Appraisal of Jane Eyre as a Victorian and Bildungsroman novel
JANE EYRE AS A BILDUNGSROMAN AND. No FEMINIST NOVEL
The book Jane Eyre is an eponymous novel as the title of the book shares the same name with the protagonist, Jane Eyre. The book is Bildungsroman novel As it talks about the coming of age Of the main character, Jane Eyre , From a young orphan to a maternal, artistic, self independent young woman.
The main character, Jane Eyre, poses certain attributes that do not sit well with the Victorian era when the book was published. Jane eyre is a young orphan who lived with her aunt at Gateshead ( the residence of the Reeds), right from the onset when she rebelled against John Reed, her cousin, it is portrayed that she’s a girl who wouldn’t sit back and just let him bully her as he has been doing before, she ended up getting locked in the red room, eventually got sick. When the doctor who came to see her left and the Aunty came to her with Mr Brocklehurst, the head master of Lowood college, she did not hold back her tongue and she lashed out at the Aunty, pointing out all her wicked traits and even when Brocklehurst told her that she was deceitful and would be condemned to hell, she wasn’t deterred.
Jane Eyre upon her following years at Lowood college, did not hold mentality that she is inferior to any man even though most women in the Victorian era had come to terms with the fact that their gender is inferior to the male sex.
Jane eventually got a job as a Governess (a teacher in those time) at Thornfield where she will be teaching young Adele ( the spoilt but loving kid staying with Mr Rochester at Thornfield – she’s has a little French accent missed in her English, and isn’t the daughter of Rochester. She’s born by a one time love of Rochester’s life, who lied to him). After a while at Thornfield, Mr Rochester asked Jane to become his illegitimate wife, she refused. Jane did not want to be reliant on his illegitimate wife, she refused Jane did not want to be reliant on any man as she believed that she was not yet well off on her own to marry Mr Rochester, even though she loved him deeply, she rejected his proposal due to the fact that she was not well off and refused to be reliant on him, unlike most women in the Victorian era, Jane decided to be independent.
Following her arrival at Moors, where she worked after she left Mr Rochester, she eventually inherited a fortune, finding out that her uncle left a great deal of money for her. It was only then that she considered going back to Rochester with intentions of accepting his proposal , she went in search of him and found out that his house was burnt to death n a fire and he has now moved to fern field.
At fern field she decided to marry him even after finding out that he lost his sight due to fire, this shows the level of independence that Jane has and par if he reason why she decided to marry Rochester even after finding out that she was involved in a fire because she knew that without his eye sight he would grow dependent on her, making her dependent and still taking care of him.
The writer Charlotte Bronte,potrayed Jane as a feminist, she displayed Jane as a feminist even before the idea of feminism was as brought up, Jane defied all the rules of Victoria era.
The novel, Jane Eyre is a divert of the Victoria era norms as Jane did not conform to any of the rule of Victoria era,
This made the novel cause a controversy. It can also be stated that the novel Jane Eyre is well ahead of it’s time.