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Morgan Derby
Dr. Erin VanLaningham
English 490
8 November, 2015
Jane Eyre and the Revised Bildungsroman
Charlotte Brontë writes in a letter in 1846:
It seems that even “a lone woman” can be happy, as well as cherished wives and proud
mothers…there is no more respectable character on earth than an unmarried woman who
makes her own way through life quietly perseveringly—without support of husband or
brother, and who, having attained the age of 45 or upwards— retains in her possession a
well-regulated mind. (qtd. in Foster 73)
Finding a life beyond the walls of the home, or looking beyond the life that was prescribed by
society was often impossible for women to achieve in Victorian times. The life of a typical
woman was shaped by the men in her life. However, Bronte argues that there is not life more
respectable than a woman who can make a life for herself in society. Bronte believes that a life
of individualized self-fulfillment is just as important as the family life that is dominate in
Victorian culture.
It can be understood that the oppression of women comes not only from the hands of their
oppressors, but also those who are perpetuating their own oppression by not attempting to
change the tyrannical system. This changes when looking directly Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane
Eyre (1847). The systematic oppression does its best to dominate the protagonist, however she
resists the pressures that society places on her. In Jane Eyre, internal and external structures
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contribute to the reader’s understanding of the Victorian woman, and how Jane herself creates
her own unique definition of true womanhood through her self-constructed bildungsroman.
The subgenre of the Victorian novel, bildungsroman, directly refers to the stories or tales
of characters developing over time and finding their true identity (Maynard 278). However,
Loran Ellis argues that there is a distinction between a traditional bildungsroman and a female
bildungsroman. The differences between the two are mainly the presence of cultural structures
that attempt to prevent women from growth (Ellis). Ellis specifically states, “the central tension
in Jane Eyre, as in other female bildungsromans, is the tension between the heroine’s desire for
self-definition, autonomy, and control, and the societal expectation that she give up these
qualities” (Ellis). In response to this, Maynard discusses that growth that is present within a
bildungsroman is only the “common denominator” (281). In fact, the subgenre of the
bildungsroman actually encompasses several different characteristics and subcategories in itself
that ultimately make this subgenre endless (Maynard). Throughout the novel, Jane faces
moments where growth is inevitable. However, the society and social structure that she finds
herself in stifles her growth, forcing her to make a new path for herself. When one thinks about
the traditional bildungsroman, and the form that it takes in the Victorian novel, the story of Jane
Eyre revises this idea, ultimately creating a new unique bildungsroman. If considering that Jane
Eyre is what Ellis describes as a female bildungsroman, then she is breaking the binary
opposition between women and men, by defying the structure that suppresses her. However,
when the reader evaluates this bildungsroman as something completely unique, Jane not only
sets herself apart from the men in society, but also the women that have chosen the socially
acceptable route and have remained within the domestic sphere. In order to analyze Jane’s
unique bildungsroman, one must look at this story in terms of the physical structures which
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encompass male oppression as well as the societal structures which limit Jane’s identity because
of her gender. She then rejects these structures, and finds her own way of recreating them.
While a Structuralist lens shows the physical and textual structures of the novel and how
they contribute to the understanding of the women’s oppression during this time, Jane begins to
tear down these structures and recreate them. Through the development of patterns and
understanding the symbols that are in opposition of one another, these relationships are brought
to light and provide more understanding for the reader. When describing the Structuralist
criticism, M. H. Abrams writes:
It views these practices as combinations of signs that have a set significance for the
members of a particular culture, and undertakes to make explicit the rules and procedures
by which the practices have achieved their cultural significance, and to specify what the
significant is, by reference to an underlying system…of relationships among signifying
elements and their rules of combination. (300)
In sum, the relationship between elements, such as setting and narrative voice, found in Jane
Eyre and the patterns that emerge within the internal and external physical and psychological
spaces, form a holistic view at what these patterns say about the culture within the novel. More
specifically, looking at the binary opposition between the internal and external when considering
mind and body, contribute to Jane’s overall growth as a woman in the Victorian period. This
dichotomy forces the Victorian woman into a life that is ultimately influenced by the world
around her. Based on the physical spaces that Jane inhabits as well as the societal structures
propelled by gender, her internal thoughts that are suppressed by society as well as the external
space that women cannot occupy, leave her in a prescribed path for her life. This opposition is
otherwise known as a division between public and private. Not only do these symbols create an
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oppressive society for Jane, but they also define her own personal identity as a Victorian woman
and affect the growth that she experiences through the novel, cumulating in her decision to enter
a life of Victorian womanhood, but on her own terms. Brontë does this by presenting the idea of
the True Victorian Woman and its application in Jane’s life, and then providing Jane with the
conditions to deviate from this path that she is originally intended. Her recognition of these
structures followed by her revision of the structures aligns with a Post-Structuralist reading.
