Category: Jane Eyre

“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.” This is a quote from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre relating to gender relations, a recurring theme in the novel. Jane Eyre, a bildungsroman, tells the story of a an orphan as she grows up and enters adulthood. Set in nineteenth-century England, beliefs and customs from the Victorian Era greatly affect the novel. But what if the novel had been set in modern day England? Societal views on marriage and gender relations would certainly differ which would cause Jane and Rochester’s relationship to not be complicated by the same obstacles as in the nineteenth century.

In nineteenth-century England, four social classes were identified: Nobility, Middle Class, Upper Working Class, and Lower Working Class. People were expected to remain within their class. The role of women in each class was generally the same. Their duty was to raise their children and keep their husband happy. Domesticity and motherhood were considered by society to be sufficient life fulfilment for all women. It was also assumed that women wanted to be married. Although, being too forward was not acceptable as it suggested sexual desire. Once married, Victorian wives became their husbands property. More freedom was given to men than to women in society. The Victorian ideals greatly influence Jane’s journey throughout the novel. Bronte challenges these ideals through Jane as she strives for independence and equality.

One of the obstacles complicating Jane and Rochester’s relationship is social class. Today class differences would most likely not be a profound obstacle that would stand in the way of Jane and Rochester’s relationship due to a change in societal views on social hierarchy. While Jane is working at Thornfield as a governess she falls in love with Rochester who is of a higher class than her. They have a master-servant relationship and in the Victorian era it would not have been considered appropriate for them to marry. Marrying outside of your own class is not as taboo today as in Bronte’s time. Due to the progression of society, a person’s socioeconomic background is not as evident in modern day. Therefore, conforming to social class expectations most likely would not be a conflict for the characters in the novel.

Financial status also put Jane and Rochester at odds in the novel. In the Victorian era, the only legitimate position for a woman was a governess. Jane faces economic hardship at certain points in the novel and Bronte suggests that if she were a man she would be able to actively attempt to earn her own fortune. However since she is a woman she cannot venture out into the world like the male characters in the novel. For example, St. John who departs to India for missionary work. If the novel had been set in modern day Jane would not be restricted in this way as due to modern feminist movements the notion that women and men should be able to do the same job is more or less evident in modern day England. Women are able to earn their own money. Jane fears potential economic dependency on Rochester. She values her independence and refuses to marry him partly because she wants to be Rochester’s financial equal in the marriage. Before 1870, married women were forced to give up all property and earning to their husbands. This gave women the same legal status as a mentally insane or criminal person. If the novel was set in modern day the conflict of financial status would not be as evident in Jane and Rochester’s relationship. This is because women and men would have equal rights entering the marriage and, as a woman, Jane would also be able to venture out into the world and make her own fortune. Both partners would also be able have a separate bank account.

Divorce was a major social taboo in the Victorian era, this is another social obstacle to stand in the way of Jane and Rochester’s relationship. During Jane and Rochester’s wedding ceremony it is uncovered that Rochester is already married to Bertha Mason. This conflict would have never occurred had the novel been set in modern day England as Rochester would have been able to divorce Bertha. An internal struggle Jane experiences at this instance occurs when Rochester asks Jane to go away with him and live as husband and wife after their failed wedding ceremony. Jane feels that becoming his mistress would ruin her in the eyes of the law and God. She refuses to go against her principles and leaves Thornfield. Had the novel been set in modern times Jane’s internal struggle here would not be as profound as Rochester would have been able to get a divorce. This means that Rochester’s planned bigamy would not be a relevant conflict.

In conclusion, due to the time the novel is set in certain social obstacles hinder Jane and Rochester’s relationship. Nineteenth century beliefs and values seep through the text in Bronte’s novel. If it were set in modern day England, instead of during the Victorian era, it would differ as the same conflicts would not stand in the way of the main character’s relationship. The conflicts that impede Jane and Rochester’s relationship in the novel are a sign of the times and therefore they would differ if the novel were set in a different time period. Views on marriage and gender today are not the same as in nineteenth century England due to society evolving.

Middle class women were brought up to “be pure and innocent, tender and sexually undemanding, submissive and obedient” to fit the glorified “angel in the House” (Thackeray’s The Angel in the House). Women were not expected to express opinions of their own outside a very limited range of subjects, and certainly not be on a quest for own identity and aim to become independent such as the protagonist in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. To some critics it was inappropriate for a female writer to write such a passionate novel and to have some knowledge of sexuality. Charlotte Brontë wrote in the preface of the second edition “Conventionality is not morality” to defend her novel against the critics. The character Jane Eyre can be seen as an unconventional female of the time, she is passionate and with a strong urge to fight injustice. Passion and a hot temper in a woman were not appropriate at the time and had to be repressed. The novel can be seen as a journey of Jane finding her true self. Jane fights convention by resisting the male dominance, on her quest for identity and independence she remains true to herself by putting herself first and caring for her own wellbeing, even though she is longing for love and kinship.

The feminist literary criticism sprung from the “women’s movement‟ of the 60s and has evolved into different versions. There are some ideas that are common among the different versions such as that the oppression of women is a fact of life. From the start, the movement looked at how women were portrayed in literature. The “women’s movement‟ has always been crucially concerned with books and literature, so feminist criticism should not be seen as an off-shoot or spin-off from feminist criticism which is remote from the ultimate aims of the movement, but as one of the most practical ways of influencing everyday conduct and attitudes. (Barry 116-17). The images of women in literature model the way we see women and it is important to recognize and to question these images since they provide role models and indicate what are “acceptable versions of the feminine” (Barry 117).

