Humans, by nature, are evolutionary beings, taking on many forms as they make the journey from birth to death. Daughters become mothers, who age into grandmothers; apprentices take the place of their masters; lovers, through marriage, gain the title of partners. While some may wear a handful of hats in their time, others change their status in society rapidly. Charlotte Brontë deftly illustrates this truth in her novel Jane Eyre, whose titular character inhabits many different shapes as the novel runs its course. Though her role continually shifts, her mission remains constant: to find a place where she may find love and kinship. This desire for belonging drives her to play part after part with the hope one will lead her to her goal. As she
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Much like modern society, social status in Victorian England rises in tandem with income. One’s wealth, in addition to defining quality of life, determines how one is treated by those in other classes. For instance, the poor and dependent are scorned, viewed largely as useless and parasitic. The middle class performs the majority of work, acting as servants, merchants, and governesses. As can be expected, the wealthy do relatively little, but hold power over themselves as well as those under their employment. Most people never advance beyond the class they are born into: however, Jane is the exception to this rule. Through the course of the novel, she switches social standing four times, each time revealing the intricacies of interclass relations. At the novel’s opening, Jane’s classification, despite living in an extravagant home, is lower class. This can be attributed to the death of both of her parents, who left her no inheritance. Her aunt, a cold, callous woman, feels little love for the penniless child under her protection, viewing her as no better than the uncivilized children brought …show more content…
The limited amount lower class pairings we see are affectionate and healthy, particularly Bessie and her husband Robert. Jane’s cursory glance into their happy, welcoming home provides the strongest support for happiness as paramount for working class families. This makes sense, as they face none of the stigma surrounding courtship in the upper class. Jane Eyre’s heavy handed focus on relationships of the upper class allows Brontë to elaborate greatly on their inner workings. The novel portrays the partnerships of the elite to place little importance on love, instead opting to mutually benefit both parties in both social standing and wealth. Jane, for a time, suspects the seemingly contrarian Mr. Rochester to have succumbed to societal pressure to marry without love, observing, “The longer I considered the position, education, etc., of the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtlessly, from their childhood” (Brontë 270). Jane, not only having been a part of the lower class since birth, does not understand the need to marry for social benefit, and is happy to learn Mr. Rochester choses to rebuke this norm and marry where genuine affection exists. Later on, another reason for
Much like modern society, social status in Victorian England rises in tandem with income. One’s wealth, in addition to defining quality of life, determines how one is treated by those in other classes. For instance, the poor and dependent are scorned, viewed largely as useless and parasitic. The middle class performs the majority of work, acting as servants, merchants, and governesses. As can be expected, the wealthy do relatively little, but hold power over themselves as well as those under their employment. Most people never advance beyond the class they are born into: however, Jane is the exception to this rule. Through the course of the novel, she switches social standing four times, each time revealing the intricacies of interclass relations. At the novel’s opening, Jane’s classification, despite living in an extravagant home, is lower class. This can be attributed to the death of both of her parents, who left her no inheritance. Her aunt, a cold, callous woman, feels little love for the penniless child under her protection, viewing her as no better than the uncivilized children brought …show more content…
The limited amount lower class pairings we see are affectionate and healthy, particularly Bessie and her husband Robert. Jane’s cursory glance into their happy, welcoming home provides the strongest support for happiness as paramount for working class families. This makes sense, as they face none of the stigma surrounding courtship in the upper class. Jane Eyre’s heavy handed focus on relationships of the upper class allows Brontë to elaborate greatly on their inner workings. The novel portrays the partnerships of the elite to place little importance on love, instead opting to mutually benefit both parties in both social standing and wealth. Jane, for a time, suspects the seemingly contrarian Mr. Rochester to have succumbed to societal pressure to marry without love, observing, “The longer I considered the position, education, etc., of the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtlessly, from their childhood” (Brontë 270). Jane, not only having been a part of the lower class since birth, does not understand the need to marry for social benefit, and is happy to learn Mr. Rochester choses to rebuke this norm and marry where genuine affection exists. Later on, another reason for