Terry Eagleton writes that, “the implication of [Post-Structuralism] is that language is a much
less stable affair than the classical structuralists had considered” (129). Eagleton provides the
reader with the example that as long as men have remained in power and females remain silent,
the structure is upheld (132). However, if women break free from their prescribed life, the
structure created to hold them in their place is deconstructed (Eagleton 132). Jane, while
recognizing these structures through her bildungsroman, deconstructs them forming her unique
story.
Before truly understanding how Jane’s identity is shaped by the culture that is created and
perpetuated by silence around her and the patriarchal structures that she is often trapped within,
an understanding of what it means to be a “True Victorian Woman” must first be unpacked.
During the Victorian period, “women were expected to center their lives on home and family,
they were expected to find the commands of duty and the delights of service sufficient, in fact
ennobling, boundaries for their lives” (Schor 172). The internal experience for women was
expectation that they find joy in their home and in caring for the husband and children. Women
were expected to remain in the internal space that constrains them, away from the external world
which offered experiences that would assist them in their development.
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During the time that Jane Eyre was written, Charlotte Brontë was feeling the pressure to
fall into the social and cultural structures of the domestic sphere into which she did not seem to
fit naturally. According to her letters to friends and lovers, Foster reports that Brontë believed
that women should raise themselves out of ruin by finding their self-respect from the men who
oppress them (75). By demanding respect and emerging into the public sphere, women are taking
their lives back and defining themselves as individuals in the community the way that they want
to be viewed, rather than in the ways society wants. However, “despite [Brontë’s] assertions that
wholly domestic notions of womanhood must be replaced by a creed of female self-help, Brontë
could not ignore the powerful counter-claims of emotional needs which a single life failed to
meet” (Foster 75). While Brontë feels that breaking free from the domestic sphere is what
women need to do, she also understands that by doing this, women are subjected to a single life
without a family. She recognizes that this life, without the domestic sphere, is potentially not as
fulfilling as having companionship. Her contrasting views about companionship, as well as the
power that females should take back in their lives, is an example of Brontë’s attempt to recreate
the path of the female’s story in the plot of Jane Eyre. This contributes to the idea that Jane
forges her way through society, making her own story. Jane attempts to break free from this
domestic sphere, but ultimately lands back within the role as “wife.” However, this world has
changed from the one she used to know. Jane has taken control of her story and has learned what
it will take for her to be happy within the sphere that society wants her to be in, but a redefined
version. By examining the internal and external opposition in Jane Eyre, Jane creates her own
version of a bildungsroman despite the structures that look to hold her back. She not only creates
her own version of the bildungsroman through the setting that she inhabits, but through the
narrative voice that she develops as well.
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Revising Space
The physical living arrangements for Jane change constantly, while the same oppressive
structure remains. She moves from place to place with one thing in common; an oppressive force
constraining her and forcing her into a life within the domestic sphere. As Jane is shaped as a
woman in these less than ideal places, she finds herself confined in physical spaces that are
primarily masculine. Jane dwells in places like Gateshead and Lowood where she is faced with
the patriarchal systems telling her that the way she is living her life is wrong. These spaces act as
a means of punishment or dread and loss for Jane, and she attempts to remove herself from these
spaces. As Jane moves outside of these physical structures, she is able to learn more about
herself and what she desires to achieve self-fulfillment and growth. However, her movement
away from one patriarchal space leads her to the next as she faces new difficulties. Ultimately,
Jane realizes that she cannot escape these patriarchal structures, but because of this, she must
learn what it will take to create her own space within.
