Jane Eyre – a highly popular romantic novel of the 19^th century – was authored by the esteemed writer, Charlotte Bronté. It was so popular, in fact, that the editor of the Penguin Classics Edition of Jane Eyre, Michael Mason, states in its introduction that it is the single most widely read of all English novels. With its having been looked upon with approval , disapproval and, in some cases, apathetical disinterest by so many pairs of eyes, this novel’s inners – in theory – must conceal some powerful idea, or propagate some new movement: a movement to shake society’s foundation and alter its ebb and flow. To meet this end, enter Jane. Jane is the novel’s protagonist – the very embodiment of such a movement and the very semblance of a revolutionary individual: mind, body and soul. Charlotte Bronté, either through dialogue, or well plotted scenarios, uses Jane as a corpus through which she can challenge social tenets. An example of this can be noted in a certain poignant scene featuring John, Jane’s cousin, who’s born into the lower gentry and consequentially is higher on the social wrung then the orphaned girl. John uses his lofty position as an excuse for bullying and debasing Jane. She in turn fights this reprimand with words and actions of her own – unwilling to accept such injurious language. Charlotte Bronté also introduces Mrs. Ingram, a hubristic, middle-aged, middle-class personage, who antagonizes Jane on the point of her position as governess. Lastly, Charlotte Bronté uses Jane as a means to disseminate her ideas supporting inter-class marriage – ideas which were out of fashion with the rest of society, as proven by one specific and powerful instance of dissent among the novel's characters. This is direct proof that Charlotte Bronté uses Jane and Jane Eyre as a means to expose society’s ills and promote her own progressive attitudes and views.

    Charlotte Bronté brings one of Victorian society’s festering, inequable characteristics to the forefront when John holds Jane's destitution as a mark against her. In the Penguin Edition of Jane Eyre, John is quoted as saying: "You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mama says; you have no money; your father left you alone; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen’s children like us…" (17). His words as well as his lack of sympathy for Jane’s state as a creature abandoned by fortune and advantage are meant to indicate a general feeling of condescension, largely on the part of the upper class, towards the lower class. Charlotte Bronté makes it a point to foreground this specific display of antipathy at the beginning of the novel in order to make it clear that these are the day to day realities of those who are impoverished and depend on others for their keep. She makes John’s statement to Jane especially cruel and biting, "…you are a dependant…you have no money…your father left you alone…" precisely to underscore the absolute misery of Jane’s situation, thus beseeching the readers to hearken to her subtle commentary: to take a mental note of this variety of social injustice and downright verbal abuse.

    The action that ensues is even more telling of Charlotte Bronté’s intention to accentuate the condescending attitude of the rich towards the poor in her novel. Hardly does John end his railing of Jane before he takes his abuse to a new level: a physical one. He states, "’Now, I’ll teach you to rummage my book-shelves: for they are mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows.’ I did so, not at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp: my terror had passed its climax…" (17). This physical act of deprecation at Jane’s expense even further proves that Charlotte Bronté was trying to send a message to Victorian society on the subject of its treatment of the poor and desolate. The mere fact that John decides to hit Jane – and, in addition, tells her to hold still before he ensues – is enough to tell the reader that the author wished to stress the point that the rich of Victorian society felt that they were in a position of complete ownership over their subordinates – supposing that their prerogative. This is attitude is manifested in the smugness of John’s utterance, "Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows." This is said as if Jane was worth less as a living, breathing individual then either the mirror or windows – less then an ordinary house object.

    Charlotte Bronté, to accentuate the effect of this scene, then follows John’s commentary and subsequent beating of Jane with a few, equally biting, but much more well deserved words from the novel’s protagonist, who in the meantime has recovered from her cousin’s verbal cuffing. She states, "’Wicked and cruel boy! … You are like a murderer – you are like a slave-driver – you are like the Roman emperors!’ I had read Goldsmith’s History of Rome, and had formed my opinion of Nero, Caligula, &c. Also I had drawn parallels in silence, which I never thought thus to have declared aloud." (17) Notice, dear reader, the word choice: the indication that John’s words and actions are comparable to murder – an act that, to say the least, is greatly unacceptable in western society – and to the atrocities committed by one of the Earth’s great criminals, Nero, who is reputed to have burned Rome to the ground and played the fiddle in the midst of the inferno. Both of these analogies are used by Charlotte Bronté to augment the limpidity of the injustices that are being perpetrated against Jane by her own family members on the points of her domestic and social standing.