Jane is hassled and beleaguered by her cousin John Reed, when she resists his abuse she is punished. Jane is constantly harried by her older cousin, he considers the house and all in it belongs to him because he is the male in the house. John Reed controls his mother who favours him. Charlotte Brontë’s brother Bramwell was given special attention and he was the pride and hope of the Brontë family. The author’s envy of her brother Bramwell’s male dominance could be projected in the resistance Jane displays against John Reed. Until Jane is knocked down by a book thrown at her by John Reed she has tried to hide and endure his abuse but the anger and fear causes her to finally stand up to him verbally calling him “a murderer”, “a slave-driver” and comparing him to “the Roman emperors”. When he then attacks her physically and she tries to defend herself she is blamed for the whole incident. She is accused of “flying at Master John” displaying “such a picture of passion” and “she’s like a mad cat”. Jane’s act of defending herself from further physical injury is considered unacceptable conduct for a girl who should know her place in the social order and repress passionate feelings such as anger. “Unjust, unjust” are Jane’s words regarding the sentence of imprisonment in the Red Room without a fair hearing and without having the opportunity to defend herself. How she is punished while he walks free can be seen as a display of the unequal treatment and status of men and women as well as the unequal society at the time.

In the Red Room Jane changes overnight from a child to a more mature person. The incarceration in the Red Room can be construed as a “passage into the cataleptic”. When Jane looks into the mirror she sees herself looking like “a real spirit” which makes her think of one of the characters, “tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp”, in Bessie’s ghost stories. Jane realizes that she is considered different and identified as the “the other” by the household at Gateshead Hall, similar to the lonely characters of the moor in Bessie’s stories. “All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sisters‟ proud indifference, all his mother’s aversion, all the servants‟ partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a deposit in a turbid well”. Jane realizes that it does not matter how hard she tries to do right and fulfil her duties, she will not be accepted by the Reed household. She is “termed naughty and tiresome, sullen and sneaking, from morning to noon and from noon to midnight”. Jane is trapped and imprisoned and cannot escape the confinements of the members and servants of the Reed household’s view of her or of the room. Her confinement can symbolize the way the women of the Victorian time were trapped in the home and mtheir behaviour was restricted by the society. Jane, like most women of her time, has no place to run; other options to escape are to die of starvation or through madness. She has only herself to trust; a frightening conclusion for a ten-year-old girl, which causes her to mature overnight. Jane has faced her fears of superstition and of being completely alone and trapped. Moreover, she faces her anger and rage, the inner demons of her unconscious. After the night in the Red Room Jane grows stronger and is less afraid to defend herself and to speak for herself. The madness Jane experienced in the Red Room as a child re-emerges at Thornfield through Bertha Mason; the estranged mad wife, locked in the attic by Rochester can be regarded as the demon-woman.

Bertha is argued to be Jane’s alter-ego, the unconscious, the repressed mad, raving angry part of Jane which she has learned to repress during her years at Lowood by Miss Temple. Bertha is the obstacle to Jane’s happiness because she does not only represent Jane’s repressed rage; Bertha is also the impediment to Jane and Rochester being able to marry. To free Jane, the demon-woman must die, which happens after Jane has left Thornfield and found her good relatives and sense of stability and belonging and identity she has long wished and searched for. Mr. Brocklehurst is the second male character Jane stands up to. Mr. Brocklehurst appears to Jane as “a black pillar […] a sable clad shape standing erect on the rug: the grim face at the top was like a carved mask, placed above the shaft by way of capital”. He rules over Lowood Institution; a school for girls funded by donations. Mr. Brocklehurst uses his power to oppress the girls and teachers at the school, to teach them to know their place in society and repress their individuality and identity. He uses religion as a tool to oppress; threatening that the naughty girls will “burn in hell”. When Jane, who is considered a naughty girl according to Mrs. Reed, is asked how to avoid ending up in hell she answers him: “I must keep in good health and not die”. This quote suggests that Jane has a strong sense of self. She is not willing to completely change herself to fit into the way of the patriarchal society and realizes that her best option to avoid hell is to stay alive. While many of the other girls at Lowood Institution become sick and die, Jane remains strong and lives.

Jane’s character is somewhat juxtaposed by that of Helen Burns, a character who later becomes a close friend of Jane’s, even though the two possess extremely parallel identities. She is portrayed as a quite pitiable character, she never stands up for herself and she sees it her duty to endure the injustices in life, finding solace in her faith. Jane likes Helen but she does not understand how she endures the punishment she receives from some of teachers without defending herself, thus struggles to empathise with her. “And if I were in your place I should dislike her; I should resist her. If she struck me with that rod, I should get it from her hand; I should break it under her nose”. Jane is rebellious and her rage wants out when she sees injustice such as when Helen is struck for not washing her hands because the water was frozen. Helen teaches Jane to come to terms with the past and to not dwell on injustices of the past, to be happier in the present. In a sense Helen is like a mother figure for Jane because she comforts her, counsels her, feeds her and embraces her. Nevertheless, Helen is not a possible role model for Jane due to her way of self-surrendering and her longing for death and heaven. Helen is portrayed as an-angel-in-house; one extreme image of female identity. “A woman writer must examine, assimilate and transcend the extreme images of “angel” and “monster” which male authors have generated for them” and the author must kill both since they kill the female creativity. Helen’s death could symbolise the death of the “angel” to free Jane from surrendering to the identity of the angel-in-the-house and the male dream of the ideal woman. Further, it could symbolise the unconscious of the author’s wish to free herself from the ideal of the angel-in-the-house.

Jane stays true to herself during her quest for identity and independence. The frightening night in the Red Room causes her grow up overnight and having experienced true fear she is no longer afraid to stand up for herself against the patriarchal society. Miss Temple teaches her to repress her rage. Through the death of Helen and Bertha, Jane is freed from the male ideal of female identity; the angel-in-the- house and the demon. Jane’s quest for identity and independence comes together at Marsh End. She finds her good relatives at Marsh and overcomes the injustices by the bad relatives at Gateshead. Jane finds a stable ground and overcomes the rage repressed in her unconscious. In order to free herself in the patriarchal society Jane meets and overcomes: oppression by the Reed family and Mr. Brocklehurst, starvation at Lowood and during her wandering before reaching Marsh End, madness in the Red Room and at Thornfield and coldness by being lonely and by the way St. John treated her. Even though she longs for love she does not let Rochester or St. John exploit her and in the end she finds the equal relationship she longed for.

