Jane Eyre and Feminism: Role Subversion and Women’s Freedom | Part Two

There are a few significant feminist aspects of the novel that I want to make note of. Gender roles are frequently reversed: Jane helps Rochester when he enters the novel and falls from his horse, and saves his life when she wakes him from his fire-lit bed (reversing the typical damsel-in-distress/knight-in-shining-armour roles). Jane resists conforming to the feminine role society placed upon women at the time (which still creates pressure for women today). When Rochester asks her if she thinks him handsome, she bluntly replies, “No, sir” (instead of kindly flattering him), and upon their engagement, Jane does not allow Rochester to adorn her with expensive silks and jewels.

Rochester looks to Jane to save him from ruin and bring joy back into his life, but Jane maintains that they are each responsible for their own lives. She refuses to be a part of Rochester’s fantasy that she, in his eyes the “pure female”, can save him, telling him that she is “no angel”.

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Jane Eyre Feminist Reading | Part One

Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, is one of the many fiction novels that were written by female writers to change the way women were perceived in the 19th Century. Jane, a female character, is the protagonist. Written in first person, the novel gives readers an insight into the thoughts and feelings of a woman who lived during a time when women were largely seen as passive and selfless, and men used this dominant representation as an excuse to dominate over, control, and/or feel superior to women. Jane Eyre shows, through it’s strong protagonist, that women are equal to men and that men can never have power over women.

Jane experiences male attempt at domination within the first few chapters of the novel.