Hey everyone, i am doing a paper on Jane Eyre and how she signifies the strength of a self reliable and independent woman, which disproves the common misconception that women must rely on men. I need help on specific text examples in the book on proving this though. Any help?
You can access the complete searchable text right here on this web site.Originally Posted by jrose90
http://www.online-literature.com/brontec/janeeyre/
I haven't read the book recently, so I can't help you, but I would think it would be very hard to help with giving you answers which is like doing your work for you.
Even though she does fall in love with Rochester, there was a time when they were just about to get married, but his secret of having a legal wife surfaces. A scene follows where she decides to leave him, even though she had no family, plans, nor connections, because she felt that she has only herself to depend on. This is somewhere in the middle-end part of the novel.
She is also indepedent becasue she does not look to just marry a man to fincially support her, she goes out and finds a job to make her own money and provide for herself. She has no one else to rely upon so she rely's on herself and joins the working world.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
“She has no one else to rely upon so she rely's on herself and joins the working world.” ??? Have you read the book?
It's St. John Rivers that finds, creates, the job of a school mistress at Morton. Chapter 30, St. John speaks, “I have hired a building for the purpose, with a cottage of two rooms attached to it for the mistress's house. Her salary will be thirty pounds a year: her house is already furnished, very simply, but sufficiently, by the kindness of a lady, Miss Oliver; the only daughter of the sole rich man in the parish...” And a job that she soon quits upon the inheritance of 20,000 pounds. Hardly the, “and joins the working world.” Hardly the, “she goes out and finds a job to make her own money and provide for herself.”. A typical misreading of an ideologue.
It's not about independence from men as Dark Muse suggests - “My cottage is clean and weather-proof; my furniture sufficient and commodious. All I see has made me thankful, not despondent. I am not absolutely such a fool and sensualist as to regret the absence of a carpet, a sofa, and silver plate; besides, five weeks ago I had nothing – I was an outcast, a beggar, a vagrant; now I have acquaintance, a home, a business. I wonder at the goodness of God; the generosity of my friends; the bounty of my lot. I do not repine.” That is closer to what Jane Eyre is about but not yet the apex.
I think dark muses observation is to do with her initial advertising to get away from Lowood school Newcomer. I do also have to agree with her in a way. Jane does show a strength of independence and is a character that is very dependant on herself.
As for Mr Rivers, She also shows an independance from him by say that if she does go abroad with him it would be her descission and not his.
"Come away O human child!To the waters of the wild, With a faery hand in hand, For the worlds more full of weeping than you can understand."
W.B.Yeats
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Thank you Niamh that is what I was trying to say, sorry if I did not do it very well, and more to the point, I was trying to empahsis the fact that she was earning her own living, while at that time many women just tried to find men to marry that would support them. She became a part of the working force to try and support herself. As well her love and feelings for Rochester were not just about his wealth and her wanting someone to support her.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
Your observation, interpretation, has merit, but when taken in the context of the original tread - Jane Eyre and her independence from men – I doubt that was what the ' Fallen Dreamer', was aiming for.
Chronologically the Morton episode is clearer of Jane's state of mind.
I'll not argue against your, “ I do also have to agree with her in a way. Jane does show a strength of independence and is a character that is very dependant on herself.”, as Charlotte created a character that grows, changes and reaches an independence. But primarily it is an independence from societal strictures and the growth is in her understanding of love.
Thank you for your thoughts. Enjoyed reading them.
i dont think feminists and lesbians are going to find an icon in jane eyre. my impression is that she is a thoroughly christian woman who sees through rochester's rough exterior to his fundamental decency. i dont think she is rebelling against "the patriarchy" but is establishing herself as a strong, long suffering christian woman who seeks to redeem rochester from the corruption of this world and from his tainted soul - she wishes to be a purifying influence on the man. it is not about women's liberation but about christian ideals of tolerance, love, helping your fellow, cleaving to God, perseverance and trusting in God.
Jane Eyre is above the issues of modern day feminism. She looks up to God and not down into the muck and mayhem of conflict and opposition. I think Jane Eyre is promoted as the ideal christian woman - a woman of dignity, spiritual resolve and wisdom.
Today's feminist movement has nothing to do with the ideals of Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre would be horrified by the deeds and valueless immorality of most women today. imho
I agree with you.
Good luck convincing the readers of Wide Sargasso Sea and thousands of brainwashed college and university students.
@ iorix: off topic here, but "feminists and lesbians"?! Where the heck did anyone mention lesbians?! Oh, yeah, sorry, both terms imply shaven-headed hairy-legged women in dungarees who hate men and who seek "conflict and opposition" at all costs. God forbid we forget our stereotypes!
"Jane Eyre would be horrified by the deeds and valueless immorality of most women today" and so would any visitor dropping in from the XIXth century for that matter... society evolves.
