Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a Victorian novel set in the early 19th century in northern England. In the novel, the heroine, Jane, references her betrothed as the master of a harem and herself as a slave. The same analogy is used in an essay from 2001, “Scheherazade Goes West” by Fetma Mernissi regarding the clothing of modern Western culture. These pieces were written centuries apart and in different circumstances, and yet they both compare Western society to the Eastern ideal of a harem and both do so through the vehicle of Western clothing. The Western world is a breeding ground for hidden harems.
Jane Eyre, is a vivacious woman who, after years of mistreatment finds happiness in her love for her “master”, Edward Rochester. However, after their love has been proclaimed the heroine compares Rochester to a sultan with his harem. She makes the analogy because Rochester insists on purchasing her exotic clothing. This is a baffling description for ones betrothed and yet is valid. The Narrator of “Scheherazade Goes West” used the analogy to describe the western clothing ideal/sizing and the western men who make these sizes. …show more content…
The women of the societies are meant to feel beautiful and at least somewhat powerful and yet they are controlled, even by hidden means such as clothing. Jane was visibly controlled by Rochester, but it was hidden behind love. In “Scheherazade Goes West”, the narrator is a witness to the hidden harem culture in which women are controlled discreetly using their appropriate body image, so they avoid being deviant to the culture and the opinion of men. The pieces illuminate the hidden harem’s and the lack of freedom for these two women centuries apart and all women. The need to fit the ideal and be ‘perfect’ is the main cause of the harem analogy breeding ground apparent in Western
Jane Eyre, is a vivacious woman who, after years of mistreatment finds happiness in her love for her “master”, Edward Rochester. However, after their love has been proclaimed the heroine compares Rochester to a sultan with his harem. She makes the analogy because Rochester insists on purchasing her exotic clothing. This is a baffling description for ones betrothed and yet is valid. The Narrator of “Scheherazade Goes West” used the analogy to describe the western clothing ideal/sizing and the western men who make these sizes. …show more content…
The women of the societies are meant to feel beautiful and at least somewhat powerful and yet they are controlled, even by hidden means such as clothing. Jane was visibly controlled by Rochester, but it was hidden behind love. In “Scheherazade Goes West”, the narrator is a witness to the hidden harem culture in which women are controlled discreetly using their appropriate body image, so they avoid being deviant to the culture and the opinion of men. The pieces illuminate the hidden harem’s and the lack of freedom for these two women centuries apart and all women. The need to fit the ideal and be ‘perfect’ is the main cause of the harem analogy breeding ground apparent in Western