Bibliography

1. BRONTE ̈, C. (1999). Jane Eyre. Peterborough, Ont, Broadview Press.
2. BARRY, P. (2009). Beginning theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory. Manchester, UK, Manchester University Press.
3. FRIEDAN, B. (2001). The feminine mystique. New York, Norton.
4. PATMORE, C. (1887). The angel in the house. London, Cassell and Co.
5. http://rate.org.ro/blog2.php/1/a-feminist-approach-to-jane Feminist Approach to Jane Eyre Accessed 12/12/16
6. http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/thackeray/angel.html William Makepeace
7. Thackeray: The Angel in the House Accessed 25/04/17

Section A:

In this section I will be analysing Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, It is a prequel to English novelist Charlotte Brontë’s most prominent novel, Jane Eyre. This extract takes place in the latter half of the postcolonial novel, part three in section seven. In this essay, I am going to make a contextual linguistic analysis of Wide Sargasso Sea. In conclusion, I will compare the novel to its predecessor, Jane Eyre.

This extract is the third and final of Antoinette’s dream sequences. Antoinette has a believes that a female ghost resides in the Thornfield is a parallel of Jane Eyre, where she thinks that there is a ghost present.

‘The tree of life in flames’ the burning tree is a call back to part one section 2, this is the garden of Coulibri. This is also an allusion to the garden of Eden in the bible, which symbolises the access into eternal life. Also known as the fall over humankind this may echo Antoinette’s inevitable fate. The allusion can also extend to the book of exodus in the Bible, one of the most shocking books Bible, where God is in the form of a burning tree informing the protagonist Moses. Furthermore, fire is a powerful symbol throughout the novel. Fire is the ultimate damaging and redeeming force in Wide Sargasso Sea. The fire which takes place at Coulibri is an act of retribution and rebelliousness on the part of the neighbouring black community, but it destroys the life that Antoinette has known since she was a child. Both Coco the parrot and the moths that fly into the flames of candles throughout Antoinette’s and the husband’s honeymoon foreshadow Antoinette’s scorching suicide, through which she finally gains freedom at the end of the novel.

Antoinette’s first dream is as Coulibri, then at the Mount Calvary Convent and finally at Thornfield Hall. These different locations can be seen as a descending tri-colon, each location is more restricted in size. Thornfield hall in particular, is imprisonment for Antoinette. Moreover, it is her last act of rebellion while she burns down the house. This completes the plot in Jane Eyre, however in this way her fate is left ambiguous and open to interpretation.

Contextually, Rhys, like many other authors in the twentieth century, she drew concepts from Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud. These being dreams are expressions of psychological states. This technique is used to explore the inner minds of Antoinette and Rochester. Antoinette’s destruction can be viewed in two ways. A racial lens or a feminist one. It may be seen as a metaphor for the Caribbean’s revenge on their colonial masters. Or is may be seen as a revolt against a corrupt patriarchal system.

Jean Rhys displays a plethora of nature in this extract. With nouns such as: orchids, jasmine, bamboos, tree, ferns, stephanotis, This flowery image of foliage is very reminiscent of romantic writing. Specifically, the diversity and abundance in plant life depict the wealth of Thornfield Hall. It also portrays how slave masters have stolen from exotic countries.

The Thornfield Hall contains a stark contrast to other locations in the novel. The hall is described as having a ‘red carpet’ and the ‘sky so red’. This connotes images of hell and chaos. The symbol of hair is significant in this novel and Jane Eyre alike as well. In this extract, Rhys uses a simile to describe Antoinette’s hair.

‘The wind caught my hair and streamed out like wings’

The plural wings have connotations of a bird or an angel specifically when applied to humans in which this case it is. This creates a juxtaposition of an angel in a hellish environment. Jean Rhys employs hair in a contentious way. She displays the different dimensions of a traditionally female ideal of beauty and connects it to carnal desire, and in this case madness. Hair serves as its own mindset and cultural expectation on the female gender.

A large amount of the novel is written with a dreamlike quality and style. Rochester explains to Antoinette that Granbois appears to be ‘quite unreal and like a dream’ and after he spends time in the Caribbean, even the parts he narrates take on a dreamlike quality. In the dead of night after receiving a letter from Daniel Cosway that warns of Antoinette’s madness, Rochester goes for a walk in the forest. His description of walking is fluid and primitive and reminiscent of Antoinette’s forest dreams. ‘I began to walk very quickly, then stopped because the light was different. A green light. I had reached the forest and you cannot mistake the forest. It is hostile. The path was overgrown but it was possible to follow it’ (104).

By the time Antoinette has the third segment of her dream, Antoinette has transformed into Bertha Mason, a delusional woman whose only moments of clarity are inspired by flashes of rage. Locked in an attic of Thornfield, Antoinette has lost the ability to distinguish between memory and dream, and thus she removes all barriers between waking and sleeping in Wide Sargasso Sea.

Antoinette’s anguish at the corruption of her identity is also present in the final scene of her dream. The image of Coco the parrot jumping from a burning Coulibri parallel that of Antoinette jumping from a burning Thornfield. It suggests that Antoinette feels anguish at Rochester for subjugating her as her stepfather, another Englishman, subjugated Coco by clipping his wings. Her view of Rochester’s calls to ‘Bertha,’ an identity he imposed upon Antoinette, suggest Rochester’s role in this loss. While the doll’s house is an image of Antoinette’s childhood, it also suggests another identity Rochester creates for her; that of Marionette, a doll he can play with.

This ferocious dream does not only take place in Wide Sargasso Sea, but also in Jane Eyre, when Bertha Mason jumps to her death after burning Thornfield Hall to the ground. Antoinette stays innocent in Jean Rhys’s novel. Even though she gets to have her violent revenge in Jane Eyre, she only dreams of revenge in the prequel neo-Victorian novel, Wide Sargasso Sea.

In conclusion, the predecessor, Jane Eyre makes use of dreams as the windows to consciousness and deep foreshadowing. In rewriting Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys preserves these characteristics and goes further by making the whole text of Wide Sargasso Sea a somewhat dream. In Jane Eyre, the difference in the realm of dreams and being awake is as strong as Jane’s disposition. in Wide Sargasso Sea it is as feeble as Antoinette’s.

