Becoming Jane Eyre in Charlotte Brontë’s Novel: a Study of Middle-Class Women in NineteenthCentury Victorian Society

Abstract

Middle-class women from the nineteenth-century Victorian society were so subjugated and oppressed that even their identity was suppressed. Hence, women had trouble construing their own identity and Charlotte Brontë’s protagonist, Jane Eyre, was no exception. Many scholars have studied Jane from a feminist perspective, and the work of Gilbert & Gubar, (1979) can be highlighted. Still, there are not so many studies focused on explaining Jane’s path to maturity and independence from a historical, social and economic perspective. Accordingly, this paper examines the psychological evolution and identity of Jane by contrasting the protagonist’s desires with the demands of the English patriarchal society in a context in which women were subjected to social restraints. To do so, the historical context of the novel has been explored and a selection of the most significant quotes has been employed in order to illustrate the psychological and personal growth of the protagonist. Jane’s fury against the social constraints together with the antagonist contexts in which she was placed, which reinforced her values, such as freedom and the desire of free love, contributed to the development of her identity and independence. In short, this paper describes the conversion of an orphan into a real heroine with whom many readers identified at the time and which still serves as an inspiration for many people today.