Background Information for Jane Eyre

1
Background Informationfor Jane Eyre

• By
• Charlotte Bronte

2
THE NOVEL

• Published in October 1847
• During the Industrial Revolution
• A novel of the Victorian Age

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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.

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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

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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.

6
Charlotte Bronte

• Lived at Haworth, a parsonage

• Born of Irish ancestry in 1816 in Yorkshire,
  England

• Mother died of cancer when Charlotte was 5 years
  old.

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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

8
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
• Charlottes brother, Branwell, was a gifted
  painter.

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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

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A ground breaking novel

• Why?
• The heroine is small, plain, poor
• The heroine is the first female character to
  claim the right to feel strongly about her
  emotions and act on her convictions
• This romantic ground had previously been reserved
  for males
• Such a psychologically complex heroine had never
  been created before

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Jane Eyre many books in one

• Autobiography
• Fairy Tale
• Bildungsroman/Quest
• Marriage Plot
• Gothic novel

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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

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More Autobiographical Details

• Janes friend dies of tuberculosis contracted at
  school
• Mr. Brocklehurst modeled on own reverend at
  school, Carus Wilson
• Fate of John Reed, Janes cousin, closely
  parallels Branwell Brontes struggle with alcohol
  and heroin addictions
• Bronte taught at a girls school and later became
  a governess as Jane does in the novel

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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

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Alternate Fairy Tale

• Beauty and the Beast- young, innocent girl tames
  the dangerous beast and releases him from his
  life of misery

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Bildungsroman

• Also known as coming of age and quest stories
• Deals with the growth and education of the
  protagonist
• A journey to self-realization and independence

• Often includes the orphan archetype
• Examples are Great Expectations, The Adventures
  of Huckleberry Finn, A Separate Peace, Catcher in
  the Rye

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Marriage Plot

• 19th c. womens fiction often sets aside the
  bildungsroman plot by either getting married or
  dying (DuPlessis)
• 19th c. womens fiction often shows that through
  marriage, women and men develop individually by
  merging gender roles
• Ex Emma, Little Women, Middlemarch, Pride and
  Prejudice

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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

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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