To understand the physical space that Jane inhabits when she is trapped inside, it is first
important to understand what it means to dwell in a masculine space, and more importantly, one
that is not welcoming to women. Because women were not allowed to own property or be
contributing members of society, they were viewed as commodities by males, and were therefore
treated with less respect. The primary difference between the spheres is the economics of the
genders and what they can do for the betterment of the family. Michael McKeon states this
difference in spatial relationships with the example of a farmer: “When farmers lost access to
land, their wives lost the means to keep a cow and practice dairying, a common form of women’s
work. As a result, outside work traditionally available to women simply disappeared at the lower
social strata” (171). While McKeon provides the history of women being pushed inside the
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house, it does not justify the effects of this movement indoors. McKeon distinguishes the
difference in voice from the two different spheres. He understands the differences between
public and private voice, as a collective public voice contrasting with the individual private voice
(162). If making this same connection, the reader can view this difference in voice as related to
gender. The public voice is that of a collected group, while the woman’s voice, or that coming
from the private sphere is individualized. Therefore, the private space that Jane inhabits is one
that contributes to her own individual story. At times, Jane takes this story into her own hands in
order to advance her voice.
Jane recognizes the oppressive spaces that she lives in, but does everything she can to
make these spaces her own, even in a less tangible way; through reading. At the beginning of the
novel, Jane finds a place in the “small breakfast-room adjoin[ing] the dining room” to read her
books away from her malicious cousins (Brontë 5). She sits with her legs crossed in a reading
nook “having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close” (Brontë 5). Reading, during this time
was looked at as a waste of futile effort by women. The knowledge gained by reading was
useless in the activities necessary to maintain a home. While girls in the Victorian time were able
to become educated, this formalized education did not properly prepare them for their true
calling: being a housewife (Honig 69). Honig continues to say, “a modern education did little to
change the prospects of the Victorian girl. She was still expected to be ornamental, domesticated,
and submissive” (69). Jane continues to do what she finds to be self-fulfilling, and true to her
character even though it does not necessarily further her chances to find a husband. In a sense,
this informal education that Jane is gaining through her independent reading is self-forming her
education and taking her mental growth into her own hands. For Jane, reading is both an internal
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and external experience. She feels trapped physically in the internal space, so she is partaking in
an external and active activity of making the space her own.
In relation to the physical space that she is in while she is reading, Jane removes herself
physically from her oppressive surroundings, creating a different space within. Proof of Jane
altering the traditional bildungsroman is present in her redefining the setting within Gateshead.
During Jane’s time at Gateshead, she creates a pseudo-feministic space that she can make her
own. She finds herself in these masculine spaces, yet in order to find a space where she is also
comfortable, she recreates the space. The curtain, mentioned in the previous scene, separates
Jane from the rest of the room, as she engages in an activity that is fulfilling to her, but lacks
merit in her prescribed development as a woman. In relationship to the lack of education that
females were getting in this time, Elaine Showalter says, “feminine novelists had been deprived
of the language and the consciousness for such an enterprise, and obviously their deprivation
extended beyond Victoria’s reign and into the twentieth century” (78). This is extremely
important when understanding Brontë’s psychology in relation to the way that Jane views these
physical spaces that she inhabits. Because Brontë felt that she was herself being suppressed as an
intellectual, she gives Jane the power to do this freely in her own created space. The patriarchal
space that Jane is inhabiting, as well as the intellectual activity that she was taking part in, leads
Jane down a path where she defines this system by creating a separate space just for her. Within
this space she can not only be a woman, but can also partake in an activity that was frowned
upon by society. Because of this pseudo-feministic space that Jane creates for herself, she is
taking her intellectual growth into her own hands. She is creating a space in which she can read
and learn, outside of the patriarchal society that she lives in. What is interesting about this
argument, however, is that she remains inside. The space that she creates exists inside of this
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established structure, but Jane finds a way to tear this structure down and continues to forge her
own path.
At the beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to the idea that the physical space
acts as a form of punishment for Jane. As a result of an act of passion against her cousin, Jane is
sentenced to a night in the red-room where she will consider the consequences of her actions
against John Reed. An imposing description of the red-room is given to the reader through the
constant over usage of the color red. While the room is dominated by the color of sin and
passion, and perhaps blood, in the corner of the room is a small white, cushioned chair that
almost goes unnoticed (Brontë 11). Jane tells the reader that she thought of it as a “pale throne”
(Brontë 11). This setting holds an immense amount of hate and passionate anger due to the
presence of the color red in the entire room, but there is one small white or pure object. It can be
argued that this is the first time that Jane notices this oppressive system that is restraining her, as
she pays attention to the pure details rather than the overwhelming red, or the violence and
oppressive nature in her life. Because the purity in the room is almost unnoticed by Jane, it can
be argued that the passion and anger that Jane felt toward John and her inability to respond
without consequence is the real punishment. Beth Tressler states:
John's attempt to discipline Jane has the opposite effect. Instead of controlling Jane, he
turns Jane into the typical patient envisioned by more managers. His vicious attack incites
Jane's mania, showing how Brontë sets up Jane's struggle with John to act out the internal
struggle that traditional moral management produces. (9)
While Tessler’s argument makes sense in the physical reaction of Jane, the effect of this form of
punishment is not mania, but epiphany. Jane recognizes the system that is restraining her for the
first time and contemplates what she can do to escape. This room that is intended to act as a
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punishment, reinforces that the real punishment is the imprisonment in general both in a physical
and metaphorical sense.
