Jane Eyer

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We can understand more of Jane in the latter part of the novel, where Jane leaves Thornfield and meets St. John, her cousin. John was a clergyman and he wants Jane to marry him so that they could travel to India together. Their proposed marriage was not based on love or equality, but on profit. This is why Jane rejectes St. John, and she decides to go back to Thornfield. She believes that without love, the marriage is meaningless. This view is contrasted with the Victorian women that will not stand out for their rights and express their minds. Most of them just accept everything as it is.

Toward the end, Jane dropped a bomb: “Reader, I married him.” (Bronte, pg.397) – This line asserts that Jane decides to marry to Rochester, the man whom she truly loves. It insists upon the position of women in Victorian era and suggest that women should marry the man they truly love instead of admitting to fate. Thus, if a woman is to marry a man with great honor and privilege for her family, she would be expected to be loyal, conscientious, and to take care of her family and her husband anytime. As long as a woman is married, she is rapped in the imperceptible cuff called marriage. In Victorian era, there was no freedom and no woman rights, because once a woman is married, she becomes the ‘property’ of her husband. However, in Jane’s marriage to Rochester, we can consider that the marriage as an independent and equal marriage. It can be seen from the way Jane mentions both of them with “My Edward and I…” (Bronte, pg.400) – it shows that in the marriage between Jane and Mr. Rochester, both of the wife and the husband share the equality.

In conclusion, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is a breakthrough of women’s status in society in the Victorian Era. It is a head on blows for everyone who believed that women should be under the control of men. Jane Eyre is the model of what a modern women should be like: strong, independent and critical. With the given characteristic of an unattractive woman, Jane Eyre found her own way with a attractive soul. She is an inspiration to all the women in the Victorian period.

Work cited:

--"Gender and the Role of Women." Jane Eyre Study Guide. Crossref-it.info, n.d. Web. 12 May 2016.

--Shuttleworth, Sally. "Jane Eyre and the 19th-century Woman." Discovering Literature: Romantics and Victorians. British Library, n.d. Web. 12 May 2016.

--Ikhsanti, Aulia. "Jane Eyre: The Portrayal of Women in Victorian Age." The Portrayal of Women in Victorian Age. N.p., 15 Dec. 2012. Web. 12 May 2016.

--Bronte, Charlotte. "Jane+eyre+ebook - Google Search." Jane+eyre+ebook - Google Search. Google Ebook, n.d. Web. 22 May 2016.