Section B:

In this section, I will be analysing Sea Violet by Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) written in the year 1916. This titular poem belongs to an anthology titled Sea Garden. I will also compare this poem to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Eagle. Written in 1851. In conclusion, I will discuss how both affect the reader and how their different styles do so.

I have decided to use both poems to discuss how they innovate stylistically. In H.D’s collection, she innovates stylistically through her themes and figurative language. She portrays themes of femininity, conformity and gender. These themes both have parallels connected to women and flowers alike. Sea Garden is innovative as it turns the feminisation of plant life into a socio-political declaration.

Sea Violet establishes empowerment for women, through the first stanza with weak adjectives such as fragile and torn to the last stanza with bright and powerful words such as: light, star and fire. This progression begins from weakness and ends with a newfound strength.

‘but who would change for these’ (line 10)

H.D explains how the greater blue violets flutter along the hill while the white violet is still ‘scented on its stalk’ it depicts that inner beauty is more durable and rare than outer beauty. Throughout history the colour purple symbolised innocence and the sea symbolises freedom. Put together they portray how with innocence comes freedom because there a fewer preconceived notions to keep you repressed.

This poem is filled with a lexis of colour: white, violet, blue. These colours are traditionally seen as gentle and pure. They capture the essence of the poem. Whereas The Eagle contains bold and dynamic, Sea Violet is vulnerable, with fricative adjectives such as: fragile, frail, flutter. These fricatives can create an airy effect. Similar to Sea Violet, The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson is filled with figurative language and a deeper meaning, despite being a short poem. Tennyson describes the Eagle in the air as:

‘Close to the sun’ (line 2)

Tennyson uses the device of hyperbole to exaggerate that the eagle is ‘sitting on top of the world’. Exploring endeavours that mankind has not.

Tennyson also employs figurative language in his first line:

‘He clasps the crag with crooked hands’ (line 1).

This use of alliteration focuses the reader’s attention specifically on the eagle’s actions. The ‘c’ consonant creates the crackling sound evokes sensory language. This generates a deep national geographic sensation of watching wildlife. These constant ‘c’ words generate a precise melody. Because of this, the reader’s are more likely to annunciate the words slowly and understand it in more depth.

Moreover, the Eagle is described as having ‘hands’. The choice of the eagle holding on with hands creates a stylistic similarity to human beings. Personification is used here to make the eagle seem more than just a simple-minded bird. This may stem from romanticism, it focused on freedom instead of formalism, individuality instead of conformality and imagination instead of reality. Romantic poets, like Tennyson, believed that nature was beautiful, and humans are the centre of nature. The romantics believed that humans should get in touch with their inner soul by appreciating the simple beauty of nature. Tennyson’s The Eagle clearly portrays an enthesis on the appreciation of nature.

Another stylistic choice in The Eagle is its narrative form. It seems like it begins in media res, it is not the traditional way a poem or narrative would generally start. The effect of this is that the reader is dropped right into the action. This stylistic choice is innovative as it skews the readers expectation and intrigues them to find out more.

The poem ends with the lines:

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls. (lines 5 and 6)

These final stanzas are compelling, it is ambiguous why the Eagle takes his dive, is he descending on his prey or is he enjoying the bright blue skies? This sense of ambiguity creates freedom for the Eagle to do whatever he pleases. The effect of using a simile in the final line creates a bold image to leave the reader with, in a sense it makes the poem memorable, the speed of the eagles descent being described as a ‘thunderbolt’ is an exhilarating image to leave the reader with.

Both poems feature romantic language, particularly Tennyson, they both have a lexis of nature, in Sea violet, there is: wind, sand-bank, sand-hill, hill and fire. In The Eagle, there is: sun, world, sea mountain and thunderbolt. The effect of these words is that they help set the tone and mood in the atmosphere. Sea Violet contains more calmer words and is a calm poem. On the other hand, The Eagle contains more passionate words and that is a more dynamic and lively poem.

Another comparison with the poems are masculinity and femininity. The Eagle is typically masculine with the titular character being male, and the only colour referred to in this poem is azure. A bright blue typically associated with men and masculinity. Whereas in Sea Violet, the colour violet is referred to multiple times. Traditionally associated with femininity and grace.

To conclude, H.D is trying to tell us that inner beauty and purity should be valued higher than outer beauty and tangible. She examines strength and the power it holds. The underlying is that there is more to a woman than what meets the eye. In The Eagle, however the appreciation for nature is much more simplistic, nonetheless very figurative. Sea Violet is deeper and complex which sets it apart with multifaceted meanings.

Bibliography

1. Ferguson, Margaret, Kendall, Tim and Salter, Mary Jo, eds, The Norton anthology of poetry, New York, Ny: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018

You might have heard the quote “follow your heart but take your brain with you” at least once in your life. Meaning, love without any hesitation but trust your reasoning when your head fights with you. Throughout Jane Eyre, Jane is described as a passionate but reasonable person. She proved reasonable when confronting her aunt, “You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity” (41). However, her passion devours her as her behavior is described as “Shaking from head to foot, thrilled with ungovernable excitement…” (40) warming up to confront her aunt. Leading up to one of the most difficult situations she’s had to encounter, she allows reasoning to do the talking for her, but once it becomes too much to handle, she releases her emotions and allows it to pitch in.

The tension between rational thought and emotions was clear throughout the entire book. In a scene where Rochester was disguised as a fortune teller he describes Jane’s character as he says “…reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms” (Brontë 182). At the moment she discovered that Rochester was still married, she realized she couldn’t listen to her heart, her love for him was irrelevant at this point. During this difficult situation, Jane questioned herself. Does she leave him? Does she marry him and become a mistress? As she wakes from her slumber the next day, her mind answers her troubles by telling her “ーLeave Thornfield at onceー” (Brontë 266). She allows reasoning to take control. She follows her head, proving Rochester’s description. Before leaving, Rochester continually begged for Jane’s forgiveness. Jane forgave him, on the spot. She tells the reader, “ーI forgave him all, yet not in words, not outwardly; only at my heart’s core” (Brontë 267). Forgiving allows you to move on peacefully, but it isn’t always said aloud. The most self preserving way of forgiving, is in the heart. She forgave him for her own peace.

