how does bronte reveal her reactions to religion and class in victorian society through the narrative?

Question

This is from Jane Eyre!

Answer 1

"Jane Eyre," by Charlotte Bronte, is a typical Victorian novel engaging in many characteristics of things such as education, religion, and culture, which were focused upon at the time. Many characters are spread throughout the novel although it is the minor roles that keep the plot flowing. Jane is both inspired and put down by the minor characters, which helps her to become a more refined being. Even though these people are at a loss for dialogue purposes, they speak to great lengths in the ears of Jane.
At Gateshead, a man by the name of Brocklehurst, who was not only an "interrogator"(p.29) but also a large featured man, contributed to the plot by bringing the setting to Lowood. If Aunt Reed would have never brought him to see Jane, the story would have remained in the surroundings at Gateshead and the storyline would dwindle and not be as interesting. Once at Lowood for a long while, Jane was about to encounter yet another change in scenery, fore Adele in Thornfield Hall was in need for a governess. Little Adele, who is a ten-year old French girl, is the motive that Charlotte Bronte uses in order to bring her character, Jane, to this not yet accustomed dwelling. It is here where she meets Rochester. On the day of the wedding it was Mr. Richard Mason who helped to forward the everlasting episodes, having Jane move away once more to the Moor House. His sister, Bertha Mason, was the living soul that changed Jane's future plans by her being Rochester's wife already, and so the plot proceeds. At Moor House, a gothic and mysterious thing happens and Jane goes back to Thornfield, realizing that Mr. St. John Rivers is not the man she will marry. The late Mr. Rochester's butler who was a "respectable-looking, middle-aged man"(p.456) came into connection with Jane at the damaged site and continued to tell her where her beloved had gone. This is the final transaction that the plot foregoes because it is in Ferndean where the two reunite.

In the Victorian times, novels were often called autobiographies so that the people looking at it could think of it in more believable terms. "Jane Eyre" is diverse from some other novels written at the time because it keeps away from the long descriptions that were accustomed to. The dialogue in this period was very formal and precise. People that were going to schools to become educated in the 1800's could have probably related to the way that Charlotte Bronte depicted Mr. Brocklehurst's character at Lowood. He brought fourth the poor ways that the children had to learn by making Jane humiliated in front of her friends and by being uncaring to the pupils that die at the institution from various diseases. Religion was dominantly Christianity and it was believed, as it is now, that if goodness were a part of life, admirable things would happen when heaven was reached. St. John Rivers comes into this field as being the one who is very religious because he wishes to become a missionary.

Women had it unfavorable in this era because everything that was done was a duty, which they had no objections to. The males distinguished that it was not correct for a woman to know about politics so they were not permitted this luxury. Instead, good housewives were always needed. Smart women showed off their knowledge by playing the piano, singing, or reciting poetry. Jane is tortured and tormented by many of the men like Brocklehurst, John Reed, Mr. Lloyd, and Rochester. Aunt Reed also told her children that "she is not worthy of notice"(p.23). Her cousin, John Reed, makes her call him her master and punishes her for nothing and Mr. Lloyd calls her "a baby after all"(p.19), just to be mean to her. Rochester is rude to Jane because of his moods and takes his anger out on her verbally.

Jane is described as being a small and not very pretty person who grows up gathering morals from each destination and applying them to the way that she takes on her life. Although she starts out with a poor life, the tables turn and she is finally happy. Jane becomes better by becoming rich, married to a loving husband, and by having a baby, which she will most definitely give it everything that she was unable to have.

The minor characters all make major influences on Jane Eyre's life. If not for these characters, Jane's life would have been an unsure road of unknown fate which may or may not have been as fulfilling for her.
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Class:

