Role of Social Class in Jane Eyre (Essay Sample)

One Italian Proverb writes, “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” The significance behind this quote is that social class and status do not matter at the end of the day. Social status has played roles in thousands of countries, for thousands of years, and it continues to do so. Social class even today still exists, though not as severe as it once was. It helped create cities, and destroy them as well as doing the same to relationships. In the Victorian Era, social status dictated one's life and people were taught to accept their fate in their     class. In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, she portrays social class as a restricting and pointless ideal through Jane defying her status and waiting to be equal before marriage, St. John Rivers and how he does not marry his love because she would not make a good wife, and lastly Mr. Rochester, for he married a governess and turned away for Miss Ingram.

Bronte uses Jane Eyre to portray her ideals because she thoroughly breaks social stereotypes and demonstrates them as a useless ideal all throughout the novel. Jane, being an orphan with no more than five shillings to her name, grows confident as the novel continues. Jane declares herself equal to Mr. Rochester when she says, "I tell you I must go!" I retorted, roused to something like passion. "Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you, — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; — it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal, — as we are!"(Bronte 238) Here, Rochester was telling Jane she was to move to Ireland as he was getting married to Blanch Ingram, to which Jane snapped and declared her love and equality to Rochester. Jane defied the odds of her social class by doing so, as she called herself his equal regardless of the fact she was an orphan with no money. Another example of when Jane breaks the chains that status is holding on her is when she is arguing with St.John Rivers. She thinks,  “Having felt in him the presence of these qualities, I felt his imperfection and took courage. I was with an equal — one with whom I might argue — one whom, if I saw good, I might resist.”(Bronte 379)St.John Rivers is an extremely religious man, and wants to marry Jane just because she would make a good wife, even though he does not love her. Jane proposes that she will only move to India with him if she was his equal, or as she puts it “brother and sister”. Bronte uses Jane to break the stereotype that just because you are poor, you are desperate. Jane defied her odds and learnt to expect equality, as well as holding her ground by demanding equality regardless of gender and social status.

St. John Rivers strongly believes that social status played an important role in society, but because of this Jane was incapable of marrying him, and he was left lonesome. He was also extremely demanding. For example he tells Jane, “God and nature intended you for a missionary’s wife. It is not personal but mental endowments they have given you; you are formed for labor, not love. A missionary’s wife you must—shall be. You shall be mine; I claim you—not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s service.”(375) St. John proposes to Jane, not because he loves her, but because she would make a good wife to him, forgetting she is a human with her own life. He did not take into consideration that Jane was a person as well. He refused to go to India with her as brother and sister as he feared it would bring down his status among the others and because he wanted to have kids. After Jane refuses, he says, “Refuse to be my wife, and you limit yourself forever to a track of selfish ease and barren obscurity.”(Bronte 381) This is basically a threat, trying to force Jane into doing what he wants. St. John illustrates that social class was not important to the author because his actions prove to get him nowhere and leave him lonely. 

The author conveys that social roles and statuses were merely words and titles through Mr Rochester as he becomes lovers with Jane besides the fact she is poor and an orphan. Mr. Rochester tells Jane she is to move to Ireland because he is getting married to Blanche eIngram. After Jane spills out her true feelings towards him he reacts by saying,  “'My bride is here,’ he said, again drawing me to him, ‘ because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?”(239) Mr. Rochester considers Jane his equal despite their differences in class, proving how class will and does not affect love. He also proposes to her and does not care that her social status may cause discrepancies in his name. At the altar when they were to be married, Jane finds out about his crazy wife Bertha Mason. Mr. Rochester tells Jane, “To tell me that I had already a wife is empty mockery; you know now that I had but a hideous demon. I was wrong to attempt to deceive you; but I feared a stubbornness that exists in your character…This was cowardly; I should have appealed to your nobleness and magnanimity at first…shown to you, not my resolution (that word is weak), but my resistless bent to love faithfully and well, where I am faithfully and well loved in return.”(295) He admits how he was wrong, despite the fact he is a man with more power, because he truly views Jane as his equal. He does not let social status get in the way of his life. Mr. Rochester demonstrates Brontes feelings perfectly because he does not let social class determine his power, love life, or friendships in general.

In conclusion, in Jane Eyre written Charlotte Bronte used  Jane Eyre, St.John Rivers, and Mr. Rochester uniquely portrays her thoughts on social status as they each demonstrated social class and “defying” it in their own way. The author used Jane to illustrate her thoughts through Jane's feministic attitude. She used St. John Rivers to show how social status was restricting and “harmful” as he lost Jane and Rosamond due to his stubbornness and need for gender roles and to not be equal with women.  Lastly, Bronte used Mr. Edward Rochester to help the reader understand that social status is useless, because he marries Jane despite the fact she is extremely poor and is a governess, and the fact she was below him in social status did not bother him. At the end of the day, people are all equal despite their social rank just like written in the Italian Proverb.