Jane Eyre As A Bildungsroman Essay Example

Nineteenth-century England was a century of industrial progress and wealth, nearly always reserved for the elite, male members of society. Charlotte Brontë’s subversive novel, Jane Eyre, uproots the aforementioned standards indirectly. The literary work can seem a mundane story of a poor female’s life to the superficial reader, while, in reality, it holds its place as a piece that popularized and sophisticated feminist prose narratives in the published world. Brontë draws inspiration from the German Bildungsroman subgenre, accompanied by discussions about the sexism and classism found in the Christian church and the economic proposition that was marriage, verifying the progressive belief that females were complex, whole beings with intricate lives.

German literature birthed many transformative templates for authors to mimic, one of the most common being the Bildungsroman subgenre, which was adopted by many writers of the time, including Voltaire in Candide and William Godwin’s Caleb Williams. Before Jane Eyre’s publication in 1847, the novels associated with the Bildungsroman were written almost exclusively by men, about men, reinforcing the misogynistic idea that only male stories were worth telling. “It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone in the world…” (Brontë 85) Jane Eyre is bearing the weight of the progression from childhood to adolescence, and then later, to adulthood, all alone, free from the “guidance” of male instruction. While women in the nineteenth century customarily had their lives outlined from birth, Jane’s individual path, as detailed in Jane Eyre, parallels the Bildungsroman while simultaneously deconstructing the accepted assumption that the simple life was best for females. Jane’s life is filled with transformational tribulations; even so, she regards a predetermined existence as a fallacious method for survival and a trying sense of identity as true prosperity. 

Jane Eyre’s tragic past is revealed throughout the beginning chapters of the novel, and her time at Lowood is metamorphic in determining her adult perspectives, specifically related to discussions of religion and Christianity. Westernized Christianity had many separate doctrines, and Mr. Brocklehurst implements the axiom of poverty and humility into the Lowood School curriculum. “‘...my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh, to teach them to clothe themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety…’” (Brontë 57) Mr. Brocklehurst’s philosophy depicts the compunction of femininity and muliebrous appearances Jane and other young Christian women endured; Brocklehurst’s beliefs suggest that anything conforming to “society”, whether it be as simple as naturally curly hair, be deemed inherently sinful. The hypocritical focus on women and their countenance portrays female anatomical features as shameful and needing to be hidden. The constant reiteration of the harmful attitude maintains its presence in Jane’s consciousness for the duration of the novel, instilling in her the “plain Jane” perspective that prevents her from seeing herself as a whole being, deserving and worthy of love and ornamented things while encouraging contempt towards beauty due to Mr. Brocklehurst’s inconsistencies among his own daughters. 

While Jane refuses to listen to her superficial voice that desires adorned frocks and embellished slippers, she rejects the perfunctory world of courting and marriage, vowing to marry only for love and never money. Her sudden obsession with her master, Mr. Rochester, was motivated solely by affection and not his fortune, setting her apart from the other women of the time, who married for the financial benefits and stability as they knew it would be arduous to find such “happiness” alone. “...were I a gentleman like him, I would take to my bosom only such a wife as I could love...I was quite ignorant: otherwise I felt sure all the world would act as I wished to act.” (Brontë 176) Charlotte Brontë ensures that Jane is aware of the societal constraints that are driving the marital decisions of the time, yet she continued to refuse conformity in her repudiation of St. John’s offer for a secure home life and her initial disgust at Rochester’s deception.  Jane’s clear knowledge about marriage accompanied with her consistent morality is admirable, and Brontë demonstrates that a woman can dismiss modernity and still be content.

Living as a woman in a patriarchal world has always been burdensome, but the strains that Jane and other nineteenth-century females faced were far more debilitating and intense. Jane Eyre, while almost two hundred years old, continues to typify itself as a manifesto of feminism as it promotes the ignorance of gender roles and misanthropic expectations while raising women to equality with men in both complexity and character. Charlotte Brontë forever altered the realm of feminist prose, opening doors for female authors and maintaining a spot as one of the most intelligent voices in literature, a voice that happens to belong to a woman.