A Marxist reading of Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was written during an era of strict moral standards and defined social class. Jane, the main character of the book, was set in a culturally indefinite social standing: that of a governess. Yet, through the book, she managed to find herself in other social standings; she rose from the lowly status of an orphan to a middle classed women earning her own wages as a governess, then to a rich women by inheritance. Despite her slow rise in social class throughout the book, she was still imprisoned by the social classes that confined her rank as a female, not just the rank of her wealth had earned her. This played a large part in her blooming relationship with an older and richer man, Mr. Rochester. This repression was caused mostly by the cultural standards set by the Victorian Era defined by the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. Women, sex, and religious deviance were heavily repressed. Women were seen as docile: being the victim of marriages and used only as social devices to please men. They were considered unreliable. They were shrugged off as passion driven opposed to using logic based on education or reason. Yet despite this, Jane Eyre is somehow different. The book represents the shift from the ancient feminist and social values. Jane had her own mind and values, which set her apart from other women in that era. She did not contradict Victorian values; she simply allowed a realistic conventional female perspective to the repressive time period. Jane Eyre was used by Charlotte Bronte to express morals that transcend Victorian values.

In the book, Jane uses morals and reason to make wise decisions. Because women weren’t seen as high as men in this era, this book debunks beliefs that all women are passion driven due to the amount of value and thought she sheds on most of her decisions. She is reliable and trustworthy, with more values than most of the other main male characters in the book. For example, Mr. Rochester had asked to marry Jane Eyre despite the fact that he was married to another women, though crazy. In this case, he had not used his best judgments in asking another woman to marry him due to the mistress status that Jane would have to undertake. Having such an illicit relationship like that of a mistress would be based on passion and sexuality, something highly forbidden for women in the Victorian era. Having mistresses and prostitutes were technically legal in this era, yet it would have proven to be socially detrimental. It would have been illegitimate also in a Marxist sense: Jane was of a lower class and Mr. Rochester would have been taking advantage of his class to coax Jane into an illegitimate sexual relationship. Jane, however, manages to take the high road and refuses to marry Mr. Rochester, despite her love for him. This reverses the role in traditional Victorian suspicions because the male in the relationship, Mr. Rochester, is the one seeking a lower class female to take advantage of when it is usually the female seeking a boost in status through association. Jane listens to her own reason rather than the rules set by society and passion: things that women were culturally trained to seek.

However, Jane is not set out to change the way the world views women. She is a new way to look at women even through a non-traditional lens; Jane simply lives and thinks differently without any outstanding statement of individuality. Dale Kramer proposes that:

The fact is that the motivating forces of Jane Eyre’s personality are not sexual concepts at all but personal concepts. She reacts as she does to erotic situations not because of repressions or desires to emasculate or castrate her menfolk, but because she fully understands her own motivations. She also comprehends the significance of alternatives she is presented with, and the states of life that her choice of action can lead her to. Unlike the actions of modern protagonists, whose lives are a continual process of self-frustration and self-discovery, Jane’s conform to her principles and her understanding of her moral and physical needs. (Kramer 288)
Kramer implies that the Jane’s personality would have been more rash and based on outside influences such as repression or desires to upstage her menfolk. In fact, Jane does not seem to be set to debunk her Victorian values at all: she seems to simply be indifferent to the Victorian repression without a separate agenda. Her values are personal and are the product of reason rather than the product of going through the wrong path once before. She was not easily influenced by her repressive society and does not respond to it by having the personality that she does. She is not rebellious of culture’s standards. All of her principles are based on her own morals, not reactions to frustrated misguidance and passion towards resurrecting her past mistakes within society.

Jane’s marriage was a large symbol of how her decisions were based on reason rather than reaction to society. Jane did deny her engagement with Mr. Rochester at first when she realized that her fiancé was married to another women. However, she did marry him once he became more undesirable both in appearance and social standings when it was a legitimate marriage. She loved him passionately, yet she did not allow this to overcome her ability to deny their marriage. Her reason allowed her to marry him later because regardless of his appearance and lack of wealth: they could be legally wed. It was not based on social standing like other Victorian marriages were arranged despite his wealth. Jane obviously did not marry him because he was wealthy; she denied his gifts. She was also uninterested in her rise of social standing due to his wealth; she denied the right to call him by his first name even when engaged and even continued to teach Adele as the house governess. She did marry Mr. Rochester, however, when she achieved her own wealth through inheritance and denied marriage to a younger and more handsome man. Jane seemed to have made a point to maintain her social standings in order to be considered by her personality rather than her rank as well as not letting this factors influence her own considerations.



good luck

Answer 2

Lets talk about Jane when she 1st gets punished at the School/Orphanage to which she is sent.