Jane isn’t an improviser, she always has a plan before making any big decision. She leaves situations solely by reasoning. But, her decision of leaving Thornfield was spontaneous, it had to be done and soon. And she finds herself leaving due to her passion. Jane tells the reader that reason isn’t what guides her out of the town, but her passion. She explains, “As to my own will or conscience, impassioned grief had trampled one and stifled the other (268). Although she had her reasons for leaving the town, her sorrow guided her way.

While she was away from Thornfield, a man named St. John took her in. He eventually offers Jane a trip to India for a missionary trip, under one condition; that she marries him. St. John persists on the question. Jane is conflicted with her inner self. She feels, “Consent, then to his demand is possible: but for one item – one dreadful item. It is ーthat he asks me to be his wife…” (361). Jane knows marrying St. John would be dreadful, cold even. It would go against all her values and she wouldn’t be her happiest self. But, to her knowledge, Rochester is gone for good. So, even though St. John isn’t what she desires, she sees interest in his offer. She could leave her past behind and forever live in England. She ends up, once again, with her heart and mind at war. Jane almost gives in to his request, but something unexpected happens. Many would call it a hallucination, maybe from her heart’s deepest desires. A supernatural happening occured, causing Jane to change her mind: “I saw nothing, I heard a voice somewhere cry ‘Jane! Jane! Jane!’” (374). The voice was too familiar to her, she knew exactly who it was, or maybe her heart made her think it was her former lover, Rochester. She had to break free of St. John, as they were spending the day together, “I broke from St. John, who had followed, and would have detained me” (374). She listened to her heart and the so called voice calling her to return to her lover.

Jane originally left Rochester because he deceived her. Now she’s running full-speed back to him, seeming as if she’s going against herself and her morals. In reality, she is making the biggest decision ever to come across: marry Rochester, or marry St. John. Sure, St. John has never deceived her, but he wanted her hand in marriage for duty and service as a missionary. Jane realized his love wasn’t real and felt, “I daily wished more to please St. John, but to do so, I felt daily more and more that I must disown half my nature…” (Brontë -). She wanted a real love, a love for her and not what she could do, which St. John couldn’t offer. If she married him, all her morals would be thrown out of the window. Rochester on the other hand, did deceive her, but he offered a marriage full of love and luxury, something Jane deeply desired. Her emotions and thoughts united, because even after leaving Rochester and trying to leave her past behind, he was all she could think of. Jane’s heart belonged to Rochester and she did what she thought would be best for her. A relationship with equality and real love. During all this thought, Jane didn’t know that Rochester was widowed, her passion overruled her reasoning. Hearing his voice was enough to have her running back.

After making sure he was widowed, she returned for good. But there were some catches, many believe she took advantage of them, however. When she returns to Thornfield, she visits the house she stayed at, only to see that it was burned to the ground. The ex-butler of Thornfield Hall, explained the situation to Jane. Jane sits him down for a few questions and the butler tells her, “ーThornfield Hall is quite a ruin: it was burnt down just about harvest time”… “The fire broke out at dead of night, and before the engines arrived from Millcote, the building was one mass of flame” (379). The butler assured Jane that Rochesters late wife, Bertha, caused the fire out of spite, and it wasn’t the first time she tried. After everyone escaped the fire, Bertha jumped from the building, killing herself, leaving Rochester widowed. Now that she is assured she’d be no mistress, she’s more interested in Rochester, questioning the butler, “You said he was alive?”… “Where is he?” (382). The butler answers her, telling her he still resides in England, and was unable to ever leave, for he was blind, one eye knocked out, another hand crushed and amputated, and the other eye inflamed. Jane now sees her opportunity of marrying without going against her morals, somewhat, and asks to see Rochester. The butler tells her where he resides and she takes a trip.

After seeing him for the first time after leaving him, she speaks to the reader, “And, reader, do you think I feared him in his blind ferocity? ーif you do, you little know me” (384). She was now reunited with her love and her deepest desires came true. Her decision to return to Rochester after hearing his voice was made solely by her emotions, by the fire she still had in her heart for him. But, after seeing that he was crippled and widowed, her reasoning made the final decision for her, she wouldn’t leave him again. Some might say she enjoyed having Rochester finally depend on her. In the Victorian era, it was common for the wife to depend on the husband, but not in this case. Jane never wanted a marriage where she was dependent on a man, she wanted equality, and now that she saw he was crippled and blind (and let’s not forget single), she could have her wish. Jane tells the reader, “He saw nature, he saw books through me; and never did I weary of gazing for his behalf”. (-) Jane was depended on by Rochester, this brought her joy, knowing he would do anything for her, anything to marry her and have her as his hand and eyes.

Needless to say, Jane married him. She addresses the reader informing us, “Reader, I married him” (399). She returned to Rochester and Thornfield where her heart belonged. Without the constant war her heart and head had, she wouldn’t have made it as far as she did. She would have married St. John, living an unhappy, dependent life, with no equality. She followed her heart, but dragged her brain along with her. There was always reasoning behind her passion, and always passion behind her reasoning. Without one another, Jane would have continued a long, dreadful life.

In the Victorian period, the view on women was around an image of women as both inferior and superior to men. They did not have legal rights, could not vote and had to pay for the labor force after the Revolution. Women have to do their inner space, clean their homes, eat their homes and raise their children. Men control over the whole property. The rights and privileges of Victorian women were very limited for both single and married. Women was subjected to many forms of verbal and physical violence and had no right to divorce. Marriage for countless women at that sometime means happiness and stability, whereas many Victorian people, call marriage as a legally binding contract.

