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Femininity In Jane Austen's Persuasion Essay

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all of the students hair just to save the cost on combs (Bronte 84). Even in her role as a governess in the house of a wealthy man, Jane remains androgynous and attempts to maintain “the strangely empowered implications of her gender neutrality” and eventually this genderless status gives her the ability to control her own life just as persuasion gave Anne the ability to control her own life (Godfrey 859). However, Jane is placed in a situation that puts her into an effeminate standing when she is both younger and subservient to her fiancée but this does not stop her from regaining her more masculine attributes (Godfrey 865). Rather than having the male accept the feminine side, as Wentworth did in Persuasion, Jane accepts the masculine role …show more content…

She creates a character that seems like it should fit the mold of femininity but rather breaks the mold by making the man admit defeat rather than the woman. She also strikes down the stereotype that a good woman is one who has masculine traits but remains womanly as seen in her descriptions of Elizabeth Elliot. Elizabeth, like her father, has masculine qualities that set her apart from the rest of the females. Austen was attempting to create in a novel, a total and absolute acceptance of women as they already are, feminine. By creating a masculine offset, such as Elizabeth, Austen utilizes the differing personalities to show the dichotomy of females; the female as seen by society and the female as seen truly by personality. Bronte glorifies a more masculine woman who takes what she wants and seizes the day basically “undermining gender identities” (Godfrey 854). By relating her heroine to a masculine trait she is for all intents and purposes creating a character that can overcome gender obstacles in any field. With Jane’s final dominance over Rochester, there is a reversal of gender roles where Rochester is taking on a more effeminate role while Jane takes on the more masculine role. Bronte creates a world where females can be anything rather than just sitting back and accepting the simplicity of femininity that Austen advocates

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The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they are; and the desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgement shall still have the last word in every argument… (Bronte 277).” This nameless fortune-teller reinforces the supernatural attributes in the novel, thereby deepening the strange, whimsicality and dark themes presented through means of mysticism, which often thought to be very real. She reads Jane in a way that sparks curiosity and wonder, as if she truly possessed powers beyond any mortal realm, being able to identify and define Jane’s independent personality by a merely looking at her physical appearance. It is a foreshadowing of her decisions, reiterating the fact that Jane is different from normal women, highlighting a true shock to many people of the age, as many women probably would have

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This shows a side in the book that shows Jane being more independent, which hints at feminism being a theme in this book. The fact that she ends up marrying Rochester once they are equals shows that she is way before her times and is thinking about marriage as a bond between two equals rather than a man being her superior. This was also seen as a critique towards women in that time period who were okay with being dominated. Emily Bronte was questioned after writing this novel because a woman and a man being equal disagreed with her religious upbringing, which was

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