Gender Norms In Jane Eyre And The Awakening

Both Jane Eyre and The Awakening explore the path that women take in efforts to define happiness to them , and how they navigate the world around them in pursuit of that. Edna, the main character in The Awakening, breaks significant gender norms of the time around* which would lead the book to become a prominent piece of literature used at the forefront of the early feminist movement. Edna approaches the search for her happiness, and identity in a carefree, reckless manner, that disregarded her responsibilities in hopes of finding herself. This search leads to her taking her own life. In contrast, Jane lived her young adult life on par with her strict morality; Following it rigorously even if it would make her life more difficult in physical

As mentioned before both women have strong consciousness;sss** though Jane is even more level-headed. This, paired with her Christian influence, gives Jane the strong power of wielding her morality as a knight would an iron sword; Although* it may be heavy and difficult to use, a sword is a perfect weapon to strike down and sever incoming enemies the same can be said for weighty decisions. The *serious, shocking *moment that most refer to when tracing Jane's brave choices is when she can let her lover go.* Jane, after working at the same institutionalized boarding school she went to as a student, finds a job opportunity to work as a governess under the house head, Mr. Rochester. Because of her witty and intelligent personality, Mr. Rochester takes a liking to Jane, even talking about deep and socially unconventional conversations that range from the handsomeness of his face to the class differentiation between the two of them. Jane develops a *find quote about jane thinking her crush on Rochester is childlike* but is morally derailed when it is revealed that Mr. Rochester has been hiding his feral wife in the attic. This presents Jane with the arduous decision of choosing to stay with her love or to leave in the night. Jane chooses the latter the author, Emily Brontë writes, ***find quote**. Though this must have been a difficult decision, Jane choose, out of her selfless nature, to pursue an uncertain and dangerous path just to preserve a principled world. This is not only an impressive response when she was tested but it is a display of feminism. As mentioned before, for an action to be considered feministic the person must first recognize the unfair situation that they are put into, and Jane was in a very unfortunate position. But whereas Edna would take the opportunity to stay with the