the home is still imagined and equipped as the antithesis of the workplace, and as a refuge from it. The Victorians established the ‘common sense’ of the proposition that, to be fully human and fully masculine, men must be active and sentient participants in domestic life,” Tosh (p.197). Victorian period was the main changing point in British social history. No doubt, the Queen was a traditional person with a large family who mourned for her Prince for the rest of her life. Still she was a woman and that fact itself, just like in the case of Elizabeth I, ushered in a slight social change enhancing the woman’s role in the society. Women writers, starting from Jane Austen were depicting women in a more pronounced manner, almost equaling her to man. Time was not yet ripe for total severing off the traditional bonds. But there existed a very visible mobility in all classes of society. It was the time of exploration, colonization and while lesser class men competed with nobility for equal status with their victories and riches, women were venturing out of home and hearth questioning the dominant masculinity. The vibrant masculinity was shaken along with the titled and untitled middle class. These two works simply mirror a period of uncertainty, a questioning period by the still dominated fairer sex. It was a period when middle class masculinity myth was getting shattered slowly. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Dickens, Charles (1954), Hard Times, J./M. Dent & Sons Limited, London. 2. Dorre, Gina Marlene, Handling the “Iron Horse”, Dickens, Travel, and Derailed Masculinity in The Pickwick Papers, Nineteenth Century Studies From Volume 16 (2002). P.1-19. 3. Leavis, Q.D. (1966), ed. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Penguin books, Middlesex. 4. MacInnes, John (1998), The End of Masculinity, Open University Press, Buckingham. 5. Tosh, John (1999), A Man’s Place, Masculinity and the Middle-Class Home in Victorian England, Yale University Press, New Haven and London. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/covert15.html 2. http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/breen2.htm.. 3. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/covert15.html 4. 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