Jane Eyre

Challenging the English Social Class System:

Two Young Ladies Who Rise Above

As a strong-willed, independent and sometimes rebellious woman for her time, many English people criticized Charlotte Bronte as inappropriate and proto-feminist with her strong female character, Jane, in her novel, Jane Eyre (Brooklyn College). Set in northern England, Jane Eyre reflects a rigid social class system where women had very few rights. By using many of her own life experiences, Bronte was able to develop her protagonist into a woman like herself who rebels against the injustices of the class system to rise to equality with her one true love.

In the story Jane Eyre, the reader follows a young orphaned girl through adulthood. There are many examples throughout the story giving evidence to the injustices bestowed upon people deemed as a lesser class in England during the height of the Industrial Revolution. Bronte showcases her unwillingness to adhere to the class system through her main character, Jane. Like Bronte, Jane felt an education was the road to sophistication and would gain her equality with the upper middle-class society of the time. Through many struggles, Jane develops her own set of morals based on her values rather than allow society to dictate to her how to live her life. In the end, Jane not only gains her financial independence, but marries the man who society once thought she was undeserving of.

The first of many parallels between Bronte’s life and her novel is that both women lost parents and were raised by an aunt. After the death of Bronte’s mother, Mr. Bronte asked his sister-in-law, Elizabeth, to move in with the family and raise the children (Gaskell). Jane was orphaned as a baby. After the death of Jane’s parents, her maternal uncle took her in and loved her very much. Mrs. Reed became jealous of Jane and her uncle’s relationship, and subsequently developed a strong hatred to the child. Before Jane’s uncle died, he coerced Mrs. Reed...