"Women feel just as men feel:they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do." Examine the way that Jane Eyre makes the case for female education.
"During the Victorian period, women, and especially middleâÂÂclass women, were seen to naturally differ from men in every respect, and especially intellectually." Beate Wilhelm's The Role of Women in Victorian England Reflected in Jane Eyre (2005). Bronte writes Jane Eyre as a resemblance of the Victorian society that she lived in. In the Victorian society women and men's role were extremely different: women's was to provide for their husband by creating a peaceful and tranquil atmosphere at home. This meant that women were centred around the domestic life and much of their education was based around that. A woman's role relied on physical looks and the ability to create a loving household. During this time women's education was not for the benefit of their mind's liberation but their ability to maintain their role as the, 'wife', in Victorian society.
Bronte displays the typical image of a woman in Victorian society through the form of the character Blanche Ingram. However Bronte displays Jane's imagination and creativity which strives throughout the novel to remove the shackles which society has placed on her, showing that woman are able to contribute so much more by using education.
Jane Eyre's time at Lowood depicts what society offered women in the form of education but Jane's horrific description of the school conveys that education was too constrained and her creative mind was unable to truly develop. Jane describes that the school is named, "Lowood Institution". By explaining to the reader that the school is an, "institution", Jane suggests that the school is a caging women's potential and their minds...