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'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Bronte (Pt. 3)

Part 3: The Theoretical Lenses

By Annie KapurPublished 5 years ago 15 min read
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Now that we've covered what there is to cover of Jane's identity (in parts one and two) as a reliable or unreliable narrator—we must look now into theory and literary studies to find more descriptions and anecdotes of how she appears to a reader with a particular lens.

The Eco-Critical Lens

Eco-Criticism is the study of landscape and ecology and how this has an effect on certain themes in the novel. The dictionary defines it as "the relation between literature and the natural environment." With the lamentation of idyllic settings and the encouragement of the supernatural themes involving the domestic gothic—Jane Eyre is something to be admired amongst those studying eco-critical viewpoints.

Quotation: "I lifted my head and tried to look boldly round the dark room: at this moment a light gleamed on the wall. Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon penetrating some aperture in the blind?"

Here we have Jane discussing what it's like to be in the red room. We must take into account that this book is a domestic gothic novel—the domestic part being important for Jane's experiences and the gothic part to tell us in which way we should be looking at the eco-critical points of the novel. She mentions "a ray from the moon;" which is somewhat more comforting that the harshness of the rest of the quotation. Throughout the novel Jane Eyre, the moon is a radiance of some kind—it is referred to very commonly as Jane's mother figure. Finding out whether this ray is a supernatural light or the light of the moon could be the difference between Jane being afraid or feeling comforted by it.

Quotation: "All the house was still; for I believe all, except St. John and myself, were now retired to rest. The one candle was dying out: the room was full of moonlight."

As stated in Volume 29 of the Journal of Bronte Studies 2004 by Peter Nockolds, the moon is a reference of emotional intensity, as well as being a maternal figure to control the intensity from bursting out of the character. The fact that the moon is associated with religion though, is a slightly different point. In eco-criticism, we like to attain to the fact that literature and the natural world have a link—in Charlotte Bronte's works, this link is primarily religious. In Bronte's Vilette and Jane Eyre we see a full moon on the Midsummer's Eve; both cases of the moon are mentioned in particularly tranquil circumstances; both are also mentioned to be experienced with the character of a Baptist. According to Nockolds' Journal Article, this image is extremely important to all works by the Sisters. For example; Wuthering Heights is a book where the moon is a point of reference for tranquility— juxtaposing various storms and harsh weather. In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall again, the moon is a mothering figure. In Jane Eyre the moon is a security provided to Jane that she grew up without.

In eco-criticism as well, we like to look for viewpoints on realism. It seems to us that realism was taken into account when Bronte started writing this novel. For you see, Chapter 24 takes place exactly four weeks before Chapter 25. In Chapter 24, a fortnight before the Midsummer's Eve— Rochester describes a crescent moon —whereas in Chapter 25, Jane describes a full moon. This would be astronomically correct to the length of time over these chapters.

When we look at the eco-critical lens, we need to make sure that the relationship between Jane, the natural world, the domestic world, the gothic and various natural symbols are being clearly adhered to. When reading at the novel and its other various eco-critical intricacies, we need to observe the following:

The Eco-Critical relations between the three novels of the Bronte Sisters and looking at the symbol of the moon.

The Eco-Critical relations between various natural symbols in Jane Eyre and how they help her to grow throughout the novel.

The exterior world and the interior world of the novel and how this relates to Victorian Literature as a whole as these two worlds were very differently portrayed in novels.

This is because when looking increasingly at eco-criticism in Jane Eyre it is not a good idea to take everything in at once; we need to be able to sift through it and pick out some key ideas; such as the moon, in order for it to make more sense.

The Structuralist Lens

When looking at structuralism we need to first look at the key point of binary opposition in literature. Binary opposition is the theory that there are two directly opposite ideas of aspects in literature—no matter what these ideas and aspects may be and no matter how abstract they are.

In Jane Eyre it is clear that one of the most explicit binary opposites is Jane and Blanche in appearances—this we have discussed heavily earlier on in the seminar. But another binary opposite is the way in which binary opposites are presented through Jane and Rochester. Rochester is described by Jane as a man of many complexities —but when we see the wedding of Jane and Rochester, when they almost get married—we also see the extent of the opposition through voice and silence. Here we have Rochester who states, "Come to my side Jane," and then states "It is you who I intend to marry"—Jane remains silent and does not say anything until after Rochester has spoken with, "come to my side" once again.

