Expectations are a part of daily life. One’s age, race, religion, physical appearance, speech, dress, hair color-all are factors by which, welcomed or not, people are labeled with certain expectations by other members of society. With nothing more than a glance, a young person might be labeled abrasive, an old person unkind, a person with a thick Southern accent uneducated, and so on. These expectations, however, are miniscule when compared to the expectations society places on one’s gender. Society likes to think of males as dominant, aggressive, educated, dispassionate, and ambitious; it thinks of women as submissive, passive, less-educated, emotional, and pleased to serve their male spouses. Any truly educated person knows these stereotypes are simply not representative of truth, but nevertheless, these expectations-these gender roles-exist to this very day and have dominated Western thought for centuries. Looking back at the Victorian period, even the works of famous female artists present the familiar male-dominated, patriarchal view of proper society. The characters in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre portray clearly the gender roles expected of males and females in Victorian society; the characters of Jane and Mr. Rochester demonstrate the expected characteristics and personalities expected of males and females, respectively, while Bertha, the antithesis of Jane, represents a disruption of the gender balance and must be detached from normal society.
Charlotte Brontë’s character Jane was living in the nineteenth century, a time when “fear of the intellectual woman became so intense that the phenomenon . . . was recorded in medical annals. A thinking woman was considered such a breach of nature that a Harvard doctor reported during his autopsy on a Radcliffe graduate he discovered that her uterus had shriveled to the size of a pea” (Gilbert 2032). So, it is no surprise that the character of Jane, the heroine of the novel, would possess the characteristics an ideal female of Victorian society would need in order to be praised: submissiveness, passivity, undisruptive, simplicity in dress and ambition, and desperate emotional longing for her male love interest. And when Jane challenges the social institutions put in front of her, she is reprimanded and forced into experiencing the most weary, reproachful situations imaginable until she is ready to continue behaving properly.
The very first page of the novel features Jane’s personality and human spirit being stifled as she is reprimanded for questioning why she is being punished. She asks Mrs. Reed what she has done to deserve punishment, to which Mrs. Reed replies, “Jane, I don’t like cavilers or questioners: besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent” (Brontë 63). And John Reed, Mrs. Reed’s son, berates Jane with a furious anger stemming from his mother’s treatment of Jane, saying, “you are a dependant, mama says; you have no money’ your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen’s children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mama’s expense” (Brontë 67). And after this speech, Jane is attacked physically by John Reed, and as she retaliates, she is reprimanded in the same way Bertha is later in the novel-she is locked away from the rest of the home in order to subdue her craving for equality and significance. Jane describes how she feels about being locked away in the red room, saying, “‘Unjust! – unjust!’ said my reason, forced by the agonizing stimulus into precocious though transitory power; and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression-as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die” (Brontë 72). And even though Jane is being treated badly because she is a child, not because she is a female, she receives this same treatment throughout the novel: the treatment she would receive as is she was a child. Jane is described throughout the novel as small in stature, and looks like a child even as she becomes a teacher at Lowood and a governess at Thornfield. This passage is important in setting the foundation to demonstrate that women, in their inferior treatment in Victorian society, are treated by society like they were no more responsible or worthy of respect than children.
John Reed’s fiery speech and Mrs. Reed’s treatment of Jane as someone outside their middle class standing sheds light on the economic opportunities available to women in the Victorian era and the expectations of women earning a wage in society. As a lower-class female who is small in stature and does not possess beauty, Jane’s chances of joining the higher echelon of society are almost non-existent. Yet her education at Lowood allows her to take a governess position at Thornfield, and “Jane’s advancement from her position as teacher at Lowood to private governess signifies an important development in the text’s subversion of gender, since governesses served as a hole in the invisible wall between working-class and middle-class gender identities. As governess, Jane bridges the gap between the dangerous androgyny of working-class homogeneity and the fragile stability of middle-class separate spheres” (Godfrey 12). Jane acts as a middle-class woman in that she is in charge of the education of Adele at Thornfield, but continues to earn a wage and is under the control of the master of the house. An interesting idea from Godfrey’s work speaks about the uniqueness of the role of the governess, explaining that “Because the governess was like the middle-class mother in the work she performed, but like both a working-class woman and man in the wages she received, the very figure who theoretically should have defended the naturalness of separate spheres threatened to collapse the difference between them” (Godfrey). The roles of gender are blurred in Jane’s case, as she is a female who earns a wage and takes the place of the person responsible for keeping those same gender roles clear and intact. Jane, as a governess, finds a way to ascend into a middle class style of life in being hired to educate at Thornfield-an ascension that was extremely difficult for any person from meager beginnings, especially a female, to achieve.
