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'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Bronte (Pt. 2)

Part 2: Identity Politics and Literary Theory

By Annie KapurPublished 5 years ago 8 min read
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I will be looking intertextually and using historicism and formalist criticism with additions of psychoanalysis, structuralism and ecocriticism in some places—in order to identify what is so enigmatic about Jane Eyre and why does she change so much through the space of one novel? [Note that these lenses of criticism may appear in future articles on Jane Eyre.]

The first thing to note is that Jane has many aspects to her personality; but the construction of her identity is important as the storyline of the novel. Since it is a bildungsroman; we must consider that the growth of Jane's person is the plot rather than is part of the plot.

Some sources state that the era of writing is responsible for the changing values of a woman's social place. This, in some respects is true—and the article entitled Righteous Restraint by Annika Mizel (2016) even states the women's coming-of-age novel is closely in ties with the growth of discernment to social standards; giving the reader some reason to respect the choices made by the protagonist because of their rebellion to passivity. Yet, in an article published by Taylor and Francis—Graeme Tytler (2016) states that the novel gives a good amount of physiognomy on the topic of female everyday life. Both opposing sources doing the same thing; constructing our understanding of Jane Eyre's identity. The identity of Jane Eyre is a confusing one purely because we have people who believe she is a rebellious feminist who strives to better herself; and others who believe she is a woman who gets lucky when looking for work out of her social standing. Some who concentrate on her mind - others on her plain appearance. Yet, all are as important as each other.

It has become a critical commonplace in scholarship on Jane Eyre to equate Jane’s voice with her empowerment, growth and self fulfillment is what Kristin Pond's essay in the book Bronte Studies (2016) states. This statement is completely true—we as readers are fascinated by Jane's commonplace nature and yet, want her to do something more with herself. We enjoy reading about her very stylised orphan lifestyle, but would like to see her climb up the social ladder. This is the bildungsroman element of the novel. But, when we look at Jane's perception of herself - we see a woman who is discontented with her "plainness"—suggested by Rachel Ablow regarding Jane's narrative is the fact that she makes the topic sentimental and sorrowful before the reader themselves has time to consider the true cognition and intention of it.

Jane makes many references to her own appearance; most of which regard her as plain or inadequate. This could be a psychological result of the trauma suffered in her youth; especially the comments made about her inadequacy by the maids of the Gateshead household. Abbot states; "If she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness"—Thus comparing Jane to a "nice, pretty child" and stating "if" in the same sentence. This is used against Jane to compare her to Georgiana Reed—the elder of the two daughters. There are, many "ifs" used to describe Jane—as she is perceived as a lesser human being, she is almost always a comparison when it comes to appearance. It is used by Jane herself again when she is painting the pictures of Blanche and herself; she compares them. As usually, she ends up the lesser by her own word. The incident with the comparison to Georgiana is of better interest though; as it is the first time we get any statement of physical appearance of Jane, even though it is through someone else.

Psychologically, this is just before Jane is sent to the red-room as punishment and therefore she would directly associate her punishment with her inadequacy, making her sorrowful towards her position without really assessing it first. She assumes that she is the lesser valued woman because of her low status that she was made to believe at youth. This has been carried over to adulthood just as Helen Burns' teachings about controlling her anger have been. Jane references flashbacks occurring to her in which she remembers these statements and thus tells the reader that she is much more than the "plain Jane" archetype that she claims she is through appearance. In reality, the only way we know about Jane's simplicity is through Jane's first person narrative; but the only way we know about Jane's complexities is through Jane's first person narrative as well.

