Theme Of Beauty In Jane Eyre

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Charlotte and Emily Bronte are the most successful authors of their time; writing stories that contain truth’s that have stood the test of time. However, their success did not come easy. Bronte used a pen name to conceal her identity and shield from ridicule for the first few months after Jane Eyre was published. Bronte found her success in her writing skills, not in her beauty. Even though Charlotte was not the most beautiful woman, she found abundant success in her talents. The Victorian era placed a woman’s value in how much money and beauty she possessed. In Charlotte Bronte’s coming of age novel, Jane Eyre, outward beauty deceives as it ironically represents a true evil in oneself. The beautiful Reed family, who resides in Gateshead, has cruel hearts as they boast about their luxuries as they deny them to their “outsider” blood. Even though Mrs. Reed promised her deceased husband that she would care for Jane as if she was one of her own children, Mrs. Reed encourages everyone in the house to never hesitate to tell Jane that she is a failure in everything she does. At the young age that Jane is, she should not yet be self conscious of her appearance and concerned about her level of beauty, yet she becomes “humbled by the consciousness of physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed” (Bronte 7). The Reed family fits into the stereotype of inner beauty not matching outer beauty; they are extremely rich and beautiful, yet they lack basic levels of compassion.