Social Classes and Roles in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre - Coursework Example

Social es and gender roles in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre Introduction Written by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre isa novel belonging to the bildungsroman genre. Just like many other similar novels, the plot in Jane Eyre follows the life of its key character, Jane Eyre as she comes of age. The plot of the novel follows the life of the character as the character transforms from a girl to a mature woman. She has diverse experiences most of which arise from her social class and the fact that she is a girl child and later a woman. The two systematic inclusions influence the author’s portrayal of social classes and gender roles in the plot. The two are among the main themes in the novel (Brennan 102). The author addresses the two by addressing how they influence the life of the main character as the discussion below portrays. Jane Eyre who is the main character in the novel is of an ambiguous social class. Just as any other character who comes of age in similar novels, Jane traverses the various social classes as she grows up. She has social mobility in the novel a feature that makes her experience expose the nature of social classes in the early English society. The author of the novel divides the book into a number of stages with each stage showing diverse class experiences as the experiences of the lead character change. The novel opens up with the ten-year-old Jane as an orphan living with her maternal uncle. Her childhood was characterized by extensive maltreatment given her vulnerable state. Both her aunt and her children mistreat her. They often made decisions that heighten her predicaments. Key among such decisions was to take her to Lowood Institution. The institution was a girls’ school that enrolled children from poor families. The existence of the school in the society given its discriminatory structure shows the nature of social stratification in the society. The rich never interacted with the poor. They attended different schools and therefore acquired different social values. With such discriminatory social structure, the society made social mobility difficult. Jane spent her teenage years at the school where she acquired the valuable education. However, the process was traumatizing given the inhumane tactics used by the management of the school to run the institution. The children slept on a cold floor and ate poor food. When a typhus epidemic broke out in the school, a number of children die. This shows the level of vulnerability of the poor in the society (Bentley 44). Despite the difficulties, Jane completed her school thereby acquiring a vital resource in life. She even becomes a teacher in the same institution for two years. Jane’s adulthood promises hope for the vulnerable character. However, the society does not see her as any different. In fact, the fact that she got the valuable education makes her social standing in the novel ambiguous. Other educated members of the society acquired the culture of the aristocracy, the culture of the noble class. Jane was one such character. Her manners and sophistication coupled with the fact that she the governess who taught her etiquette possessed the culture of aristocracy and passed it down to her students made her a distinguished member of the society (Rubik and Elke 66). She was therefore possess the qualities of any other noble members of the society thus of a higher social class. In a number of sections of the novel, Jane exhibits the traits of a member of the wealthy class. While Jane had the distinguished qualities and mannerism of the wealthy in the early English society,her position as a paid employee seals her fate by restricting her to the poor class. The society treated paid employees as servants and so was Jane. At Thornfield, Jane remained a humble servant who survived on her wages. She was always powerless and penniless. This heightened the ambiguity of her social standing since on one hand she was a distinguished member of the society who possessed the Victorian education and ascribed to the elite aristocratic culture. On the other hand, she was a humble servant who limited her interactions with others to her official duties as a servant. As explained earlier, Jane acknowledges the dictates of the social class system of stratification. She embraces education in her attempt to break from her poor social status. She knows that with a paid job she will occupy the status of a servant. However, the education coupled with her job both at the Lowood Institution and at Thornfield Hall, she earns enough to accord her a dignified life. She hires servants for herself too and often sends other characters in the novel to run errands for her. She shows respect and takes commands from Rochester and her upper class friends while she sends other servants like Leah, the housemaid run other smaller errands such as fetching candles for her instead of fetching them herself. This shows her acknowledgement of the class stratification. She believes that Rochester and his upper class friends are better than she is (York 87). However, she believes that she is better than Leah among other servants who are at Thornfield since she has a quality education and has desirable manners often associated with the likes of Rochester and his upper class friends. Such ambiguity sets her apart from the wealthy and the poor in the society thereby influencing her relationship with the other characters. The social class segregation influenced the nature of interactions in the society. The roles and features of every social class influenced the decisions to instigate romantic relationships in the society. Jane, a mere servant, could not create a romantic relationship with Rochester, her master. Jane considers herself Rochester’s intellectual equal owing to the fact that she has the desired education. However, she is not his social equal a feature that forces her to suppress her feelings for Rochester "... it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal,—as we are!" (Bronte 54). Jane argues that by Rochester proposing to her, he would be condescending to marry her. This makes her hesitate as she considers Rochester’s proposal to marry her. The conflict in this case portrays the Victorian class attitudes especially about the creation and sustenance of such classes. Bronte, the author of the novel makes a systematic inclusion towards the end of the novel when she makes Jane wealthy. Apparently, Jane’s