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Kalyn Lewis, #7332
Dr. Whit Jones
ENG 495
May 7, 2014
Feminine Equality and Alter Egos: A Feminist Criticism of Jane Eyre
From the beginning of time, it seems, women have had a desire for equality with males.
Women have always desired a change in the world in which they lived. They desired a world in
which men and women stood on equal footing, in which women, whether rich or poor, had the
same opportunities as the other, in which, to borrow the words of Sandra Gilbert, “the prince and
Cinderella are democratically equal, Pamela is just as good as Mr. B., master and servant are
profoundly alike” (487). For women, the word feminism meant hope and freedom: hope that they
would be looked on as equal with, and more than a subordinate to, their man, hope that all
women, whether rich or poor, would be afforded the same chances, and freedom from the
restricting, “traditional” role of the woman as housewife and mother, without a career or pastime
outside of caring for a husband and children. While the roles of both a wife and mother can be
rewarding, these females believed that they had a right to be on equal footing with men, that they
had a right to even be equal with other women, no matter the state of their finances, and the right
to have the same opportunities that men had, such as going to college, having a job outside of the
home, and even having the same opportunities as men to enter politics and the like.
Ross Murfin, in “What is Feminist Criticism?”, discusses feminists’ arguments of women
being more than just female: “while all women are female, they are something else as well (such
as African-American, lesbian, Muslim Pakistani). This ‘something else’ is precisely what makes
them, their problems, and their goals different from those of other women” (464). Though all
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women were expected to do the usual wife-and-mother roles during this time, and some women
were contented with filling those traditional roles, not every woman desired that same life. All of
the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Anne, and Emily, are examples of this. Unmarried at the time, and
writers to boot, these three women defied the societal norms that were placed upon women in the
1800s. Charlotte, especially, defied those norms by more than just remaining a spinster writer for
most of her life; she also incorporated her defiance of the normal roles of women into her novel
Jane Eyre. After several publications in the 1900s, Murfin describes a shift in feminist criticism
that has resulted in a renewed interest in women’s autobiographical works. This shift is the result
of “the understanding of woman not as a single, deterministic category but rather as the nexus of
diverse experiences” (465). This shift, though after her time, seems to be captured by Brontë into
her novel as autobiographical desires; Jane seems to be the ideal independent woman, whom
Brontë possibly wishes she could be.
The feminist desire found in Brontë’s Jane Eyre, in which is found Brontë’s idealized
world, where a man of means and a low-status servant girl can find equal footing together
through their love, where a wealthy woman and the same servant girl can have an identical inner
self running through their respective veins, shows a bold, insolent stand for the plight of
suppressed women. Brontë, seemingly unsatisfied with the stuffy, traditional view of women as
mere housewives and mothers, creates within her novel a spirit of unrest towards that traditional
view and depicts a new society where such equality, between upper-class men and lower-class
women, as well as upper and lower-class women, is possible. Through the lens of feminist critic
Sandra M. Gilbert, two main feminist topics emerge from the much-read and studied pages of
Jane Eyre: Jane’s equality with her master, the love of her life, against all seeming odds and that
of a separate female soul found compatible with Jane – her “double self.”
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The first sign of feminism within Jane Eyre is Jane’s desire for equality with Rochester,
according to Gilbert. This equality that Jane strives for seems to show Brontë’s disdain for the
masculine-controlled world, which is what Rochester is described as: “the very essence of
patriarchal energy.” From their very first meeting, they begin their relationship “as spiritual
equals” even though they really are master and servant. Gilbert firstly asserts their equality
through the “powers” they hold over each other. Just before her first glance of Rochester, Jane is
overcome with the vision of “a North-of-England spirit called a ‘Gytrash’” that haunts silent
roads and late-night travelers such as herself “in the form of horse, mule, or large dog” (119,
emphasis mine). This mythological vision, according to Gilbert, acknowledges Rochester’s male
powers over Jane before they had even met. Though Rochester is the epitome of a masculine
male, he falls off his horse in front of Jane and playfully accuses her of having “bewitched my
horse” (128). This statement acknowledges Jane’s powers over him, maybe more than her vision
acknowledged his powers (485). Another way these two are equal is through a critic of her art,
which is the window to her soul. As “the only qualified critic of her art and soul,” Rochester
demonstrates his awareness of Jane’s Byronic leanings by showing interest in her pictures.
