In Charlotte Bronte’s nineteenth century novel “Jane Eyre”, the titular character Jane is subjected to much abuse, mistreatment and pain over the course of her life. Bronte's novel highlights the use of stereotyping, oppressive examples of social conventions and ideas of believing in the same faith as those around you in a conservative, Victorian society. Bronte's questioning of her society and the strict conventions in place, illustrate the societal pressure many women, lower class citizens and children experienced. The novel also explores the idea of resisting temptation, avoiding jealousy and keeping true to oneself, as to be an individual in Bronte's eyes, is extremely and beneficial to one's life.
In the first passage, set in Chapter …show more content…
Brocklehurst is described as, “Harsh and prim, [with] a great nose [and] large prominent teeth!”. Bronte used this detailed description of Brocklehurst to demonstrate how religion was intimidating, and forced upon those who weren't as high of an authority as the church. He asks the young Jane many questions which are used to make her question her faith, and conform to his standards of what being faithful to God is. Brocklehurst asks questions regarding Jane’s faith, which she gives “ready and orthodox” answers. This itself demonstrates how Jane is under the oppressed by the society she lives in, and is being asked to conform to its standards. What is interesting, is for a young girl at this time of history, Jane’s views are quite materialistic, which during the Victorian period is quite unusual as religion was such a dominating power. Bronte uses Jane’s views to …show more content…
In the second passage, set in chapter 27, Jane is bothered by the idea that Rochester is going to marry Blanche, and is showing signs of jealousy, but also vanity, as she believes that Blanche “COULD NOT CHARM HIM”, but she (Jane) can. [Bronte is demonstrating how Jane is coming from a conservative Christian society, and is having to choose whether to resist these temptations, or to let the passion triumph, as in Victorian society, women are asked to hold back their emotions and not be passionate,and those who do not restrain their passion become insane, which Bronte illustrated by using Bertha as a symbol, as it is noted that she is portrayed as being ugly, whilst St John is shown as handsome in the third passage]. This fits with Bronte's use of fire and ice imagery to symbolise reason and passion. Ice may be made into any form, where it will remain perfect as long as it stays frozen. Fire, on the other hand, can be hard to control. It cannot be moulded into exact shapes, it is constantly changing, and if not monitored, it can burn everything around it. Yet, Bronte also shows that a controlled passion is required to be human, and that men and women feel the same, all of this in turn relates to Bronte’s views of equality. Bronte demonstrates Jane’s growth of
In the first passage, set in Chapter …show more content…
Brocklehurst is described as, “Harsh and prim, [with] a great nose [and] large prominent teeth!”. Bronte used this detailed description of Brocklehurst to demonstrate how religion was intimidating, and forced upon those who weren't as high of an authority as the church. He asks the young Jane many questions which are used to make her question her faith, and conform to his standards of what being faithful to God is. Brocklehurst asks questions regarding Jane’s faith, which she gives “ready and orthodox” answers. This itself demonstrates how Jane is under the oppressed by the society she lives in, and is being asked to conform to its standards. What is interesting, is for a young girl at this time of history, Jane’s views are quite materialistic, which during the Victorian period is quite unusual as religion was such a dominating power. Bronte uses Jane’s views to …show more content…
In the second passage, set in chapter 27, Jane is bothered by the idea that Rochester is going to marry Blanche, and is showing signs of jealousy, but also vanity, as she believes that Blanche “COULD NOT CHARM HIM”, but she (Jane) can. [Bronte is demonstrating how Jane is coming from a conservative Christian society, and is having to choose whether to resist these temptations, or to let the passion triumph, as in Victorian society, women are asked to hold back their emotions and not be passionate,and those who do not restrain their passion become insane, which Bronte illustrated by using Bertha as a symbol, as it is noted that she is portrayed as being ugly, whilst St John is shown as handsome in the third passage]. This fits with Bronte's use of fire and ice imagery to symbolise reason and passion. Ice may be made into any form, where it will remain perfect as long as it stays frozen. Fire, on the other hand, can be hard to control. It cannot be moulded into exact shapes, it is constantly changing, and if not monitored, it can burn everything around it. Yet, Bronte also shows that a controlled passion is required to be human, and that men and women feel the same, all of this in turn relates to Bronte’s views of equality. Bronte demonstrates Jane’s growth of