uncle had made her the inheritor to his wealth, which amounted to 20,000 pounds. The inheritance makes Jane wealthy contentiously. With such wealth, Jane traverses the social class and considers herself Rochester’s equal. As the novel concludes, Jane marries Rochester and they both have a baby boy. Making Jane wealthy before she marries Rochester was a strategic yet instrumental inclusion in the plot. It shows that the society could not permit Jane to marry Rochester since they were of different social classes. As explained earlier, Jane was not comfortable marrying Rochester while she was poor. She viewed such a marriage as a sham since she would remain forever indebted to Rochester for marrying her. With the wealth, Jane acquires the appropriate social status that makes the society permit a marriage between her and Rochester. An instrumental feature of the plot is the fact that the society does not bent the dictates of its social class system of stratification. Jane succeeds in traversing the social class boundaries because she worked hard and remained ambitious. She often respected the social class boundaries but struggled to change those she could. The upper class had the best education and enjoyed immense wealth. Quality education was instrumental in the management of wealth. Jane sought the quality education and acquired the best mannerism. She compares herself to Rochester because she believes she is his intellectual equal. Despite her intellectual abilities, she still lacks the wealth to qualify her as an upper class. Inheritance was a common way of acquiring wealth in the early Victorian society. When Jane inherits her uncle’s wealth, she becomes a complete individual who belongs to the upper social class. She has both the education and the wealth. She therefore has the permission of the society to marry Rochester since they are both intellectual and social equals. Wealth without intelligence would not have helped her either. Social class competition is rife in the novel. However, Jane is the only character that manages to achieve class mobility. Any paid employee in the society is of a different class regardless of the nature of his or her job. Such individuals are cast into the lower class and the society treats them as slaves. Such is a vital inclusion in the plot since it shows difficulty the people face in their attempt to cross the social class boundaries. It shows that while members of the low class would work hard at their jobs, they had fewer chances of ever crossing the social class boundaries. Jane for example is an educated woman of the low class. Owing to the quality of her education and the nature of the job she secures later in life, Jane improves her reputation. Additionally, she has desirable manners owing to the quality of the education. Despite such, the fact that Jane is a paid employee makes her not any different to other servants (Rubik and Mettinger-Schartmann 45). Jane’s effort does not succeed in enabling her to traverse the social class boundaries. With her high quality education, the best she gets is a paid job, which does not make her any different from other employees in the novel. She works as a teacher and later at Thornfield as a maiden. In both positions, Jane is not any different from the other servants. She interacts with her employers with respect owing to the social class restrictions. Jane later receives a substantial inheritance, which enables her to cross the boundaries. Without the inheritance, Jane could have lived as any other servant all her life. This shows the complex nature of the social class method of stratification in the society. Her attitudes and approach to life changes spontaneously once she has the wealth and is therefore independent. She appears confident and is ready to marry Rochester, something she had dreaded in the past. At some points in the plot, Jane expresses her frustrations with the social class system in the society. The wealthy viewed the poor people differently. Rochester for example had approached Jane with prejudice since he hoped that Jane, a poor woman, would not ignore an opportunity to relate with and marry a wealthy man. In response, Jane reprimands Rochester for thinking so lowly about her (Brontë 77). He explains that if only she had some wealth, she would make it difficult for Rochester to leave her too. Besides the overriding proportion that social class occupies in the book, the author addresses gender roles as another vital thematic issue in the society. The life of Jane and several other characters in the book shows the delicate relationship between men and women in the early Victorian society. As she crosses the social classes, Jane has to counter three vital men who help show the society’s categorical gender roles. Jane interacts with Mr. Brocklehurst, St. John Rivers and Edward Rochester who help portray the male roles in the novel. Jane’s life is one of constant struggle as she strives to overcome social oppression. Most of her oppressors in the novel are men. The men act naturally given their social construction of the gender roles. Mr. Brocklehurst is the principal of Lowood institution. He has traditionalist and religious beliefs that influence his interaction with the girls at the institution. The fact that the institution admits only girls who coincidentally come from poor families influences the nature of the interaction he develops with the girls. He is brutal to the girls and tries to suppress the girl owing to his social beliefs that men and male children are better than girls and women. He strives to develop quiet and modest girls by suppressing the freedoms of the girls at the institution. Mr. Brocklehurst tries to keep suppress Jane’s personality in order to develop an aloof personality in her. He does this owing to his beliefs in gender roles. He believes that women must always remain submissive to their male counterparts (Bloom 77). This way, Jane would not express her feeling and thoughts freely since women should always maintain such an interaction with men. John Reed is yet another male character in the novel that shows the male chauvinistic nature of the society. As children, John Reed often bullied Jane at times even in the presence of his mother. This shows the nature of relationship among male and female children in the society. Bullying Jane was way of expressing his masculinity. Male children often tried to subdue their female counterparts. Bullying was among the most effective ways for Reed to subdue Jane who had proven headstrong an independent minded. The