    Another issue that Charlotte Bronté tackles in the novel is that of the apparent mistreatment and misjudgment of governesses throughout the Victorian Period. To achieve this, she introduces the character of Ms. Ingram – a supposed love interest of Mr. Rochester – who temporarily usurps Jane from that role. Ms. Ingram, a proud, presumptuous individual, is perfectly analogous to an ordinary member of the lower gentry. She is quoted as saying, "You should hear mama on the chapter of governesses: Mary and I have had, I should think, a dozen at least in our day; half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous, and all incubi – were they not, mama?" (200) To clarify a specific aspect of the aforementioned quote, the definition of the word incubi can be paraphrased as being one who is an oppressive force or burden. She also implies that a governess is "detestable" and "ridiculous", all characteristics which don’t fit Jane, or at least on the latter point, most highly educated young women - regardless of social standing. This disdainful comment exposes Ms. Ingram’s, or the gentry’s underlying disdain for respectable, educated, yet financially unaccomplished young women – women in Jane’s position. Charlotte Bronté makes use of Ms. Ingram as a pawn to demonstrate the unfair environment and prejudices that governesses had to cope with on a daily basis in order to excite outrage and the wish for change in the hearts of her readers.

    Lastly, Charlotte Bronté reinforces both of her previous claims in the section of the book dealing with Mr. Rochester’s proposal to Jane. She does this by exposing the treatment of Jane by Mrs. Fairfax after Mr. Rochester has made public their plans for marriage.. There is an entire scene where Jane is attempting to gauge Mrs. Fairfax’s opinion of her pending marriage to Mr. Rochester and during this scene Mrs. Fairfax makes clear her incredulity at the possibility of Jane, a governess marrying Mr. Rochester. Mrs. Fairfax is quoted as saying "I feel so astonished…I hardly know what to say to you, Miss Eyre. I have surely not been dreaming, have I? Sometimes I half fall asleep when I am sitting alone, and fancy things that have never happened…that my dear husband, who died fifteen years since, has come in and sat down beside me; … I could never have thought it. He [speaking about Mr. Rochester] is a proud man: all the Rochesters were proud: and his father, at least, liked money. He, too, has always been called careful. He means to marry you?" (296) For Mrs. Fairfax to see the possibility of Jane marrying Mr. Rochester as being equal to that of her dead husband returning to the realm of the living, shows how impossible a match such as one between a governess and an estate owner seemed to members of English Victorian society, disregarding the question of love between the two individuals. Not only that, but it reinforces the disdain that is expressed towards Jane throughout the novel in result of her financial situation and profession – not at all taking into account her accomplishments and positive attributes. "He means to marry you?", although surely more an outburst then an intended insult, can easily be construed as such. Charlotte Bronté understood this and used this very statement pertaining to Jane to propagate her revolutionary views on marriage and disseminate her denunciation of the current suffocating and stringent ones.

    With all of this said, Jane Eyre, as the most popular English novel in history has done much to revolutionize culture. The oppressive factors that Charlotte Bronté was attempting to cure during her lifetime have since been righted to a moderate degree – at least in English speaking America – as well as much of the western world. We now live in a culture that recognizes accomplishment over lineage and ability over social standing. Can this have resulted from Charlotte Bronté’s propagation of such ideas? One can safely assume that with her work’s expansive influence her ideas have contributed to enlightening and changing the outlook of hundreds – thousands – maybe millions of minds in and around the English speaking world. Could she have done it alone? The answer to this is a most definite no, but Charlotte Bronté, and her Jane, numbered two among the throngs of ambassadors trying to rid the world of its prejudices.

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York : Penguin Group, 2003.

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