As Jane becomes a governess at Thornfield, she meets the master, Mr. Rochester, she quickly begins to fall in love with him and desires to be his wife even though she recognizes that such a union-one between a simple governess and a wealthy gentleman such as Mr. Rochester-would be forbidden by proper society. And in her low self-esteem she reminds herself of the male’s excellence and her lowliness when she thinks to herself, “don’t make [Mr. Rochester] the object of your fine feelings, your raptures, agonies, and so forth. He is not of your order: keep to your caste; and be too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole heart, soul, and strength, where such a gift is not wanted and would be despised” (Brontë 239). Jane is demonstrating the mindset exclusive to low-class females in Victorian society: stifling any hope of true happiness by keeping in mind her low social ranking and selling herself extremely short in order to keep her self-esteem from creating hopes of finding true happiness in the arms of a man. Yet, on the other hand, Mr. Rochester, if he so chooses, can fall in love with Jane and decide to marry her no matter what society might feel. And before he declares his love for Jane, he plays a bit of an evil, mean-spirited trick on Jane’s love for him when he speaks constantly about his impending marriage to another, more beautiful woman, Blanche: “For instance, the night before I am married? I am sure I shall not be able to sleep. Will you promise to sit up with me to bear me company? To you I can talk of my lovely one; for now you have seen her and know her?” (Brontë 302). Rochester’s intentional wrenching of Jane’s heart is not only rude and in bad taste but done with a twist of wickedness and malevolence, and though he later claims it was done only to assure him of Jane’s feelings for him, he is acting in a typically male manner: using his control of emotions to methodically bring Jane’s sensibilities to an ultra-heightened sense of longing for him, playing games with her heart and soul in order to conduct a sort of experiment for his own benefit and amusement.
But as Mr. Rochester’s history is found out, and as Jane discovers that the crazy woman who lives in the upper-rooms of Thornfield is actually Mr. Rochester’s wife, Jane’s world turns upside down. She defies Mr. Rochester in refusing to become his mistress, and decides she must leave immediately, never to return. As she begins her flight from Thornfield, she bids farewell to Mr. Rochester emotionally with “‘Farewell!’ was the cry of my heart, as I left him. Despair added,–‘Farewell for ever!'” (Brontë 410). And it is at this point that Jane begins acting in a manner which is unthinkable and improper for women of Victorian society on two very different levels: she, an object of Mr. Rochester’s love, leaves him to misery; and, as a governess, she leaves her post without prior notice and without permission, opting to wander aimlessly in the world without accompaniment or means with which to survive. Before she leaves she reflects on her life as it were a moment in a literary work, saying, “No reflection was to be allowed now: not one glance was to be cast back; not even one forward. Not one thought was to be given either to the past or the future. The first was a page so heavenly sweet — so deadly sad — that to read one line of it would dissolve my courage and break down my energy. The last was an awful blank: something like the world when the deluge was gone by” (Brontë 412). And in creating this blank sheet in her life, she leaves her fate to be dictated by herself and her own actions instead of the wishes and direction of Mr. Rochester. The following passage gives further insight into the solitary woman and how women were expected to find satisfaction and purpose in their lives: “As a recurrent literary image, a community of women is a rebuke to the conventional ideal of a solitary woman living for and through men, attaining citizenship in the community of adulthood through masculine approval alone” (Wilson 131). Jane proves that she does not need to live in accordance with the ideals and direction of men, and takes her destiny into her own hands-an act which goes against every expectation of the feminine gender in Victorian society.
