Jane Eyre

"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer.” (Bronte ch.12) Jane wasn’t your typical woman, explained in this quote, wanting to experience more of the world. Feminism was still scarce in the Victorian era and deeply looked down on, although some women did rebel against society to live for themselves. Charlotte Bronte uses both her feminist views and rebellious life experiences to write her novel Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre embraces many feminist views in opposition to the Victorian feminine ideal. Charlotte Bronte herself was among one of the first feminist writers of her time. Women then were looked upon as inferior and repressed by the society in which they lived. This novel supports and spreads the idea of an independent woman who works for herself, thinks for herself, and acts of her own accord. Women of this era were repressed, and had little if any social stature. They had a very few rights and fewer options open to them for self-support. For most women the only way to live decently was to get married, and in many cases it was not up to the women to choose whom she married. Bronte was an important pioneer to feminist novelists. She grew up raising her three younger siblings due to the early death of her mother. They were all interested in writing and even created imaginary worlds together. Bronte was very independent from an early age, along with Jane. As a female Jane must deal with the caste system of her time as a threat, and as an orphaned child she must deal with the cast system as an obstacle (Buck 207). She suffers precisely because she knows the value of caste; She may be poor, but she does not want to belong to the poor (Buck 208).