I was impressed by JE's force of character throughout the book, whether it's in the way she stands up to her aunt as a child, or to Rochester later on in the narrative. She walks out on him not only because he already has a wife, but also because he lied to her... conceiving honesty as the duty of a husband towards his wife showed a conception of marriage that was well ahead of her time.
society also degenerates. what is happening in society is not progress. movies like brokeback mountain and hostel are testimony to this fact. there is no doubt that homosexuality is promoted in society these days. marriage is strongly discouraged, men are portrayed as incompetent fools. human degredation and sexual defilement and obscenity are not signs of human progress.
im not sure by what you meant when you said "society evolves", usualy people take that to mean "progress"
Jane Eyre is a "christ figure" who suffers this life with faith and tust in God seeking the well being of her fellow. She is a woman of great virtue and personal insight - a self reproaching soul, humble, meek, modest, longsuffering, strong in faith and wise.
the movie and tv presentations of this character are a corruption. why do they call these shows "Jane Eyre" when they corrupt her character and alter the story.
Last edited by iorix; 01-25-2008 at 12:01 PM.
First let's remember that Jane Eyre is fiction.
A good starting point is the dictionary definition :a: something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically: an invented story b: fictitious literature (as novels or short stories); an assumption of a possibility as a fact irrespective of the question of its truth.
Hence Jane Eyre is neither a scientific hypothesis, to be proved or disproved, nor a philosophical or social thesis on morality. It is literature and in my opinion pretty good literature, but at it's lowest common denominator, entertainment. If we forget this and putting on ideological glasses read it to support our pre/mis/conceptions, then we shall miss the poetry of the prose and the emotional transference that Charlotte miraculously achieved with this miss.
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is not just about young lovers nor is Jane Eyre a prototype Feminist, nor as ridiculous as it is to mention, a “Christ figure”.
Present day Feminism has many forms:Liberal feminism, Radical feminism, Black feminism, Socialist and Marxist feminism, Post-structural and postmodern feminism, Ecofeminism. Therefore unless you specify with academic jargon, what you mean, you can mean almost anything. Though Wikipedia defines feminism consisting of three waves: the first wave was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second was in the 1960s and 1970s and the third extends from the 1990s to the present. This confuses issues of social reform with feminism as an ideology. A logical start is with Simone de Beauvoir signing the Feminist Manifesto and the publication of Le Deuxième Sexe in 1949. Though all ideologies try to create proto-heroes/heroines, the insistence that Sappho or Jane Eyre are proto-feminists, is just fiction and nothing more.
Whether you agree or disagree with Feminism, it does have some intellectual rigor. At least as compared to fanatics such as 'iorix', 'kiki1982' interpretations of Jane Eyre as a “Christ figure”. The best argument is both historic and contemporary and summed up by Sandra Gibert and Susan Gubar's - “It seems not to have been primarily the coarseness and sexuality of Jane Eyre which shocked the Victorian reviewers .. but ... its anti-Christian refusal to accept the forms, customs and standards of society – in short, its rebellious feminism. They were disturbed not so much by the proud Byronic sexual energy of Rochester, as by the Byronic pride and passion of Jane herself.”
Last edited by Newcomer; 01-25-2008 at 03:16 PM. Reason: correction
now i am a fanatic?typical. smear campaign is it?
Jane suffers deprivation because she refuses to submit to materialistic and sensualist temptation. She will not become rochesters mistress, she will not be seduced by the prospect of living in sunny Marseilles. Rather she suffers starvation and near death until she is rescued by a charitable and good christian group of people. She is a principled and determined christian woman!
The prospect of marriage is fixed for her. There is no alternative for her. In life women get married or become spinsters. This the reality Jane lives in and submits to. A right, good, moral, decent and desirable reality.
Never are men presented as inferior to women in this book. Bertha is a corpulent, hysterical madwoman, and this is Jane's opinion of her. The pharmacists who attends to Jane is a good man. There is no sexism here.
After Jane is rescued by the people at Marsh End she thanks God as she is received by a warm bed.
Says Rochester;
"'This life,' said I at last, 'is hell: this is the air--those are
the sounds of the bottomless pit! I have a right to deliver myself
from it if I can. The sufferings of this mortal state will leave me
with the heavy flesh that now cumbers my soul. Of the fanatic's
burning eternity I have no fear: there is not a future state worse
than this present one--let me break away, and go home to God!'
Who does he seek to deliver him from this state. It is Jane! And she says that she loves him and will marry him and wishes to complete him in the state of HOLY MATRIMONY sanctified by GOD!
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH A MAN AND A WOMAN DEPENDING ON EACHOTHER!!!!!! WHO PUT IT INTO PEOPLE'S HEADS THAT THIS IS WRONG.
AND JESUS IS NOT A BAD ROLE MODEL!
in the blood of eden lie the woman and the man.
How is Jane proud? She says she has no ambition, she says in the true christian manner that poverty is not a crime. She is content with the little she has when she is given the post as teacher by St John. She struggles against her resentment of thinking she deserves better and calls herself an idiot for not being satisfied with what she has. She says she conquers those impulses.
I think the book has been edited poorly.
Last edited by iorix; 01-25-2008 at 01:01 PM.
I don't understand this comment, could you elaborate? do you mean the online e-text? or the author as editor? and, just saying ... you don't have to use all CAPS you know, it is considered SHOUTING
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