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Sexism In Jane Eyre Research Paper

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Jane Eyre is not an ordinary person for the time period which she lives in. She ignores the sexism that is shown towards her and other women throughout the text. Sexism is defined as, “relating to or characterized by prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex” (Google). People are the all unique in their own ways and are better at certain things than other things. This fact has nothing to do with whether you are male or female; gay or straight; colored or white. All of those are physical characteristics which a person is born with and cannot change, and should therefore not be discriminated against because of these characteristics. In the beginning, there are not many instances of sexism towards Jane. Jane is harassed by her cousin John, who is now the master of the house since his father died. Mrs. Reed could not be the master of the house because she is female and therefore cherishes John. Jane describes, “Eliza and Georgiana, evidently acting according to orders, spoke to me as little as possible; John thrust his tongue in his cheek whenever he saw me, and once attempted chastisement…” (30). Jane was harassed by John and defended herself but ended up getting scolded and locked in a room. None of the family members could go against John even if he was wrong, he …show more content…

Marriage is looked at in different ways depending on the people, but most people believe that a significant other is something which a person owns. Mr. Rochester explains, “... when I mean shortly to claim you - your thoughts, conversations, and company - for life” (374). A marriage should not be about controlling the other person, and instead be about helping each other through the struggles of everyday life. A woman, or man, is not a possession that can be owned and thrown away when a person no longer enjoys them. All people have feelings which can be hurt and trust that can be

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Her "shocking" stature and diverse hued hair fit in with the assorted society of America. She has dependably been a manlier lady instead of female. She wants to be OK with baggier attire and is a long way from shallow. From the start it is obvious that Jane possess the strong value of domination. She feels that she is dominant in most circumstances, even if she is the minority in some settings.

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Gender Roles in Jane Eyre In the novel “Jane Eyre” written by Charlotte Bronte the author illustrates gender roles in the Victorian era. Throughout the novel the main character, Jane, struggles with her role as an independent women, which hinders her ability to decisions. Jane is also conflicted with the choice of conforming to society by either marrying or working or to be a nonconformist by marrying for love.

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In Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre grows up without any parental guidance. Living with her aunt’s family for her entire childhood, she often suffers exclusion and abuse because of her social status. As a child under such maltreatment, Jane learns how to speak up for herself against injustice and develops an assertive personality. After graduating from Lowood, she serves as a governess in Thornfield, where Mr. Rochester belittles her and acts insensitively towards her feelings. Instead of declaring her position in front of him, Jane becomes submissive and unconfident; however, her affections towards Mr. Rochester increase through their interactions, yet, she is hesitant to disclose her true feelings due to her own sense of insecurity.

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It is ironic that Jane is seen as the guilty party in the incident with John Reed because John started the fight when he slapped Jane. Then when John’s sisters, Eliza and Georgina, go to “tattle tale” on Jane, their mother blames Jane for the whole situation. Jane compares John to a “murderer,” “slave-driver,” and “Roman Emperors” (Bronte 9). During this comparison, she is implying that he is a very cruel and awful person. That he would beat her and boss her around.

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1408 Words | 6 Pages

Jane’s childhood was a major factor in how she would grow as she aged, as are the early years of each person. Living with her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her three cousins, who showed her little to no affection during her ten years with them but showed to be very intellectually capable and passionate as seen when she says to her cousin John Reed “‘You are like a murderer--you are like a slave-driver--you are like the Roman emperors!’” (6). Since John was the only male in Gateshead at the time, he naturally had a lot of power over Jane, historically speaking.

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Vincent Adams Professor Ellie Hamrick Cultural Anthropology 20 October 2015 Sexism is a form of oppression that is very commonly used throughout the world. The unfortunate fact is that everything we hear is deemed normally and is widely accepted throughout the world. It can start as early as when we are in school and learn about the sperm and the egg and how the writer of a textbook can subtlety make comments that inaccurately tell you how the sperm and the egg come together to start the process of life. I believe that education in anthropology can help give everybody in the world the chance to fight systems of oppression, such as sexism, and help us come up with alternatives to get rid of these systems entirely.