While Jane’s movement outside of these patriarchal spaces acts as a rebirth of sorts by
removing her and exposing her to new experiences, the journey only brings her back to these
patriarchal spaces, with different characteristics of setting and the a different individual
oppressor. As Jane makes her way from these internal spaces and out into the world, there is a
sense of rebirth as she should begin to find herself outside of these institutions. However, Jane is
carried from one dominant oppressor to the next as she changes her physical location. It has been
said that:
Gateshead is appropriately named for Jane's beginning since it combines the idea of a
threshold, a passing out through the “gates,” with that of birth (head first)…Jane is
fundamentally a nomad—an orphan with no roots and little knowledge of her beginnings.
It is this that inspires her archetypically Victorian search for identity: Jane is ejected (like
her mythical grandparents) beyond the “gates” into the wide unknown. (Berg 34)
While it is important to recognize that Jane leaves in the morning, and the change from darkness
to light symbolizes a change for Jane has she escapes her patriarchal home, it is also important to
understand that this is not, as the critic suggests, an archetypal search for identity. This
movement away from the home, and from the system that oppresses Jane, is done in a way that
brings her into another patriarchal system. As Jane is traveling to Lowood, she is traveling in a
coach directed by a man. Jane states that she had “no appetite” and was “mortally apprehensive
of someone coming in and kidnapping [her]” (Brontë 35). Jane realizes that, while she has left
one oppressive system, she has not escaped the oppression that she feels as a woman, as she is
still living in fear of the dominating male presence all around her. She refers to herself during
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this time as a commodity that is being “stowed away.” While this movement away from
Gateshead should be a liberating experience for Jane, she is aware of what is to come for her.
While Jane is still finding mobility as a woman, it is not complete liberation as the modern reader
may want for her. She is finding her own bildungsroman within the same confines that society
gives her, even when moving outside of the internal space. Jane is learning to tailor these
situations to increase her own happiness.
As Jane moves toward her life as a wife, her feelings of restlessness continue as she
resides in the domestic sphere, even when faced with the life she had thought she wanted. At
Thornfield, Jane remains in the house as Rochester is away tending to business (Brontë 235).
Jane maintains a clean home recognizing that “Mr. Rochester would like to see a cheerful hearth
when he came in” (Brontë 236). As Jane sits in the home, preparing for her soon-to-be husband
to return, lighting struck the beautiful tree outside of the residence (Brontë 235). Nature around
Thornfield seems to be foreshadowing the path that Jane is about to take by entering into the
formal patriarchal institution of marriage. Brontë writes, “The wind fell, for a second, round
Thornfield; but far away over wood and water, poured a wild, melancholy wail: it was sad to
listen to, and I ran off again” (236). However, it is interesting to note that the external
environment, which in the case of female liberation from the domestic sphere would be the place
that Jane would want to travel, seems more inhospitable than the interior space that Jane is
inhabiting as a potential wife. The modern reader would want Jane to realize the lightning
striking the tree outside as an example of foreshadowing of the marriage into which she is about
to enter. In this scene, the binary is foreshadowed and introduced to the readers as a gradual
process, rather than giving Jane the stark reality. At this point in the novel, Jane is still unaware
of Bertha and therefore unaware of the difficult decision that she will have to make in terms of
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her marriage. However, the binary is present in her choices within this situation. Either she
remains in the domestic sphere, or she leaves the home, physically and metaphorically entering
the wild and potentially dangerous unknown.