This is a quotation used by Jane when she talks to herself about the painting: "Listen, then, Jane Eyre, to your sentence: to-morrow, place the glass before you, and draw in chalk your own picture, faithfully; without softening one defect: omit no harsh line, smooth away no displeasing irregularity; write under it, "Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain."—It is distressing to say the least as she refers to meeting Blanche as a "sentence" as if in prisoned and being put to death. This exaggeration (as many others) make the reader uneasy about Jane's narrative as it is clear that the anger she has towards others has been outwardly cease by the teachings of Helen Burns - but then inwardly directed towards the narrative. She also states she should draw her portrait "faithfully"—as if she doesn't perceive her own appearance in any way. This is odd as this isn't an opinion; but more of a direction in which "faithfully" means "in comparison"—another exaggeration of Jane's introversion and dislike for her own appearance. She then continues towards various negations - only strengthening the reader's uneasiness with her introverted narrative in passive aggression as words such as "without," "defect," "omit," "no," "harsh," "displeasing," "irregularity," "disconnected," "poor," "plain." Half of these have the intention of disappearance—with "without"—"omit" and "disconnected" being the primary focus for this function. Thus, we can tell quite clearly that Jane's exaggeration of her own appearance lies on negation, whereas her exaggeration of Blanche's lies on the exact opposite only for the effect of negating her own one further; this only shows that she is an unreliable narrator. Paradoxically, she can draw other people's portraits without seeing them; and incredibly accurately - but still requires direction and assertion by herself; to draw her own. Therefore, her identity here tells the reader that she can perceive others well, but not herself. She cannot perceive herself and therefore we must question her nature as a narrator—can we honestly believe her?

This is a strange question as we only really see Jane refer to her own appearance without flamboyant negation at one point in the novel. This is when she states: "I sometimes regretted that I was not handsomer: I sometimes wished to have rosy cheeks, a straight nose, and small cherry mouth; I desired to be tall, stately and finely developed in figure; I felt it a misfortune that I was so little, so pale, and had features so irregular and so marked." Yes, she doesn't negate her own appearance so darkly as the last quotation—but this takes place earlier in the text and yet, she focuses on the "without" as she has always done. She focuses on what is not instead of what is - thus she gives us another reason to distrust her as a narrator. These things that are not may be reflected into any singular event in the novel—even the drawing of the pictures—and if they are, this proves the event may not be true. Thus, her identity is shadowed by this pale cast of thought on appearance. The only time she demonstrates her own appearance in language is when she has finished listing the "without" factors. But even these are with flaw as they give an inaccurate interpretation that is vague and concerning. This is because after the list of "without factors," she gives us a list of "I was" and adds on an intensifier which makes it impossible to determine exactly how much of one particular feature she had. She uses "so" in order to do this; presenting vagueness as opposed to saying, "I was so small that I could sometimes pass as a pre-pubescent child." She doesn't say this, but instead lists with intensifiers that have no cohesion—they present an exaggeration by the narrator, perpetuating our uncomfortable emotions towards her and her own unreliability.

Jane's unreliability in her identity does not only come through her appearance, but it also comes through the way in which she presents the series of events in the novel. We have to note that Jane presents this all in first person; she is not a sociable woman and neither did she come from a wealthy family that treated her right. Her bias towards negating the Reeds is inevitable. We see this when Jane is told that she is going to Lowood School and Mr. Brocklehurst responds with what Jane's aunt has been saying of her as a little girl; mainly that "deceit is her fault"—basically calling her a liar. Now, Jane throws a tantrum—screaming and shouting at Mrs. Reed; but why? If she had been treated so badly by the Reeds all her life then surely, she would have thrown a tantrum about a number of things by now - but she doesn't. We know she hasn't since Mrs. Reed is so shocked by this one. We have to note that Mrs. Reed only called Jane a liar. She didn't say anything else, like Bessie and Mrs. Abbot did about Jane's appearance—or John Reed did about Jane's basic human rights. Jane did not really throw a tantrum in these situations—but strategically tried to fight back by retaliating. In John Reed's case, by punching him back—and in Bessie and Mrs. Abbot's case, by fainting. Mrs. Reed does a lot less to Jane yet receives a lot more—now we could put this down to bubbling hate inside of Jane, but then why didn't she rage against John Reed when he almost took away her basic human rights? Why does she rage against Mrs. Reed, who hardly speaks to her? We only know she hardly speaks to Jane because Jane has told us.

We have to think, is Jane fabricating the truth? And the answer is; well, we don't know. But from this evidence, we have to assume that this is the case—she demonstrates this very early in the book and it isn't the first time it crops up. But it adds to the overall identity of Jane as being someone who is exaggerating the truth in order to bias characters, fabricate events and develop a story; all to the effect of receiving pity from the reader and showing her own development into womanhood.

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About the Creator

Annie Kapur

190K+ Reads on Vocal.

English Lecturer

🎓Literature & Writing (B.A)

🎓Film & Writing (M.A)

🎓Secondary English Education (PgDipEd)

📍Birmingham, UK

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