The Victorian victory of Great Britain is regarded as the rise of the British industrial revolution and the summit of the British empire. The 64-year-old power of Victoria, the longest ruler in British history after II.Elizabeth, witnessed major changes in the 19th century. According to many historians of the Victorian Revolution, the 1832 reform movement is the real beginning of this cultural era. Significant historical transformations such as labor exploitation and workers rights, organized educational institutions, and the abolition of slavery, which came up with the industrial revolution, have emerged during this period. According to Mina Urgan, she summarized the Victoria period, which is conceptually filled with contradictions and conflicts: the desire to respectable with family values and the hypocrisy it brings, sacred finding of unloved marriages, narrow-mindedness and religious bigotry, lack of respect for money, unjust economic order, hatred (1156). According to mentality of that period, women had two choices: either to fall into the street and become a bad woman, or to be chaste woman, maintaining her home life. The imprisonment of a middle class woman in the house started with fun, organized parties and shopping centers, but that was not the only problem that made life diffucult. Women had to comply with etiquitte. It was expected that women should be married at 21 years of age and have children. The only working areas seemed to be marriage, and their wives seemed to have bosses. She was also given the task of keeping her husband’s heart pleasant and providing her child with moral education. It has not taken too long for women, both in the workplace and at home to face diffucult circumstances, to start appealing. In the late 1840’s, the the first organization of women’s movement began to take shape. The movement slowed down, but there were more to get the desired results. With the increase of that female authors, women were given the right to engage with science, allowed to enter more areas, but in legal sense, women could not get the value that they needed to see. Some of the legal reforms were too shallow. For example; In 1857, marriage legislation was reformed, but unfortunately this reform was for from the law in which decisions were taken in favour of the man.

Love, courtesy, and marriage concepts … Marriage symbolizes not only Victorians, but also unity, and the importance of which, for the society as a whole, is undeniably centralized. It constitutes a tradition that transcends temporary, cultural and national boundaries. The marriage ritual may have different contours depending on the time and geographic location of the participants, but the unity of the two people is always in the nucleus and the ceremony involves the preservation of the fidelity of the couples. Marriage in the Victorian Ages was the most important transition ritual in the lives of young women. Most women married at least once. Later they were accepted as the property of your husband. During the Victorian Ages, a marriage controlled by parents, was deemed necessary for the family’s long-term interests, as well as the couple. Marriage is seen as a natural and expected role in which the woman meets her instinctual needs, protects her species, provides appropriate tasks, and protects her from the shock and danger of the rude and competitive world. In the privacy of the house, better instincts; Sensitivity, sacrifice, innate purity can play freely. Women should be kept safe at home; perfect harmony, obedience, innocence and sophistication will make it easier to sacrifice in the competitive public world. This conservative ideal, Alfred Tennyson’s 1847 poem says in Princess:

Man for the field and woman fort he hearth;

Man for the sword, and fort he needle she;

Man with the head, and woman with the hearth;

Man to command, and woman to obey;

All else confusion. (Lane,1996)

Charlotte Bronte was an English 19th century writer whose novel Jane Eyre is considered a classic of Western literatüre. Born on April 21, 1816, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, Charlotte Bronte worked as a teacher and governess before collaborating on a book of poetry with her two sisters, Emily and Anne, who were writers as well. In 1847, Brontë published the semi-autobiographical novel Jane Eyre, which was a hit and would become a literary classic. Her other novels included Shirley and Villette. She died on March 31, 1855, in Haworth, Yorkshire, England. The role of a single woman in the nineteenth century is still essentially fulfilling the two holy things: being a wife and mother and being trained only to do housework. In her novel, Jane Eyre Brontë attempts to portray the traditional motif of a young girl who is facing difficulties in her work on issues such as her role, condition, gender, social class, her love for society, and her marriage. Although marriage based on money or financial security is common when women face difficulties in the nineteenth century, Brontë in Jane Eyre tries to bring the idea that marriage is not merely a social contract, a love marriage is needed. Brontë draws attention to the necessity of equality in marriage. She creates Jane as a woman who struggles against social contracts and marriage in the nineteenth century when women are always portrayed as subordinates.

‘‘If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth – so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count it throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot ’’ (Bronte 405)

The above quote clearly demonstrates that Jane is aware of her action against the social contract and the marriage institution: she insists that the principles need to be changed.

In the novel Jane Eyre the female protagonist is trying to fight to marry comfortably. Although it is very difficult, despite its social status, property, family relationships and traditional perceptions of marriage, the female hero may be with her husband, who was elected in equality marriage. It seems that Jane Eyre uses the issue of marriage as a critic of the status of women in the nineteenth century. Since marriage is one of the dominant positions of women at that time, this thesis aims to analyze the nineteenth-century representation of marriage, particularly in relation to the position of women in Jane Eyre.

It is safe to say that despite fleeting moments of humour, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1848) is not a funny book. Nonetheless, the ‘low, slow ha! ha!’ of Bertha Rochester is a prevalent refrain that has received wide-ranging critical attention. The examination of laughter beyond Bertha’s celebrated utterances has, however, been neglected. Laughter itself is an involuntary physiological response often, but not exclusively catalysed by humour. In Jane Eyre, the presence of laughter, or indeed the lack of laughter is informed by the increasing tension about women’s capacity as forces of power. Etiquette manuals such as Sarah Ellis’ The Daughters of England (1842), seek to stabilise the position of women in society by reiterating the dominant cultural discourse that ‘women […] must be contented to be inferior to men’. By the mid-nineteenth century theories of laughter clarified that laughter asserts a superiority incongruent with women’s societal role.

Thomas Hobbes (1586-1679) posits that superiority is engendered through the ostensible difference between the object of ridicule and the perception of oneself, arguing that ‘laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves by comparison with the infirmity of others’. The incongruence of female laughter and humour in Jane Eyre, exposes the flawed cultural ideologies that disempower women, and foregrounds the role of social performance and self-presentation in relation to gender and class. Laughter in Jane Eyre is an infrequent occurrence that is seldom expressed, particularly by women, with the sudden visceral expulsion that Hobbes posits as a sign of superiority. Its covert operations are elucidated by Brontë’s densely packed ironic humour. Ironic humour codifies the expression of superiority and encourages the reader to laugh derisively at the object of ridicule.