Revising Speech
As there is a stark difference between the physical spaces that Jane lives in and those that
she creates for herself where self-expression and desires are valued, the same is true with the
speech that Jane presents to the reader. Throughout the story, Jane’s growth is questioned by
Brontë’s focus on the detrimental effects of containing emotions. Jane continues to conform to
what society is expecting from her, and because of this, she travels farther away from her
authentic self. However, through the telling of her story, Jane is able to find her own voice and
share it. Contrasting to the differences between the physical internal and external, there is also a
dichotomy between Jane’s mental state being internal and external. While Jane spends her night
in the red-room, she is woken with an apothecary in her room waiting to examine her (Brontë
15). Jane is very confused about why this man is in her room, since she is not feeling ill. Bessie
responds to her confusion saying, “You fell sick, I suppose, in the red-room with crying; you’ll
be better soon, no doubt” (Brontë 15). There is a confusion between the effects that being in the
red-room has caused. What manifests as crying or the internal thoughts and feelings being
expressed, was misinterpreted as a physical sickness. As a Victorian woman, Jane is expected to
suppress her own thoughts and keep everything trapped inside. However, there are moments
where Jane’s inner thoughts or emotions are manifested in other characters. The reader can
understand these manifestations of Jane’s frustrations at not being able to hold up this definition
of the woman that she is supposed to be as being ultimately destructive.
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As Jane grows throughout the story and transitions to new places all offering new
experiences, Brontë critiques the idea that society holds of a Victorian woman and the standards
she is to live up to. As Jane grows, she becomes more destructive as a silent figure than she does
when she is fully expressive. Schor states:
What are we to do with the oddity of Charlotte Brontë's portrait of a midcentury woman
of independence, one whose quest for love and desire for autonomy put her in conflict
with most of the conventional thinking of her age, but whose outspoken statements of
spirit and perversity (a word that other characters love to use about Jane) instead helped
shape a very different midcentury discourse of feminism? (177)
Through Jane’s experiences, Brontë creates her own image of what a woman should be in this
time, through the development of Jane’s character. As the novel progresses, there is a gradual
shift and a realization by Jane of the person that society wants her to be, in contrast to her own
self-perception and what she wants for her life. The way this is shown is through a combination
of symbols resulting in a very obvious binary opposition between the internal and external. For
Jane, this dichotomy is represented both in the physical sense as well as being presented mentally
as her suppressed feelings are manifested in others. These manifestations result in destructive
behavior as Jane learns what it means to translate her thoughts into a narrative or a more
controlled story.
Because of Jane’s removal from the physical world that she lives in, she often has a
distorted sense of reality. As Jane is physically trapped in the red-room, she begins to have
delusions about what she is experiencing, which in turn distorts her reality. Jane was locked in
the red-room stating that “no jail was ever more secure” (Brontë 11). This imprisonment forces
her into a mental state that is removed from the physical space, and forces her into a delusional
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state of mind. Through Jane’s internal conflict that the reader is exposed to, she is expecting
while she is in the red-room for her deceased uncle to return from the dead to avenge her
oppression (Brontë 13). The thoughts of her uncle returning at first excite Jane, that she would
have a hero to enter and rescue her, but she began to panic when her experience began to take a
different path. She states:
I can now conjecture readily that this streak of light [that passed the window] was, in all
likelihood, a gleam from a lantern, carried by some one across the lawn: but then,
prepared as my mind was for horror, shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the
swift-darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world. (Brontë 1314)
Following this delusional realization, Jane begins to pull on the door of the red-room, desperately
trying to escape (Brontë 14). Through this scene, it is clear that the physical space that Jane
inhabits and the reminders of her deceased uncle push her toward her delusional state. She is
unable to escape this place physically, therefore her mind is also restrained, and unable to
wander. This scene ultimately presents the idea to the reader that Jane has changed throughout
her life, as the narrative voice in this section is reflective. Jane clarifies for the reader that this
was an experience that she had when she was a child, that she has since realized was a
dramatization of a normal experience. Showalter states, “the verbal range permitted to English
gentle-women amounted almost to a special language. The verbal inhibitions that were part of
the upbringing of a lady were reinforced by the critics’ vigilance” (76). While Showalter is
arguing that there is a sense of censoring of thoughts throughout a woman’s life, this changes
with Jane. She is recognizing the limits that this situation pushed her too, and has showed her
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growth beyond. This example of growth shows that Jane understands the oppression that she has
experienced, but learns and grows from it, rather than letting it define her.
