Gender Roles In Jane Eyre

The nineteenth century, an era of which men and women’s roles, developed more definition. During Victorian times, women had a great influence at home and home only. Therefore, it gave women more power to argue for their right to be equal as the men in their society because they realized they too, had opinions and influences that should be heard. The superiority of males during the time period was astounding, nonetheless, Bronte overcame the taboo and pushed for the shift of roles between males and females. In Bronte’s book, Jane Eyre, Victorian society’s injustice is revealed by conveying women to struggle through their social class, but still be determined to show the importance of their role in society; through preparing for marriage and

The ‘natural’ characteristics of each gender were for the women to stay home to clean and cook, and the men to go work. Bronte displayed how male dominance was a characteristic of Victorian society to show that during this time it was hard for her, a poet, who’s a woman, trying to be successful (Halliwell, The Romantics: Artists, Writers, and Composers). Adding on, due to the male bias of society, Bronte and her sisters had to write under a pseudonym. They all went under male names, which helped them expose their work to the majority of the intended audience (Moss, The Romantics: Artists, Writers, and Composers). It is rarely shown that a man loses his masculinity for a brief moment of time. As seen when Jane starts to see the deeper side of Mr. Rochester due to her interest in him, “I believed he was a naturally a man of better tendencies, higher principles, and purer tastes than such as circumstances had developed, education instilled, or destiny encouraged” (Bronte 188). Something that is excessively stereotyped about men during this time period, is the thought that men were supposed to be strong willed, demanding, and honest. So when Jane sees this other side of Mr. Rochester she is confused. Women were so used to men being that way during this time that they have no clue what to do when the men become less demanding and secretive, “He smothered in secrecy and sank in oblivion!” (Bronte 267). Bronte shows the shift of roles by slowly looking at how men can be just as secretive and soft like women. As much as the men had mass superiority, women did have to prepare the next generation. Marriage was important to both human beings in society. The young girls of the Victorian age were raised and taught to become the fitting wife to a man someday. A young man at the time needed to show security financially, so he support a wife and any children. That rule was important, as it