A notable example is young Jane’s interaction with Mr. Brocklehurst, head teacher of Lowood School: “Do you know where the wicked go after death?” “They go to hell,” was my ready and orthodox answer. “And what is hell? Can you tell me that?” “A pit full of fire.” “And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there forever?” “No, sir.” “What must you do to avoid it?” I deliberated a moment: my answer when it did come was objectionable: “I must keep in good health, and not die’’ ( p.39). Jane’s juvenile appropriation of religious doctrine and Brocklehurst’s rigid solemnity facilitates the ironic humour. It is enhanced by the incongruity between their social statuses, and the reversal of the typical power balance between adult and child. Jane’s final response which resembles repartee, a comic mode of one-upmanship characterised by witty ripostes, asserts superiority and encourages the reader to laugh at Brocklehurst, who’s sober questions are undercut. The juxtaposition of Jane’s ‘orthodox’ and ‘objectionable’ answers presents a knowing quality that confutes her self-presentation as an innocent child. The narrative framing gives Jane retrospective control over the dominant authorities that inhibit her freedom of speech.

For Linda Robinson, ‘irony masks resignation to a situation one cannot alter or control’. Robinson’s assessment feeds into Brontë’s ironic humour which encapsulates her and Jane’s resignation to their subordinate societal role as women, but dually enacts a retaliation through the covert expression of superiority and the evocation of the reader’s derisive laughter. The ‘distinct feeling of satisfaction and a slight ripple of laughter’ produced by Jane’s retrospectively orchestrated deployment of wit, is mirrored in her adult interactions with Rochester. Jane’s utilisation of the rhetorical devices of wit, repartee and wordplay, foreground her self-presentation as an intellectual equal to Rochester, exemplified by her retaliation to his obtuse examination of her watercolours: “Where did you get your copies?” “Out of my head.” “That head I see on your shoulders?” “Yes sir.” “Has it other furniture of the same kind within?” “I should think it may have: I should hope- better” (p.146). Jane combats Rochester’s implied suggestion that her work is a mimic by literalising her response to his question.

Rochester’s wry retort, ‘that head I see on your shoulders?’ appropriates Jane’s literalisation of the word ‘head’ into his own response and glosses over her deliberate evasion, enjoining them in repartee. Concurrently, the word-play embedded in ‘head’, a synonym for both wit and intelligence, creates a thematic undercurrent that foregrounds the role of wit in asserting intellectual superiority. Jane maintains control over Rochester through the modal verbs ‘should’ and ‘may’ which refrain from a confirmative declaration. Repartee’s ironic posturing enables Jane to express her intellectual superiority through dialectic one-upmanship, without patently disrupting the social order enforced by class and gender. Rochester recognises that Jane’s ironic humour and suppression of laughter is a product of these constructs. His erotectic query: ‘Do you never laugh, Miss Jane Eyre? to which he replies: Don’t trouble yourself to answer […] The Lowood constraint still clings to you somewhat; controlling your features, muffling your voice and restricting your limbs; and you fear in the presence of a man and a brother- or father, or master, or what you will- to smile too gaily, speak too freely or move too quickly (p.162), links Jane’s restricted expression to patriarchal dominance, whilst simultaneously enacting exactly that by silencing her voice. Rochester’s positing of Lowood school as a correlative to her constrained manner suggests that religion also influences Jane’s lack of laughter. Brocklehurst’s demarcation of Jane as ‘interloper and alien’ (p.78) due to her outspoken response to his stringent promotion of religious doctrine (p.39), recalls the Puritanical promotion of piety through restraint.

Restraint as a feminine ideal is also emphasised in the introductory chapter of The Daughters of England, which posits that a measured decorum is a woman’s Christian duty (p. 6-9). Puritanical overtones are evident in Jane’s narrative framing of the unrestrained laughter of Lady Blanche Ingram. Jane notes of the ‘greatly admired’ beauty (p.158): ‘she laughed continually; her laugh was satirical’ (p.200). Jane’s figurative embellishment of the laugh’s perennial audibility transforms it into a constant reminder of her own lack of freedom and inferiority to Blanche’s social and physical superiority. Its ‘satirical’ function is intertwined with Blanche’s caustic humour, reflected in her satirisation of governesses as loathsome or laughable demons. Her jibe ‘half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous, and all incubi’ (p.205), sets up Jane as an object of ridicule in a public setting in keeping with Hobbes Theory of Superiority. The superiority Blanche’s humour enacts, in addition to her laugh’s aural resonance, an abrasive ‘Ha!’ (p.208), positions her behaviour as antithetical to the decorum of the ideal Christian woman advanced in The Daughters of England. Ellis’ contemporaneous etiquette manual encourages the cultivation of appropriately feminine laughter by positing ‘the loud laugh as indicative of the vulgar mind’. Her advice foregrounds laughter’s inherent paradox: it is an involuntary physical response that is equally a performative social expression. Ellis amplifies this paradox by repurposing Lord Byron’s ‘The Bride of Abydos’ (1813) to facilitate her teachings: Who has not waited for the first opening of the lips of a celebrated belle, to see whether her claims would be supported by, “the mind, the Music breathing from her face”. Ellis’ allusion to Byron’s ‘Bride’ presents an idealized poetic representation of femininity as achievable through attention to social etiquette, whilst concurrently arguing that laughter is an innate physiognomy.