At the beginning, Jane speaks out against John Reed, which is her first instance of her
disobedience as a Victorian woman. As she is reading in her created space, John Reed torments
her for being a burden to the family and that she has no business reading since it will not benefit
her in any way (Brontë 8). The first time that Jane speaks what she is feeling inside, it is paired
with a violent outburst. This is proof that not only does Jane not understand, as a Victorian
woman should, that controlling your emotions is essential to the fulfillment of these womanly
tasks, but she also is so out of touch with her inner emotions that any form of expressing them is
paired with violence. The opposition, in this case, is Brontë highlighting that while Jane should
find her voice and stand up to her oppressor, it is going to be a process due to the fact that up
until this point in her life, she has always been oppressed.
The reader is exposed to a physical manifestation of the way that Jane is feeling in
several ways throughout the novel, all coming from different sources rather than her speaking in
the moment. One of the first instances of Jane’s own personal thoughts being manifested in a
physical form is the other women that represent different forms of her identity. During her time
at Lowood, Jane meets a girl, Helen Burns, who acts a representation of the ideal Victorian
woman. Helen disobeys the authority within Lowood, and is forced to stand in the middle of the
classroom as her form of punishment (Brontë 43). While observing Helen receive her
punishment, Jane says, “I expected she would show signs of great distress and shame; but to my
surprise she neither wept nor blushed: composed, though grave, she stood, the central mark of all
eyes. ‘How can she bear it so quietly—so firmly?’ I asked of myself” (Brontë 43). Through
Jane’s confusion about Helen’s reaction, the reader can assume that Jane is presented with this
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act of true Victorian womanhood, and is confused by this. Jane confronts Helen about her
reaction to her public humiliation, by comparing it to her own experience saying that she “could
not bear it” (Brontë 47). Helen responds by explaining to Jane by saying, “Yet it would be your
duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is
your fate to be required to bear” (Brontë 47). Through this response, Helen has a very clear
image of what it means to be a Victorian woman, while Jane is unaware of what it will take to be
a Victorian woman. As Helen gets progressively ill, she says to Jane, “by dying young, I shall
escape great sufferings” (Brontë 69). While this could be viewed as a foreshadowing of Helen’s
untimely death, it is also an indication of suffering that is coming for Jane. Helen presents the
binary opposition between the thoughts and speech that is suppressed and kept internal is
essentially detrimental to the existence of women. When discussing the silence that is present in
Jane Eyre, Janet Freeman says, “words have power, in Jane Eyre. They also bestow power. They
are the instrument by which Jane Eyre learns to understand and master the world” (690).
Freeman argues that, through Jane’s view of these individuals who are speaking up and making
their voice be heard, she is learning more about what it means to be a member of society. Even
further, she understands what it means to be a woman. When the reader looks at Helen as a
representation of a Victorian woman, and what Jane should aspire to be, the reader understands
the destructive nature of this behavior. Helen presents the idea that death would be preferable to
remaining silent as a Victorian woman.
Jane’s bildungsroman is also challenged when faced with Bertha and the questions
determining Jane’s future that Bertha represents in her madness. The instances of passion
produced by Bertha: the mad woman trapped above the “civilized” people in the house, present
an alternative for Jane. While it is hard to ignore the fact that this crazed woman reigns above the
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rest of the household in a position that is seemingly more powerful than the rest of the
inhabitants, this image of this crazed woman is a representation of Jane’s suppressed feelings as
she is becoming this sought-after Victorian woman. In one of Jane’s first encounters with Bertha
she “removed [her] veil from its gaunt head, rent it in two parts, and flinging both on the floor,
trampled on them” (Brontë 242). The veil, a symbol of Jane’s marriage, is destroyed by Bertha in
an act of madness. It is clear that Bertha has very strong opinions about the structure and
institution of marriage and what it does to the future growth of women. If the reader understands
Bertha as a potential future for Jane, then the symbol is brought to life as Bertha is an example to
Jane of what could be her life if she marries Rochester.
If Brontë writes Bertha into the novel as an outlet for Jane and` her emotions, she also
adds the perforation of society through Rochester’s reaction to Jane meeting Bertha when he
says, “that is my wife…And this is what I wished to have…this young girl, who stands so grave
and quiet at the mouth of hell, looking collectedly at the gambols of a demon” (Brontë 251).
Brontë uses the descriptions of Bertha to not only contrast Jane’s hidden emotions, but to also
highlight society’s view on women expressing their savage or uncontrolled emotions.