Yet, despite Jane’s token instances of independence and acts of defiance to those around her, in the end she seeks out Mr. Rochester and returns to him. Mr. Rochester, knowing Jane still loves him and has returned to him, refuses to let her leave again, saying, “No – no – Jane; you must not go. No – I have touched you, heard you, felt the comfort of your presence – the sweetness of your consolation: I cannot give up these joys…I must have you…My very soul demands you” (Brontë 537). Jane’s defiance of Rochester was never one of sincerity but one of proving to herself and to God that she was doing what was proper. But she returns to Rochester with it already in her mind that he would ask her to marry him-“I had indeed made my proposal from the idea that he wished and would ask me to be his wife…that he would claim me at once as his own” (Brontë 536)-proving that she sees herself as belonging to Rochester and has returned to live a life validated by a male presence. And as Jane is told the story of what happened to Thornfield and the death of Bertha Mason, she agrees to marry Mr. Rochester; to be his servant, in a way, since he has become blind and needs constant assistance, and Jane refers to herself as his eyes, his hands, his everything. In the end, Jane settles happily for a life as a subservient wife to Mr. Rochester, but at least she finds happiness in her position.
Unlike Jane, Bertha Mason’s fate does not end in her being subservient to male dominance. Bertha is a woman who, even though she is obviously mad, is free-spirited and challenges all social institutions placed upon her, putting her in a very unbecoming light in Victorian society. Females are supposed to be quiet, submissive, passive, and loyal to their husbands-like Jane-but Bertha is the opposite of a good Victorian woman and is the direct antithesis of Jane. Bertha is large in stature, outspoken, violent, and aggressive in pursuit of what she desires, as seen in the passage when Mr. Rochester first displays her as his wife after his failed wedding to Jane: “the lunatic sprang and grappled his throat viciously, and laid her teeth to his cheek: they struggled. She was a big woman, in stature almost equaling her husband, and corpulent besides: she showed virile force in the contest – more than once she almost throttled him, athletic as he was” (Brontë 381). And because Bertha is outspoken and wild and unbecoming of the ideal Victorian woman, she is locked away high in Thornfield, away from society and kept a secret from the inhabitants living there-much like Jane, in the beginning of the novel, was locked in the red room when her actions were deemed too outspoken and aggressive.
The characters in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre portray clearly the gender roles expected of males and females in Victorian society; the characters of Jane and Mr. Rochester demonstrate the expected characteristics and personalities expected of males and females, respectively, while Bertha, the antithesis of Jane, represents a disruption of the gender balance and must be detached from normal society. Jane is meek and quiet and is pleased to live a life of subservience to Mr. Rochester, but initially forces herself to keep her feelings for him in check for fear of longing for a union which can never be. It is only after she has done what she feels is morally just that she allows herself to return to Rochester and become his wife. The antithesis of Jane is Bertha, whose outspoken, aggressive ways go against the ideal behavior of the typical Victorian woman and cause her to be locked away and ignored by her husband and the rest of society. Jane’s manner, though occasionally rebellious, is pure and very becoming of a typical Victorian woman while Bertha’s manner is wild and aggressive-Jane is praised and rewarded with a happy life for her pleasing behavior while Bertha is locked away and punished for hers. Jane Eyre, intentionally or otherwise, clearly and effectively outlines the gender roles in Victorian society in a way which is interesting and educational for readers of any era.
Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard Nemesvari. Toronto: Broadview, 1999.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. “From The Madwoman in the Attic” (2021-
2035). The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Gen Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.
Godfrey, Esther. “Jane Eyre, from Governess to Girl Bride.” Studies in English
Literature, 1500-1900. Volume 45 Issue 4 (Autumn 2005): 853-872.
Wilson, Cheryl A. “Female Reading Communities in Jane Eyre.” Bronte Studies
Vol. 30 Issue 2 (July 2005): 131-139.