mother lets him bully Jane a feature that portrays that women had accepted their fate and played a role in influencing the nature of gender relations in the society. In a show of his egoistic personality, John grows up to become a gambler who wastes his life in alcohol. Jane interacts with St. John later in life and he remains aloof about her. St. John helps Jane find a teaching job but remains apprehensive about their relationship. The fact that she finds Jane a teaching job shows the nature of gender relations in the society. Despite her qualifications, Jane could not find a job for herself and had to rely on St. John to find her a job. Furthermore, he finds her a teaching job. While Jane had a history as a teacher, with her qualifications she could find a better job. However, the society surrendered the job of nurturing children to women. This influences the choice of job St. John finds Jane. The Victorian society is male chauvinistic in structure. The women rely on the men for support. The men take care of their families and assist the women in a number of ways just as St. John assists Jane find a job. St. John does not like Jane and limits his interactions with her to the basic pleasantries. However, he develops immense interest in her the moment he learns that Jane was the sole heir of a 20,000 pounds fortune. At this point, he feigns friendship and becomes close to Jane. He even proposes to her. St. John proposes to Jane as a strategy of sharing her wealth. This shows the society’s approach to wealth. The men considered themselves deserving of the wealth. St. John believes that Jane would not take better care of the wealth and therefore seduces her in his attempt to acquire the wealth. Additionally, St. John is among the men in Jane’s life that had attempt to suppress her development. By marrying her, St. John had hoped that he would claim the wealth given his chauvinistic view of the nature of the relationship between him and Jane (Lodge 34). In her point of vulnerability, Jane begins to consider a relationship with St. John a man he hated. Jane begins by considering accompanying St. John to India giving him the condition that they go as a sister and a brother. However, with every day she spends with St. John she becomes closer to hip. This portrays the vulnerability of women in the society. The women could not break from the chains of the women. They needed the men in order to make complete and successful families. the relationship between Jane and Rochester had not succeeded by then owing to the social class stratification system thereby leaving Jane vulnerable and in need to a man’s attention. In her vulnerable state, she develops a degree closeness with St. John, a man who had previously sought to exploit her, had intimated, and suppressed her freedoms (Peters 66). Jane’s relationship with Rochester further shows the nature of relationship between men and women in the society. Besides the discriminative social class system of stratification in the society, the men in the society viewed their female counterparts as non-equals. The two initiate a relationship with Jane helping Rochester who had fallen from his horse. Instead of appreciating her, Rochester accuses her for spelling his horse. The fall was embarrassing and so Rochester could not take the blame. Instead, she puts the blame on Jane. The romantic relationship between Jane and Rochester faces a number of challenges owing to the unique nature of gender roles. Firstly, Rochester cannot marry from across the social classes. The differences in their social classes frustrate their relationship thereby making it less successful (Michie 44). Jane returns to marry Rochester when she is wealthy enough. Additionally, Rochester is a blind man; he would therefore depend on Jane. Jane desired independence a feature most women did not have at the time. She marries Rochester after securing her independence and believes that they are equal. Had she married Rochester any earlier, she would have undergone immense mistreatment since they were not equal. Gender relations in the plot are equally restrictive. Men were the heads of the families. They cared for their families and made all the decisions. Jane finds it difficult to marry owing to her opposition to such gender relations. As explained earlier, Jane had a high quality education and had a job. She was therefore used to an independent lifestyle. She finds it difficult to rely on a man, as was the case with the social norms in the society. The inheritance she receives from her uncle offers her an opportunity to sustain her independence (York 34). This makes it easy for her to marry Rochester. Furthermore, at the time of their marriage Rochester is blind. This implies that Rochester would depend on her. This shows that Jane does not only traverse the social class boundaries in the society but also changes some of the gender roles. In retrospect, social class relationship and gender roles are among the main themes in the novel. Jane Eyre. The author develops systematic conflicts that portray the uniqueness in the relationship among the social classes and the nature of gender roles and relations. The life of Jane provides a perfect stage for analyzing the two thematic issues. Jane limits her interactions with Rochester among other men in the plot to her social class and sexuality. The early Victorian society has unique roles for every gender and every social class. Works cited Bentley, Nick. Contemporary British Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008. Print. Bloom, Harold. Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2007. Internet resource. Brennan, Zoe. Brontës Jane Eyre: A Readers Guide. London: Continuum, 2010. Print. Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1864. Print. Lodge, Sara. Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Print. Michie, Elsie B. Charlotte Bront·es Jane Eyre: A Casebook. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006. Print. Peters, Cornelia. Gender Roles in Charlotte Brontës "Jane Eyre". New York: GRIN Verlag, 2007. Print. Rubik, Margarete, and Elke Mettinger-Schartmann. A Breath of Fresh Eyre: Intertextual and Intermedial Reworkings of Jane Eyre. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007. Print. The Changing Experience of Women: A Second Level Course. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1982. Print. York, Richard A. Strangers and Secrets: Communication in the Nineteenth Century Novel. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press u.a, 1994. Print. Read More