This refinement in Jane’s silence is then challenged by the presence of Bertha and the
argument that she is also a manifestation of Jane’s inner turmoil. Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan
Gubar write, “Jane's anomalous, orphaned position in society, her enclosure in stultifying roles
and houses, and her attempts to escape through flight, starvation, and-in a sense which will be
explained—madness” (341). Gilbert and Gubar’s argument states that the culmination of
oppression in Jane’s life would result in madness. However, for the Victorian reader, this idea
would be too shocking for a woman who is prospecting marriage like Jane is. Brontë then
transfers this madness to a wild and untamed character that has progressed into this state of
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madness because of her “over-stimulated brain” (Brontë 242). As Jane is often presented to the
reader as reading or acting as a governess, the reader can make the assumption that through
Jane’s overstimulated mind and the oppression that she faces, an alternative vision of her future
could align with Bertha. After encountering Bertha, Jane is again presented with the binary
opposition of internal and external. This choice will either progress her bildungsroman or stifle it
based on the societial influences that she has experienced.
Because of Bertha, Jane realizes that she can either make her internal thoughts public,
ultimately letting the oppression influence her resulting in madness, or she is able to remain in a
romantic relationship with Rochester, ultimately leading her into the domestic sphere or the
internal space. As Rochester presents the idea to Jane of being his mistress, just as before when
she is receiving her punishment at Lowood, Jane “steadies” herself and responds, “All is changed
about me, sir; I must change too—there is no doubt of that; and to avoid fluctuations of feeling,
and continual combats with recollections and associations, there is only one way—Adele must
have a new governess, sir” (Brontë 256). While Jane indicates that her emotions and reactions to
passionate situations must be controlled, the reader is exposed to a different outlet for Jane’s
uncontrollable feelings. She feels her only option is to no longer constrain these feelings, but
rather escape the situation in which she feels them. Freeman writes, “Spoken words, whatever
language they come from, surround Jane Eyre every moment of her waking life – even her
dreams, even her most private thoughts, speak. Spoken words carry with them the only truth Jane
will ever know: the truth of her own self-assertion” (692-693). By stating out loud that she has
changed and that she is choosing a life of her own, Jane is removing the power from the
patriarchy and placing the real power in her newly found and steadied voice, rather than the male
figure.
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……
Jane was given the opportunity to pursue several different paths of life, however she
chose marriage with Rochester. She chose to have a life within the domestic and internal sphere.
She realizes that a life with Rochester is flawed, and is not the ideal marriage. Jane conforms to
the characteristics of a true Victorian woman’s lifestyle, but in a way that makes it her own
decision. As she is faced with other options of her life’s path, she chooses what she believes is
best for her. She found her place, and her voice.
When looking at the patterns that are present in Jane Eyre and the culmination of her
story itself, Jane has achieved the revised bildungsroman that she has been searching for. The
binary opposition that Jane faces throughout the novel culminates in Jane choosing her own story
and being able to articulate it to the reader. Beginning the conclusive chapter Jane states,
“Reader, I married him” (Brontë 382). This is the perfect culmination of Jane’s story as she both
finds her place spatially as well as her personal voice. Jane, as presented with several different
options but chooses to marry Rochester. She also finds her voice in the definitive nonquestioning fact that she has made the decision to marry Rochester. She sees an opportunity for
love and protection in her life, and she takes advantage of the situation. She recreates them in a
way that excites transformation both internally and externally as she finds her place in society
and her voice as a woman. As she transitions from place to place, Jane learns something new
about what it means to be a woman in the Victorian period.
There is much to learn about Jane and her progress into true womanhood. There are paths
that society paves, which may or may not be the best personal experience. However, the process
of making these life decisions is what is important. As Jane states, “…I remembered that the real
world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements,
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awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life
amidst its perils” (Brontë 72). There is an expansive world beyond the structures imposed by
society. However, the true meanings of these structures are created by society, and therefore are
unstable. Jane disagrees. Jane would rather experience the wide world, and make the choice then,
and only then.
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Works Cited
Abrams, M. H. "Structuralist Criticism." A Glossary Of Lliterary Terms. 7th ed. Fort Worth:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College, 1993. 300-03. Print.
Berg, Maggie. "Gateshead: Out of the Garden." Jane Eyre: Portrait of Life. Boston: Twayne,
1987. 32-43. Twayne's Masterwork Studies 10. Twayne's Authors on GVRL. Web. 6
Nov. 2015.
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. Print.
