Jane Eyre

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

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Jane Eyre ? a ?New? Woman of the Victorian Era The novel Jane Eyre is written by a woman writer, Charlotte Bronte, and is one of the first novels to use a woman as a main character in the Victorian era. It?s an autobiographical novel, where the author gathered together the recent experiences of her childhood and adult years. She shows her struggles to find a balance between love and freedom and to find others who understand her.

The heroine Jane Eyre is a symbol of a woman of the 19th century. In one life the author shows life of middle-class women in a patriarchal society where they were stereotyped as being ?dependent, beautiful, but ignorant? (Florence 45). In Jane, Charlotte shows that it was possible for a woman in the 19th century to achieve independence and success on her own, no matter what odds were against her.

Charlotte Bronte tells the story of a girl who ?has no family or friends, no wealth or position? (Florence 2).

?The orphan child, the one most need of protection, is cast aside, whilst the other children are favored? (Pollard 65). Misunderstood and mistreated, alone in the world, she is looking for peace, freedom, love and acceptance. Jane struggles continually to achieve equality and to overcome oppression. Along with hierarchy, she fights with patriarchal domination ? against those who believe women to be inferior to men and try to treat them as much. ?Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! ? I have as much soul as you ? and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it...