Rochester’s accounts of his time with Céline demonstrate his view of being on equal
terms with Jane even though it was very improper and undignified at the time to discuss such
personal matters with an unmarried virgin woman, especially being the sexually-experienced
man that he was. Again, as Rochester’s equal, Jane is the only young woman at Thornfield that is
not deceived by his gypsy costume. Rochester’s failed deception, as Gilbert asserts, illustrates
Rochester’s ability to look past “plain Jane the governess” to who she really is, as well as Jane’s
ability to look past the gypsy Rochester, even past “Rochester the master of Thornfield” to the
real person inside of him (486-487). Finally, one last way that Brontë displays Rochester and
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Jane’s equality is through their awareness of it at the scene of their betrothal. In her passionate
words to Rochester, Jane asserts, “it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had
passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet equal, - as we are!” (252). “My bride is
here,” Rochester later confesses to Jane, “because my equal is here, and my likeness.” (253).
This equality of the hearts and souls of Rochester and Jane demonstrates the equality between a
male and female, master and servant, Cinderella and the prince, and Pamela and Mr. B, from
Gilbert’s perspective. Though this sort of equality did not exist in 1847 when Jane Eyre was
published, it did exist in the world that Brontë created, and much to the delight of Brontë, in the
words of Gilbert, “to the marriage of true minds, it seems, no man or woman can admit
impediment” (487).
Yet, there is an impediment to this marriage, and it is much more than Rochester already
being married. The remaining impediment lies in the fact that Jane, though reaching a spiritual
equality with Rochester, does not achieve a true physical equality with him until after he is
mutilated. Though he was dependent on her at their first meeting, when she helped him after he
fell off his horse, she was the one dependent on him from then on. Jane herself even admits this,
when during a powerful, emotional statement to Rochester, she says, “if God had gifted me with
some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now
for me to leave you” (252). Jane, as a poor, plain female, must depend on Rochester while at
Thornfield, for as master, he is the one that provides her pay and her shelter. Thus, the decision
to leave is hard for her, not only because she depends on him for her physical needs, but she also
depends on him for her emotional needs as well. It is after leaving Rochester and Thornfield that
Bertha burns Thornfield to the ground, injuring Rochester. Now, after Rochester loses a hand
and an eye in the fire, now the two are on equivalent footing for all time, as Rochester now must
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depend on Jane. It is now, Gilbert says, that all of the impediments from Rochester and Jane’s
marriage of true minds have been removed, and they are free to marry (498).
Another hint of feminism within Jane Eyre is the revelation of Jane’s double self. After
the red-room incident, where Jane, locked into the room where her beloved uncle died, fears she
sees a ghost and faints, Gilbert bases all of Jane’s intermittent troubles on what happened in the
red-room because during all of Jane’s troubling events – such as the humiliation at Lowood at
the hands of Brockelhurst, and the decision to leave Rochester and Thornfield – she remembers
the red-room incident (477). The red-room has become the epitome of trouble in Jane’s life. For,
according to Gilbert, not only did Jane faint because she feared her uncle’s ghost, but she fainted
because she recognized the double self that lay within her (476-477). Later, that double self is
identified in the person of Bertha Mason Rochester, Jane’s beloved fiancé’s insane wife. Though
these two women seem very different at the first, mainly because of Bertha’s madness but also
because of her once-great beauty compared to Jane’s plainness, Gilbert reveals that these two
women in Rochester’s life are not so very different at all. Bertha’s madness is likened unto the
fierce, fiery wrath that has been building in Jane since her mistreatment at the hands of the Reed
family (492).
Gilbert asserts that Jane and Bertha are again seen as a double image through Jane’s
imaginings turning into Bertha’s actions. Jane imagines ripping the veil that defines “Jane
Rochester” in half; Bertha accomplishes this for her in the middle of the night. Jane, nervous
about her impending wedding day, longs to postpone it; Bertha does this for her through the
revelation of Bertha as Rochester’s legal wife. Jane, resentful of Rochester, wishes to be akin to
him in size and strength in order to fight against him for their marriage; Bertha, as “a big woman,
in stature almost equaling her husband” with enough “virile force” that she “more than
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once…almost throttled him, athletic as he was” (290), definitely has the size and demeanor to
fight against her husband. Gilbert asserts that because of Bertha’s actions fulfilling Jane’s
desires, Bertha is “Jane’s truest and darkest double: the angry aspect of the orphan child, the
ferocious secret self Jane has been trying to suppress since her days at Gateshead” (492). Though
she might be Jane’s double self, at this point in the novel Bertha has the upper hand over Jane –
after all, though mad, she is legally Rochester’s rightful wife, which is the title that Jane wants,
despite her initial reservations. In the end, however, Jane has the upper hand because Rochester
chooses her for love while he chose Bertha for wealth, sex, and success – everything but love.