Ellis, Lorna. "Jane Eyre and the Self-Constructed Heroine." Appearing to Diminish: Female
Development and the British Bildungsroman, 1750-1850. London: Associated University
Presses, 1999. 138-161. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Russel
Whitaker. Vol. 152. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
Foster, Shirley. "Charlotte Brontë: A Vision of Duality." Victorian Women's Fiction: Marriage,
Freedom, and the Individual. Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble, 1985. 71-109. Print.
Freeman, Janet H. "Speech and Silence in Jane Eyre." Studies in English Literature 15001900.Vol. 24, No. 4, Nineteenth Century (1984): 683-700. JSTOR. Web. 10 Sept. 2015.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman In The Attic : The Woman Writer And
The Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 6 Nov. 2015.
Honig, Edith Lazaros. "Girls: Breaking the Angelic Image." Breaking the Angelic Image:
Woman Power in Victorian Children's Fantasy. New York: Greenwood, 1988. 65-109.
Print.
Maynard, John R. "The Bildungsroman." A Companion to the Victorian Novel. Ed. Patrick
Brantlinger and William B. Thesing. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2002. 279-301. Print.
McKeon, Michael. The Secret History Of Domesticity : Public, Private, And The Division Of
Knowledge. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. eBook Collection
(EBSCOhost). Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Schor, Hilary M. "Gender Politics and Women's Rights." A Companion to the Victorian Novel.
Ed. Patrick Brantlinger and William B. Thesing. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2002. 172-88.
Print.
Showalter, Elaine. "A Literature of Their Own: British Novelists from Bronte to Lessing." The
Victorian Novel. Ed. Francis O'Gorman. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Pub., 2002. 71-85. Print.
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Tressler, Beth. "Illegible minds: Charlotte Brontë's early writings and the psychology of moral
management in Jane Eyre and Villette." Studies in the Novel 47.1 (2015): 1+. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 16 Sept. 2015.
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Capstone Reflection Essay
With the stigma that is attached to Capstone and all the work that it entails, it is easy to be
overwhelmed by the process. The project begins to consume your life leading to dreams about
Jane Eyre, and scattered notes about Bertha written in moments of clarity. Other times, this
amount of focus was not as easy. Forced moments of focus often overtook my evenings. It took
hours to reign in my focus, but when I did, the productivity was excellent. However, the best
thing that I found to help that finding solace in the little things, like studying Anne Lamott were
most important to the quality of work that I was producing. Just one critic at a time, or one
paragraph per day, and the work-load seemed much more manageable.
Lamotte says at the beginning of her guide to writing, Bird by Bird:
And often the right words do come, and you—well—“write” for a while; you put
a lot of thoughts down on paper. But the bad news is that if you’re at all like me,
you’ll probably read over what you’ve written and spend the rest of the day
obsessing, and praying that you do not die before you can completely rewrite or
destroy what you have written, lest the eagerly waiting world learn how bad your
first drafts are. (Lamott 8).
I eventually found the words. It took several drafts, and maybe a few tears for me to finally say
that my senior capstone project is finished. The words of Charlotte Brontë has brought Jane’s
story to life. The magic that Brontë, and so many other before and after her, produces on paper
and her ability to bring her character’s story to life is something that not all appreciate, but all
definitely should.
My English major, culminating in this capstone paper, has taught me an unmeasurable
amount. Being able to transport myself to places and times that are unable to be experienced by
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others is a skill that I feel I have fully developed over the three and a half years that I have
studied English Literature. In my final paper, I have analyzed the way in which Jane creates her
own story. I, too, have created my own story. All of the books and all of the papers have pushed
me to be a better person, and to be a better contributor of society. The different stories I read
about character’s lives and the problems that they face, allow me to return to reality with a wider
and more holistic perspective of the world, and continue to tell their story. Literature allows me
to step away from the reality, and take a look at the world from a distance.
As Brontë found the words to create, I have found the words to keep creating. I have
spent hours in the library creating a new way to explain Jane’s story. Through my study of
English Literature, I have learned what it means to keep things alive. Writing about Jane’s
bildungsroman, I have too thought about my own. While my English major has taught me
several life-skills, it’s the application of these skills which will prove the person that I will be.
Learning about Withering Heights and Eavan Boland’s poetry taught me different approaches to
life, and now I must learn to take these different ways of life, and make them my own.
My own story that is still being written, and has many internal and external oppositions.
Through the revival of Jane’s story and appreciating these obstacles that she has overcome as a
woman, I am excited to see what is to come after graduation. Outside of Loras College, who will
I be? I guess that question has yet to be answered, but at least I’ll have Jane there with me.
Creating a story of our own.