Bronte immediately establishes Jane Eyre as an outsider in society in the opening of Chapter 1, significantly through her pervasive use of foil. She sets the scene with “John, Eliza and Georgiana […] clustered round their mama in the drawing-room” with Jane looking in from the outside of such a close circle. A “cluster” connotes warmth, love and affection, which Jane is clearly not entitled to. The introduction from the very beginning of this whole series of characters used to alienate Jane is utilised by Bronte to emphasise the wrongness of the ostracism in society, even to a young, vulnerable child. Jane is again reminded of her inferiority to the central family unit when John Reed says to Jane: "You have no business to take our books [...]
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He claimed that the girls maintain a starvation-level diet so that they don't become accustomed to "habits of luxury and indulgence." His hypocrisy becomes most evident when his own wife and daughters enter the classroom. As Brocklehurst lectures Miss Temple on the need to cut off the girls' long hair, his wife and daughters walk into the room, ornately dressed in velvet, silk, and furs. Jane notes that his daughters' hair is "elaborately curled" and that his wife wears fake French curls. Such clear contrast between Jane’s position and those of a higher social status highlights her position as not belonging. bThis idea is further stressed when Brocklehurst directly calls Jane an "interloper and an alien," the words clearly connoting foreignness and not belonging. By making her stand alone on a stool, Brocklehurst attempts to place Jane back into the inferior, outsider position she occupied at Gateshead. The presentation of various foils in the novel causes much sympathy in the reader for Jane today, while Victorian readers would probably not have seen it as wrong, instead would be more shocked at Bronte’s boldness. Unlike most writers of her generation, Bronte didn’t concern herself with presenting an objective view of society; she could identify with people who were the outsiders in Victorian society--children, poor relatives, powerless employees of rich families, women in love with men who did not--or could not--love them in return. In fact, the last chapter beginning with “Reader, I married him” caused much uproar in Victorian society, due to the possessiveness of the language, when Jane should have considered it an honour. This is the reason Bronte portrayed her main character as an outsider, to bring to attention the hypocrisy in late Victorian society. Today it's quite common for a novel to be intensely personal, but in 1847, when Jane Eyre appeared, it was very
He claimed that the girls maintain a starvation-level diet so that they don't become accustomed to "habits of luxury and indulgence." His hypocrisy becomes most evident when his own wife and daughters enter the classroom. As Brocklehurst lectures Miss Temple on the need to cut off the girls' long hair, his wife and daughters walk into the room, ornately dressed in velvet, silk, and furs. Jane notes that his daughters' hair is "elaborately curled" and that his wife wears fake French curls. Such clear contrast between Jane’s position and those of a higher social status highlights her position as not belonging. bThis idea is further stressed when Brocklehurst directly calls Jane an "interloper and an alien," the words clearly connoting foreignness and not belonging. By making her stand alone on a stool, Brocklehurst attempts to place Jane back into the inferior, outsider position she occupied at Gateshead. The presentation of various foils in the novel causes much sympathy in the reader for Jane today, while Victorian readers would probably not have seen it as wrong, instead would be more shocked at Bronte’s boldness. Unlike most writers of her generation, Bronte didn’t concern herself with presenting an objective view of society; she could identify with people who were the outsiders in Victorian society--children, poor relatives, powerless employees of rich families, women in love with men who did not--or could not--love them in return. In fact, the last chapter beginning with “Reader, I married him” caused much uproar in Victorian society, due to the possessiveness of the language, when Jane should have considered it an honour. This is the reason Bronte portrayed her main character as an outsider, to bring to attention the hypocrisy in late Victorian society. Today it's quite common for a novel to be intensely personal, but in 1847, when Jane Eyre appeared, it was very