Though Gilbert does not stretch the details of the novel in order to make her points, she
also leaves some important details out. As a feminist critic, she sees the novel through her
worldview; she, of course, is a major proponent for woman while putting down man. And while
most of the men in Jane’s life, such as John Reed, Mr. Brockelhurst, and even Rochester to some
extent, let her down and make life harder for her, Jane’s biggest criticizer and antagonist lies in
Mrs. Reed. Gilbert fails to mention the terrors Mrs. Reed put Jane through as a young, orphaned
little girl. Besides ignoring the bullying her son puts Jane through, Mrs. Reed takes pleasure in
reminding Jane of her place: when Jane questions her place as a servant in the household, Mrs.
Reed insolently remarks, “No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep”
(24). Even after Jane, scared senseless in the red-room by an imagined ghost, screams for help,
screams for mercy, all Mrs. Reed can say is, “I abhor artifice, particularly in children; it is my
duty to show you that tricks will not answer. . .This violence [Jane’s frantic cries] is all most
repulsive” (30). It is this incident in the red-room, this terror, fear, and panic Jane feels, that
haunts her for many years to come. Even after verbally abusing this child, Mrs. Reed goes so far
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as to tell a stranger, Mr. Brockelhurst, that Jane’s worst fault is a tendency to lie and deceive
others – when it is Mrs. Reed herself who is being deceitful! (44).
Another detail Gilbert leaves out that has great importance is the Biblical truths placed
within the pages of this novel. While Jane Eyre gives Jane’s physical journey through life, it also
represents her spiritual journey. And while Jane does represent a more independent woman than
the people during Brontë’s time were accustomed to, she also meets the Biblical requirement to
flee fornication (1 Cor 6:18)1 and marry a godly man (Gen 2:18). She is tempted to disregard the
above admonition to stay away from fornication when Rochester asks her to run away with him
and be his mistress: “I was experiencing an ordeal: a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals.
Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning!” (311). In the midst of this horrible
struggle of deciding whether to go with the man she loved or to do the right thing and let him, a
married man, go, Jane can muster only one word, but it is enough to save her morality: “Depart!”
(311). A hard choice for anyone to make, Jane is able to put her desires aside, focus on what is
right and true, and make an excellent ethical decision. Jane also follows Scripture by marrying
Rochester; God does not desire to see anyone alone, as Adam was in the garden so He provides a
helper of the opposite sex. And, as commanded in 2 Corinthians 6:14, Jane marries a man who is
godly, and as equally spiritual as she is. Rochester does have his faults: he was deceitful about
his legal wife, while all along seducing Jane, and he offers to run away with Jane as his mistress.
Yet his loss of Jane, coupled with the loss of his hand and eye, cause him to turn to Christ. In a
powerful prayer to God after Jane accepts his proposal, Rochester says, “I thank my Maker, that
in the midst of judgment he has remembered mercy. I humbly entreat my Redeemer to give me
the strength to lead henceforth a purer life than I have done hitherto!” (437). Because of his
1
All Scripture references are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
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losses, Rochester has gained so much more: a new relationship with God and a better
relationship with Jane, his soon-to-be wife.
Gilbert attempts to stay faithful to the novel and does for the most part. Though her
arguments are clear, cogent, and somewhat supported by the novel, she misses a few details that
leave the reader with a whole new look at the intended meaning of Jane Eyre. Jane really is the
epitome of an independent woman, but she is also independent enough to know when she should
be dependent on someone else: God, overall, and her husband as well. From the feminist point of
view, Gilbert attempts to downgrade man and elevate woman; her article is reminiscent of the
typical “I am woman; hear me roar” worldview. However, while Brontë may have intended Jane
to be idealized as an independent woman, I do not believe this is the main thing she wanted her
readers to pull from Jane’s life. The Biblical truths I have described, and more, are what I believe
Brontë intended for her readers to get from the novel. Gilbert, though articulating a well-written
article that does not take away from the novel, views the novel through her one-sided feminist
lens. She does not take the time, or simply does not care, to examine Jane Eyre in any other way
except feminism, and this school of critical thought misses the mark: Jane, though independent,
is strong enough to admit her weakness and place her full dependency on God, firstly, and the
love of her life, secondly. If she had remained a true feminist woman, she would have missed out
on an amazing spiritual relationship with her God and a wonderful relationship with her husband
and family. This recognition of her weakness and dependency does not reduce Jane’s femininity;
in fact, it strengthens her femininity and Jane herself because she is following God over a
feminist worldview.
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Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Newman 19-441.
Gilbert, Sandra M. “Plain Jane’s Progress.” Newman 475-501.
Murfin, Ross C. “What is Feminist Criticism?” Newman 459-75.
Newman, Beth, ed. Jane Eyre. By Charlotte Brontë. Case Studies in Contemporary Crtiticism.
New York: Bedford-St. Martin’s, 1996. Print.