Background Information
for
Jane Eyre
By
Charlotte Bronte
1
THE NOVEL
•Published in
October 1847
•During the
Industrial
Revolution
•A novel of the
Victorian Age
2
Victorian England
• Queen Victoria – reigned
from 1837-1901
• Industrial Revolution –
new urbanization caused
overcrowding and
insanitary conditions
• Queen Victoria strove to
improve conditions in
urban slums and break
the cycle of poverty
• Limited rights for women:
divorce, property,
guardianship, etc.
3
Female Education
• Became fashionable to
educate women, but only
the very wealthy could
afford to send their
daughters to elite schools
• Less costly schools were
formed by well-meaning
benefactors to educate
poor females.
• Illness was common –no
clear understanding of
the relationship between
dirt & disease
• With the new stress on
female education,
governesses were in
demand to educate
young ladies in the
home.
• Pay was poor, but it was
one of the only jobs
available to educated, yet
impoverished young
women
4
Role of the governess
• Employers & other
servants shunned the
governess because they
felt she was “putting on
airs.”
• Her employers would
ignore her, too, because
she had a superior
education, which
intimidated many
people.
5
Charlotte Bronte
• Born of Irish ancestry in
1816 in Yorkshire,
England
•Lived at Haworth, a
parsonage
•Mother died of cancer when Charlotte was 5 years old.
6
The Bronte family
• Charlotte had 4 sisters
and 1 brother.
• While at the Clergy
Daughters’ School,
her 2 older sisters
(Maria & Elizabeth)
contracted
tuberculosis and died
at home
7
Talented Family
• Charlotte, Emily, and Anne became authors,
publishing under male pen names: Currer, Ellis,
and Acton Bell
• Emily wrote Wuthering Heights and Anne wrote
Agnes Grey
• Charlotte’s brother, Branwell, was a gifted painter.
8
Marriage and Death
• In 1854 She marries her
father's curate, Arthur Bell
Nichols, after failing to
find “true love.”
• The next year, she
became pregnant, then ill.
• She died a month before
her 39th birthday –
probably of tuberculosis
9
A ground breaking novel
Why?
1. The heroine is small, plain, & poor
2. The heroine is the first female character to claim
the right to feel strongly about her emotions and
act on her convictions
3. This romantic ground had previously been
reserved for males
4. Such a psychologically complex heroine had
never been created before
10
Jane Eyre – many books in one
• Autobiography
• Fairy Tale
• Bildungsroman/Quest
• Marriage Plot
• Gothic novel
11
Autobiography
• Originally titled Jane
Eyre: An Autobiography
• Due to her upbringing,
she often wrote about
religious hypocrisy
• The Clergy Daughters’
School became a model
for Lowood Institution
in the novel
12
More Autobiographical Details
• Jane’s friend dies of tuberculosis contracted
at school
• Mr. Brocklehurst modeled on own
reverend at school, Carus Wilson
• Fate of John Reed, Jane’s cousin, closely
parallels Branwell Bronte’s struggle with
alcohol and heroin addictions
• Bronte taught at a girls school and later
became a governess – as Jane does in the
13
novel
Fairy Tale Plot
• Cinderella – Orphan
girl with heart of gold
abused by wicked
stepmother and
stepsisters gets her
chance to meet a
prince and prove her
superiority
14
Alternate Fairy Tale
• Beauty and the Beastyoung, innocent girl
tames the dangerous
beast and releases him
from his life of misery
15
Bildungsroman
• Also known as
“coming of age” and
“quest” stories
• Deals with the growth
and education of the
protagonist
• A journey to selfrealization and
independence
• Often includes the
orphan archetype
• Examples are: Great
Expectations, The
Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, A
Separate Peace,
Catcher in the Rye
16
Marriage Plot
• 19th c. women’s fiction often sets aside the
bildungsroman plot by either getting
married or dying (DuPlessis)
• 19th c. women’s fiction often shows that
through marriage, women and men develop
individually by merging gender roles
• Ex: Emma, Little Women, Middlemarch,
Pride and Prejudice
17
Gothic Elements
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Dark Romanticism”
Mystery
Haunted castle or house
Dreaming and nightmares
Doppleganger or alter ego
Physical imprisonment
Psychological entrapment
Involvement of the supernatural
“Distressed Heroine” – female
protagonist pursued and
persecuted by a villainous
patriarchal figure in unknown
landscape
18
Byronic Hero
• This term is created by
the famous poet George
Gordon, Lord Byron.
• Characteristics are…
– Proud
– Gloomy
– Mysterious
– Passionate
*Mr. Rochester is an example of
this type
19