Jane Eyre: Task 1

Task 1:

·         Class: This term refers to a society divided into certain social groups. The interests of these groups differ depending on their rank in the social hierarchy. The hierarchy resembles a pyramid, with the smaller group of “upper-class” citizens on top and the large number of “working class” people at the bottom. The “middle-class” people are often grouped together with the “upper-class”, because both classes represent a privileged sector of society.

·         Gender & Feminism:  ‘Gender’ refers to being feminine or masculine, rather than male or female. The distinction between gender and sex is drawn to avoid fundamental definitions of women and men and behavior that is associated with them. Feminist literary criticism critiques the images of women portrayed in literary texts.

·         Ideology: This refers to beliefs, values and ways of thinking through which humans take to be reality. It is the product of the position and interests of a certain class. An ideology serves to legitimize the interests of the “upper-class”. It is the process by which consciousness is formed. Ideologies are hard to resist and may be accepted without a person even realizing it. The ideology has then become “hegemonic”   or dominant.

(Key words for English studies)

·         Charlotte Brontё wrote the preface to give thanks to the public, press and publishers who made the success on Jane Eyre possible. She also wrote it to address the people who disapprove of the book and of the comments she makes on the Victorian society, merely because it is unconventional and because she is a woman. She is saying that something is not law just because it is conventional and being conventional does not make it right. Ideas are supposed to be challenged for humanity to advance. She says that customs and policies which only benefit a small number of people – to make the rich richer is not right and pointing this out is a good thing, not a bad thing. She says that the world might hate the person who exposes the faults of his or her society, but later they will be grateful towards that person. She then proceeds to dedicate the 2^nd edition of Jane Eyre to a Mr. Thackery, whose wit, sarcasm and sharp comments on society she admires. She sees him as a modern reformer of her time and prophet-like. She writes as Currer Bell, because she did not want to be recognized as a woman, since her comments on society were not feminine and unacceptable coming from a woman. Her manner of writing and thinking was inappropriate and frowned upon in that time. She wanted to remain anonymous, while still getting her work published. This can be seen on the facsimile of the first edition title page “Edited by Currer Bell”.

·         Even though we still study it today, which should serve as enough confirmation of the fact that it is a good book. The text, Jane Eyre is actually described as unfeminine. This is because the main character, Jane, is seen as offensive, because during that time women were not allowed to comment so strongly on their society or to challenge it. According to the author of the review, the book contains “masculine power, breadth and shrewdness, combined with masculine hardness, coarseness and freedom of expression. As if she does not think it possible or acceptable for a woman to express herself freely. However, in the social context of the time this reaction to the book is not unexpected seeing as most readers would have had the same repulsed reaction towards the unladylike behavior of the main character Jane Eyre.  The role social class played during that time is visible in many of the comments made by the reviewer. In her opinion the author had to have been an orphan or social outcast herself to be able to write in such detail about the emotions of Jane Eyre. She refers to the character “the last class”.

This book is vulgar and rude, not to a reader of our time but to one during the Victorian era. The reason why is because it challenges the social hierarchy of the time. The book shows characters of different social classes interacting with each other and depicts many of the “upper-class” characters as the unfavorable characters in the novel, as opposed to characters such as servants being the likeable ones.  Furthermore it has a strong feminist edge to it since the main character Jane Eyre is the opposite of what was seen as the perfect woman of the time. She is anything but the conventional fictional heroine. The reviewer speaks of the “purer taste of the present day” and is appalled that the character, Jane Eyre has any credibility in such a “pure” day and age. This comment makes it clear that the text must have been very offensive to the people during that time. The book and the characters is described as offensive. The reviewer goes as far as to question the author’s virtues, because she has managed to create such a vulgar text and characters. Jane is praised for her moral strength, but described as a “heathen mind” with no “Christian grace”, because she offends everything that the Victorian society is based on, such as the social class system and women being obedient to men. The issue of class is again visible when the reviewer comments on how the author is actually complaining about God’s plan, when she complains about how the rich “upper-class” is in charge of things while the “lower-class” becomes more and more suppressed. It is clear that religion was in a certain extent used to advance the ideas of the “upper-class” and to make them even more powerful. The reviewer states that through the novel the author has “forfeited the society of her own sex.” In other words she has disgraced all women and brought shame upon herself.