Difficulties Of Being A Victorian Governess In Agness Grey Analysis

Jane, as a child, was brought up by family members of a higher class and Elizabeth was self-educated and brought up by her family in a low class, neither treated well by those higher than them. Due to Jane being of a lower class than that of her aunt and cousins she is constantly treated like scum. Her cousins, especially John Reed, would bully her just for entertainment. Jane explains, “He bullied and punished me….every morsel of flesh on my bones shrunk when he came near” (Brontë 4). This caused Jane to constantly feel less than her cousins. At that young age she did not understand why she was treated this way and by her family no less. However, “Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject” (Brontë 4); She would always take her children’s side over Jane’s and would punish her for acting out. She could not fight back for the risk of being locked in a room for hours on end.

Throughout the course of history, social hierarchies have existed across the globe, spanning from prince to pauper or business tycoon to lowly scrivener. Authors, in turn, have written works regarding social class, often examining the negative effects of societal structure on personal growth. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre takes place in Victorian England, in the age of industry and genesis of industrial capitalism. The novel’s protagonist, Jane, first lives a life of neglect, then a life in poverty, and eventually finds her happy ending. Through Jane’s personal experiences and interactions with fellow characters, Brontë analyzes the effects of social class. Professor Chris Vanden Bossche’s article analysis “What Did ‘Jane Eyre’ Do? Ideology, Agency, Class and the Novel” examines social inclusion and monetary pressures placed on the central characters during this pivotal era of English history. Through the Marxist lens, Jane Eyre can be understood in terms of complexity and character motives. Vanden Bossche effectively argues that external forces, like money and people, both motivate and repress Jane into choosing her own path. Thus, a more developed explanation is made for Jane’s various behaviors regarding social inclusion and societal rebellion.

Since the beginning of civilization, one’s wealth, and status were determining factors that influenced their place in a stratified society. In Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights, the author embodied the realities of England's class system during the Victorian Era. During this Era, people were born into a class and stayed there. This was essentially captured by the idea that social mobility was rare and limited. Bronte uses characters such as Catherine, Heathcliff and Edgar as well as the second generation as a tool to emphasize the differences in class, and how it ultimately impacted the fate of the characters.Through the use of symbolism and juxtaposition, Bronte exemplifies that the potency of love and relationships cannot outweigh the necessity social status. While many will argue the impracticality of social status being the determining factor of one’s way of life, this is most notably seen through Catherine Earnshaw.

Even though Jane faces limits to opportunities in her life because she strictly belongs to neither the upper nor poor class, her thinking isn’t limited and she is able to grow as an individual unlike the characters who have been assigned to a specific class. Through Jane’s point of view, Charlotte Brontë expresses her view that the class system is harmful Jane and thus to the society in which she lives in her novel Jane Eyre.

The Victorian Era was known for its propriety, and for its social standards that could be as strict as the caste system in India. Citizens in England of low social regard faced many prejudices and limitations that could be almost insurmountable to overcome. Much like the caste system, people considered to be the dregs of society were often alienated and had little room for opportunity. In Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, the main character, Jane, suffers social prejudice because she is a simple governess, revealing much about the social stigmas about the working class during the Victorian Era. Jane’s social status limits her not only from being with the one she loves, but also hinders her endeavor to achieve true autonomy.

Jane is taught at a young age to look down on people not of her caste, and to oppress them the same way that she herself is oppressed as a female orphan. Though Jane is not influenced directly by social status at all times, it is still a constant factor which Brontë makes evident. In Victorian England, a female must either be born or married into her social class, and this is what defines her. The character of Jane served to undercut the popular female stereotypes of fiction: the angel of the house, the invalid, or the whore (Brackett, 2000). Brontë creates Jane as her own force, in which she is neither the angel, invalid or whore, but a young lady who is intelligent and has pride and dignity. In this Victorian society, her unsubmissiveness and independence is her social fault, which Brontë pokes fun at (Brackett, 2000). Male Victorian writers cast women during this time as social, finagling creatures whose goals are to obtain as many friends as possible and throw the most elaborate parties. Brontë opposes this by creating Jane as an opposite of these “defining” characteristics, by making Jane a female who could are less about how many people adore her, a female who would actually enjoy a life with few companions. As mentioned before, Jane’s sense of dignity is evident. As Jane became Rochester’s governess, she is faced with the

Brontë and Steinbeck are arguably two of the most prominent writers in English literature, parted by a ninety year time span and a difference in pre occupations, which could be due to their difference in gender. Jane Eyre and Curley’s wife are two of most different characters but similarly both used drive the plot. Both characters struggle to fit into society; Jane is belittled by her Aunt Reed and being kept apart from the other children in the Reed household. Similarly Curley’s wife is looked down upon by the men on the ranch, where she is named a ‘tart’ and ‘rat trap’ she uses her physical appearance to get attention. Both texts show the inequality of society through isolation of the characters.

In Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, Bronte seemingly condemns the existing social hierarchy. Not only are the characters who are most concerned with the allure of fortune and rank portrayed as either deceitful or unethical, but even characters who’ve accepted their means of poverty and demonstrate honest moral natures are mocked. Rather than use the normal class structures, the book suggests that a person of impoverished means can be viewed as socially respectable with the condition that they maintain a sincere desire to better both oneself and their means of living.

In the 1800s, the idea of a lowly governess marrying a rich estate owner was absord, if not impossible. However, this is precisely what the protagonist in Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre did through her fiery persistence and passion. Jane grew up in her aunt’s house, Gateshead, where she was unwanted by even the servants. However, when Jane is ten years old she is sent a way to a boarding school for girls called Lowood, which is led by an extremely hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst. After spending 6 years as a student and 2 years as a teacher at Lowood she finds a job as a governess for a French girl at an estate named Thornfield. Jane slowly but surely begins to fall in love with the house’s owner, Mr. Rochester, and the two plan to get married

2. Another clear reference to gender equality and the lack of it as well as a comment on class roles. Here Bronte shows the absurdity of gender restriction and attempts to shed light on the fact that women during the Victorian era had no rights and were too restricted.

During the height of the Victorian Era, in which the books Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, and the Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, it was not uncommon for more well-off households of the era to have at least one Governess hired to help keep the younger residents educated and orderly, and to keep the servants of the manor abiding by the constructs in which the Victorian era set out for them as consistently as possible. Therefore, because the Governess was so prominent within the rich classes in regards as a role in their house—like how the contemporary writer gains inspiration for satire of the rich from writing the stereotype of a tired and underpaid maid—the Victorian novelist used the role of the Governess to write in a

For example, in Emma, Mr. Weston and Ms. Churchill’s marriage is described as “an unsuitable connexion that did not bring much happiness” because she was wealthy and he was poor (23). Ms. Churchill “missed the luxuries of her former life [and] they lived beyond their income;” ultimately, this serves as a cautionary tale to those who dare to marry outside class structures (Austen, 24). Similarly, the influence of class structures is felt when Gilbert says “I did not know this estate was yours until enlightened on the subject of your inheritance … and then I saw at once the folly of the hopes I cherished” (Bronte, 884). Due to social sanctions that discouraged interclass marriages, Gilbert was uncertain if Helen would want him. As a consequence of this stratification, wealth remained in the hands of the elite and made it difficult for the majority of women, who were of lower class, to acquire useful social capital to improve their situation. Further exacerbating this unhealthy climate was the social construction of gender roles. The dominant belief at the time was that women and men had to operate in different spheres: the woman in the home and the man everywhere else. A clear example of this is given in Austen’s narration of her protagonist. Emma is described as “handsome, clever and rich, with comfortable disposition” yet for a young woman with so much intelligence and skill, the best she could do when bored was to play matchmaker (Austen, 8). Her situation shows how limited women were in terms of what activities they could partake in. Likewise, the social construct of gender roles is seen in Bronte’s novel during Helen’s argument with Mrs. Markham. Mrs. Markham believes that “boys should not be shielded from evil, but

This purpose of this essay is to examine Charlotte Bronte’s analysis of Victorian gender roles found within Jane Eyre. For most readers, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is much more than an iconic Gothic novel set within the Victorian Era. In my opinion, it’s a story about a young woman who not only defies gender role, but also the social class in an attempt to live her life; but in her own way. On top of that, readers began to view Jane as a somewhat unexpected heroine of Bronte’s novel, that while facing innumerable obstacles within a tough social class, becomes something more by the end of the story. I believe that another purpose for Bronte’s novel is to show readers that women like Jane Eyre can rise above the oppressive environment of

The second issue raised in the novel is that of Jane’s isolation. Bronte utilises Jane to address isolation overtly, which was uncommon in Victorian literature. Jane openly refers to her struggles with isolation is due to her traumatic childhood. This feeling of loneliness is especially present while Jane lives with the Reeds as a child and when she enters Lowood boarding school. In the Victorian era and today, childhood is a fragile stage when bullying, peer pressure, and self-consciousness surge both at home and at school. Jane experiences terrible isolation and loneliness at Gateshead, her childhood home, she mentions, “I was a discord in Gateshead Hall; I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or

The issues of social class run rampant in both Emma and Jane Eyre. While reading these novels, it was not hard to view where these women stood. Jane started as a governess, who fortunately was able to procure an inheritance that rose her to the same standing of Mr. Rochester. Emma, however does not move about in her social class, rather, she “helps” Jane and Harriet move about their class.