It is evident that throughout the novel, Jane has seen Rochester as one of her own, uncomfortable amongst the higher classes, Blanche (Jane believes) "could not charm him"—but in the wedding, it seems that Jane has now changed her mind and sees him not as a higher class man, but of a lower class than she is. It is even Jane that makes the opposition clear between the two of them by uttering "it is your bride that stands between us." The word "between" having those connotations of Jane and Rochester now standing on opposite sides, the placement of themselves physically is symbolic of their spiritual separation and oppositions. It is then Rochester who tries to physically defeat this by coming on the Jane's side of the room and stating "my bride is here because my equal is here." Rochester has moved to Jane's side of the room and therefore, changed her "between" to his "equal."

So when we look at Structuralism, we must see that there are clear depictions of separation between Jane and Rochester and then there are clear depictions of separations of Jane and Blanche. It is evident that Jane separates herself from other characters in order to distinguish herself as a person, but also to present pity—as if she were to make herself seem lesser than other characters, it is evident that the reader would feel pity upon her regardless of whether what she is saying has truth or not.

Again, we witness Jane's identity in her appearance linking back to how she pits herself against people—thus, we encounter a glitch in the narrative that is based so much upon her own emotion that we cannot possibly assume anything about reality.

This also links to the psychoanalytical view of Jane's character—that whether she knows that she is manipulating the reader or not.

The Historicist Lens

We may look at all of this through the lens of historicism. In historicism, we must take into account two factors:

Old historicism—which dealt primarily with historical fact. This is where we link the text to any events that took place in Victorian England or within the life of Charlotte Bronte

New historicism—this is where we consider how themes, plot, language etc. have been adapted to show a certain perspective on history. For example; the slightly contorted view on the treatment of women in the time of Jane Eyre.

We are first going to have a look at old historicism and how Jane's identity links in with the identity of the author; since it was initially entitled: Jane Eyre: An Autobiography.

We know a lot about the life of Charlotte Bronte, mostly from research and also from Gaskell's novel The Life of Charlotte Bronte.

If we go chronologically through the novel, we can see similarities in certain events—except for the fact that Jane Eyre is an orphan, whereas Charlotte Bronte's father outlived all of his children.

Events that contain similarities include:

The fact that Jane Eyre is very interested in storybooks. It is known that when Charlotte Bronte herself was younger, she too was interested in storybooks so much that her, Anne and Emily made up a fairytale land called "Gondal." Unfortunately, Charlotte was the only one to grow out of it—the other two were still practicing the fantasy well into their 20s.

Another similarity is the fact that one of Jane Eyre's closest friends die. Helen Burns dies young, whilst Jane is still at Lowood. But there is a strange similarity here seeing as the book Jane Eyre was published in 1847—and Charlotte's best friends, and own siblings—Emily Bronte and Branwell Bronte—both died in the early days of 1848. It was said that Emily was well aware that she was going to die and accepted the fact, refusing to see a doctor and therefore, let herself succumb to the disease. If this is true, then Charlotte Bronte must have known that her sister would die.

The next similarity is the fact that Jane's parents were quite wealthy. Charlotte Bronte's parents too, were quite wealthy and this is why the children could be provided with storybooks. No, they were not middle class—but they were able to afford more items than the average industrial revolution working-class household that are most commonly depicted in Dickens' novels.

Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre both worked as governesses for a time; Jane Eyre probably worked a lot longer than Bronte did seeing as Bronte herself, died quite young.

There are also several accounts of Charlotte Bronte's marriage to a man her father didn't fully approve of. Even though Jane Eyre's father is not present in the novel—there is always something holding her back from falling in love with Edward Rochester until the very end of the book. This "something" is aggression and stubbornness. Typically, these are male traits acquired from patriarchal influence. Even though Jane may not have had a patriarchal figure in her life—the governing figures of her existence have been weighed out more towards men than women. Therefore, her anger towards men who control her is much more aggressive than her anger towards women who control her. For example, in the book, Jane talks back to Mrs. Reed after she calls "deceit" Jane's "fault." Whereas, when she has experienced control at the hands of John Reed and Mr. Brocklehurst—she does not let this out on Rochester, but yet endures his stubbornness as well. This anger only comes out when she meets St. John Rivers. A man of contradictions and little motivation—he tries to convince her to marry him—he also tries to convince himself to marry her. This is when we see Jane flee from the house all the way back to Thornfield Hall. This is when the fire bursts out and Bertha dies. This fire is directly symbolic of Jane's rage towards control and yet, also represents her love for Rochester. It is only after realising this that she tends to him and marries him with one of the most famous quotations in English Literature: "Reader, I married him."

This is equivalent, if not more symbolic of what happened to Charlotte Bronte. It took her father much convincing to let her marry the man who became her husband for a little less than a year before she died. He then deleted the words "An Autobiography" from the title of the book and published it under Charlotte's name. To which, when people found out—they were completely shocked at the amount of temperance that came out of a young, slightly wealthy woman of a calm household. All the anger and passion had been released.