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In Jane Eyre, Bronte narrated both the mysterious story and romantic elements through the arrangement of the chosen words in a particular degree to create a gothic tone. Another reason why Jane Eyre is popular is because of its Gothic language style. The Gothic element in Jane Eyre emphasizes the mystery and the supernatural through the dark, gloomy settings and violent events, which then could raise a particular atmosphere of horror. Mr. Reed's ghostly presence in the red-room, Bertha's strange laughter at Thornfield, and Rochester's dark and brooding personality are all examples of gothic conventions, which add to the novel's suspense, entangling the reader in Jane's attempt to solve the mystery at Thornfield.

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Gothic Novels include various elements within themselves that present thrilling stories. Gothic novels often feature components such as the setting, elements of the supernatural, mystery and suspense, unknown parentage, and high, overwrought emotions by characters. Author Charlotte Brontë writes Jane Eyre as a narrative describing the life of the character, Jane Eyre. Brontë develops the story’s gothic appeal through elements of the story including the setting, the mystery and suspense, and the high overwrought emotions displayed by characters.

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Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, is a novel about a girl named Jane Eyre. The story spans a period of approximately three decades. Jane’s early life is filled with the loss of her parents and the cruelty of her aunt and cousins. When Jane is sent away to school she gradually feels loved and grows into a kind and intelligent woman. After two years of teaching at the school, Jane ventures away and experiences other forms of work, meets new people and finds true love.

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A lot of things happened in Britain during the pre-Victorian era. While the Napoleon-wars were raging, the industrial revolution slowly made an uprising. It was a great time for politics, economics and society. The era is perhaps most known for it’s fine architecture and elegance, which both helped shaping the Britain we know today. But despite this, there were also dark sides to the beauty: the classes, lack of women’s rights and working children.

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As a young child, I was introduced to the class of literature; an appealing class of imagination, creativity, collaboration, ideas, curiosity, and critical thinking. As I advanced in life, my interest in my English and literacy classes strengthened; like an enhancing body-builder. As I practiced and experienced more with the theme, it allured me. Of course, it wasn't immediately education that hooked me; it was the changing, perspective world of books. Called 'libros' in Spanish, books have entranced me since my mother read aloud enthralling books; it introduced me to characters and facts I'd never known.

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Like Jane, Mrs. Reed is also subject to expected feminine roles, although unlike Jane, she adheres to the trappings of her gender. Despite the fact that Mr. Reed is dead, Mrs. Reed is still vulnerable to carrying out his wishes. This is demonstrated by how powerfully Jane’s reminder of Mrs. Reed’s promise to her dying husband about caring for Jane distresses Mrs. Reed: “Her usually cold, composed grey eye became troubled with a look like fear; she took her hand from my arm, and gazed at me as if she really did not know whether I were a child or fiend” (Brontë 35). Although Mr. Reed is dead, he still “...continues to dictate her behaviour even from the grave” (Anderson 1). Mrs. Reed’s son also portrays the role of male dominance in her life: John gambles away much of the Reed fortune and wrecks his own life with alcohol, while simultaneously devastating his mother’s life.

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1691 Words | 7 Pages

In Charlotte Brontë 's, Jane Eyre, we see a reversal of gender roles for both Mr. Rochester and Jane. In multiple scenes of the book the two switch back and forth from their “natural” roles, which ends up benefiting the two. In the story, Mr. Rochester, the big burly owner of Thornfield, occasionally drops his natural patriarchal role to become a feminine character. Jane also does this as she takes on a more masculine role from time to time, and drops her feminine complacency. While usually both characters dropping their gender-specific roles could turn out bad, in this story, dropping the stereotypical gender roles by blurring them leads to happiness by the end of the story.

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648 Words | 3 Pages

The dual roles however prevent him from fully understanding Jane. Due to his authority, he prevents Jane from expressing her feelings. He continuously condescends her, calling her a “blessed little goose” and “little girl”, similar to Rochester patronizing Antoinette. It is clear that he does not understand Jane’s true identity because he only sees the surface of her personality. Their relationship conclusively destroys Jane due to John dehumanizing

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He thoroughly shows through these characters that Female physical traits equal weakness, while male traits equal power. He promotes his sexist views by showing the gender roles reversed to further enhance mans power. The women, Nurse Ratched for example, is looked at as destructive forces she is seen as a machine “a mistake was made somehow in manufacturing putting those big, womanly breasts on what would of otherwise been a perfect work”(6). “She’s swelling up, swells till her backs splitting out the white uniform”(5). At the end of the novel her breasts are exposed and her feminine (less powerful) side is seen.

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