Now, we will have an overview of New Historicism‚—which is slightly longer and contains more historical and thematic analysis in terms of language use and ideologies.

The first thing we are going to look at is the apparent treatment of women in Jane Eyre. Or, more importantly, the treatment of Jane herself, since she is the only major female character who undergoes any pain in the contents of the novel—the rest seem to be voids or presented almost inhumanely as characters of reference to show the reader a comparison between Jane and the normal/average woman.

In a book entitled Infidel Feminism: Secularism, Religion and a Woman's Emancipation in Britain: 1830-1914, Schwartz states that there are very few free-thinking female politicians, authors, poets, artists etc. at this time. She argues that the men of Britain seemed to "shadow" the women and almost "steal" their ideas and perspectives to use them in their own work. Jane Eyre as a text, does not present this argument, but the character of Jane Eyre does. The character of Jane Eyre claims that her treatment is unfair and increasingly inhumane throughout the book.

She starts by judging Mrs. Reed, who is Jane's first point of anger. Yes, it does seem that Mrs. Reed is a woman, but also that Jane forgets to look at Mrs. Reed's own life before stating that she is a bad guardian. Mrs. Reed is in fact, one of those women Schwartz is talking about; the middle class, bored woman who has nothing to do every day but to wait for something to happen. Her husband, on the other hand, was heavily involved in the town. It is also evident that she is a widow—and recently too, since Jane remembers him and is still quite young. The fact that Jane's juvenile perspective seems to pin-point bullying a widow into sending her to school seems unfair.

But, when we look at Jane Eyre and the character's speech—we also see that Jane makes herself out to be the character that Schwartz is talking about—yes, she has suffered at the hands of men and been accused of things. Although, unlike Mrs. Reed, Jane is not reliant upon men. Mrs. Reed was more or less reliant and dependent upon her husband for income, moral and emotional support. We can therefore conclude that it is Mrs. Reed who is more like Schwartz's model of a woman.

Also, in Schwartz's models—there is heavy attention paid upon the female free-thinker, Harriet Martineau. Harriet Martineau is a grand figure when studying Jane Eyre—especially when we look at Jane's education and the free-thinking females of the day. Schwartz makes an intellectual comparison between the act of feminism, the act of politics, education and human rights—and the idea that the Victorian Woman was still marginalized, and purposefully too.

Martineau talks of women's education almost violently—a very similar reaction to the uproar Jane and Helen cause at Lowood School in the company of Mr. Brocklehurst. Martineau states:

"The intellect of a woman is confined by the unjustifiable restriction of education..."

Well, we do see this in Jane Eyre through the way in which Jane is constantly being restricted from certain aspects of the education system. The first time is when John Reed throws a book at Jane's head after taking it from her when she was reading it. The next time is when Mr. Brocklehurst reprimands her for not wanting to learn her Psalms. After this, Brocklehurst then reprimands her again at school, then she is patronised by Edward Rochester—after he accuses her of being a witch when his horse buckled on the ice and she was there. Blanche then insults Jane's intelligence by referring to governesses as vile women who are on par with women of the evening.

Another statement made by Martineau shows the reader why this is:

"As women have none of the objects in life for which an enlarged education is considered requisite, the education is not given..."

It is cyclic. The fact that Jane goes to a school for women, in a place that she is taught to sew, read and write—and be a motherly being; is just evidence of why the other characters would feel that an "enlarged" education—being that of a great curriculum, would not suffice. In order to retain this femininity which is decreasing in characters such as Helen Burns—the chairman of the school (i.e. Mr. Brocklehurst) require to keep strict regime upon the girls and disallow them luxuries that are more or less given to men. This is where we can structurally compare the characters of Jane Eyre and John Reed. John Reed is physically bigger than Jane, and is described as being so as well—he has an increased appetite for food, to which Jane is constantly being starved. John Reed is an actively aggressive boy, whereas Jane is a passive aggressive girl. When they both grow up, they retain this binary opposition—but instead, Jane grows up to be thoughtful and John grows up to be thoughtless. Perhaps, the honing of education was a good thing for Jane, she could then concentrate on specific things—but maybe it was a good thing as it gave her something to stand up for. For if it was not there, would we have the thoughtful, patient and philosophical Jane we have by the end of the novel?

The answer to the question is foggy and will be attempted to be answered in the next part. But there is also evidence of Jane not exactly hating the education system of Lowood School as after she leaves, she becomes a teacher there for a very long while.

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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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