The paradox exposes the flawed cultural ideologies that shapes the social performance and self-presentation of women including ‘celebrated belle[s]’ like Blanche. Ellis’ etiquette manual underscores the social mores that colour female expressions of laughter to which Blanche’s giggle in response to Rochester’s ironic parody of their rumoured engagement, ‘remember that you are my wife’ (p.214), corresponds. Its gentle, musical resonance confutes Jane’s representation of Blanche’s chastising ‘Ha!’ (p.208). The contrast suggests that Jane’s depiction of Blanche is partially coloured by subjectivity. Equally, the shift to gigging, a sign of femininity and therefore inferiority, emphasises Blanche’s acknowledgement of her subservience to Rochester. The involuntary physiological blush the jest concurrently occasions, ‘she giggled, and her colour rose’ (p.214), reveals that the fear of ridicule catalyzes her laughter. John Morreall argues that laughter can be stimulated by negative emotion explaining that when we feel under attack ‘we are motivated to react in various ways that have the potential of improving our situation’. That the giggle performatively endorses Rochester’s superiority, suggests that for Blanche ‘the potential of improving [her] situation’, means accepting her subservience as a woman and a wife. Jane’s eligibility as a marriageable commodity is advanced by her lack of laughter.

The cultural currency of her puritan restraint is reflected in clergyman St. John River’s proposal of marriage (p.464). Laughter, its femininity or indeed its lack, is positioned as a signifier of a woman’s moral worth and suitability as a spouse. The comparable effects of this on Blanche and Jane, two women of disparate social positions, demonstrates that the flawed cultural ideologies that shape female expression transcends class boundaries. Jane expresses her retaliation to the cultural limitations imposed on women’s expressiveness, rather incongruently through an unuttered monologue: Women too feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties…they suffer from too rigid a restrain…it is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more, learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex (p.130). Jane’s eloquently constructed thoughts on liberty are ironically interrupted by the ‘low, slow ha! ha!’ (p.126) of Rochester’s incarcerated, mentally-ill wife Bertha; who’s laugh Gail Griffin posits as ‘the most eloquent utterance in the novel’. Griffin’s critique highlights the capacity of laughter as a tonal language. That Jane’s verbal eloquence is met with a non-verbal reverberation from another unliberated woman, produces a dialogue between the two communicative forms. Bertha’s staccato laugh rhythmically underscores Jane’s thoughts, producing a sonic abstraction of Jane’s own un-vocalised anger. The antithetic parallelism between the two forms of communication magnifies the retaliation against the cultural and physical restrictions imposed on society’s inferiors.

The collusion between the echoed sentiments recalls Henri Bergson’s argument that ‘laughter appears to stand in need of an echo […] it is something which would be prolonged by reverberating from one to another […] our laughter is always one of the group’. Bertha’s laugher which is ‘distinct, formal, mirthless’ (p.126), sets her apart from the females in the novel who share ‘ejaculations, tremors and titters’ (p.223). Her solitary laugher appears to align her with Jane, who’s non-participation in communal laughter exemplifies her ostracisation from the group. However, the ‘articulate, clear, well defined’ sound of Bertha’s ‘ha!’ (p.126), in accordance with Bergson’s theory, opposes the mirrored reverberations of group laughter. The similitude between Bertha’s laugh and Blanche’s chastising ‘Ha!’ (p.208) transforms it into a prophetic, critical retaliation against Jane’s rejection of the power imbued to her through her unexpected financial inheritance (p.xx), and her subsequent subordination to Rochester through marriage. Within the context of a discussion about the power of laughter to expose the cultural ideologies that disempower women, to characterise Bertha’s laugh as nothing more than a metaphorical device, would be to do her role in the novel a disservice. Bertha’s laugh is a far-reaching cry of retaliation; a strong, powerfully audible human response to cultural ideologies that not only deprive women of power, but encourage them to conform to the hegemony that fails them. Jane’s only vocalisation of laughter is occasioned by the realisation that she holds influence over Rochester’s emotional state: I laughed and made my escape, still laughing as I ran upstairs […] “I see I have the means of fretting him out of his melancholy for some time to come” (p.506). The dubious extent of Jane’s ‘escape’ from the patriarchal constructs of society are elucidated by returning to Sarah Ellis’ The Daughters of England: Women, in their position in life, must be contented to be inferior to men; but as their inferiority consists chiefly in their want of power, this deficiency is abundantly made up to them by their capability of exercising influence. As Jane willingly laughs away her power in favour of influence over Rochester, it is not hard to determine who really gets the last laugh.

There have been various approaches applied to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso sea. The struggles of women in the Victorian era in finding their identities and gaining acceptance within a male dominated society is evident in both novels. This essay will look into and compare a feminist and psychoanalytical approach to the novels in depth. Bronte’s emphasis is on dreams, with Jane constantly battling between her ID & Ego, in comparison to Antoinette who only desired an ideal life. Moreover how both protagonists are surrounded by co dependant relationships which both women refused to conform to. Similarly, Jane and Antoinette allowed their psychological state to guide them to breakthrough through these moral challenges and issues, in order for them to find their identities.

Bronte and Rhys disclose pivotal moments of their own personal experiences throughout the novels. For instance, Bertha Mason like Rhys was a heavy drinker. Therefore Rhys feels emotionally connected with the character of Bertha from ‘Jane Eyre’. Her inspiration leads to the creation of the post-colonial novel, Wide Sargasso Sea. Women who did not fit in to an image of stereotypical Victorian woman are likened to ‘strange birds’, an outcast from society.

In patriarchal Victorian society, Women were objectified, viewed as a possessions of men and expected to be subservient in their behaviour. For example, a woman’s social status was recognised by the husband’s class status, unless single she was then recognised by her father’s class status, but predominantly the husbands status defined a women’s’ social identity. The dependency on men is unremittingly illustrated in both novels. For instance, Jane’s cousin John Reed reminds Jane of her dependency and status in society ‘you are a dependant’ exemplifies the narrow mindedness and supremacy of the Victorian man. Equally Antoinette’s life is controlled by the men in her life. This is apparent in wide Sargasso Sea when her father died, her mother married Mr Mason in order to save the family from hardship. Mr Mason uses his authoritative position as Antoinette’s step father and makes important life decisions for her which she is expected to conform to. First a boarding school and then an arranged marriage to ‘best suiter’ Rochester whom she barely knows. This strongly suggests how both protagonist were experiencing subjugation and repression of their inner voice.

A feminist analysis of both novels highlights the gender inequality both protagonists experienced. Women had no political rights and were expected to be comfortable in the role of the home in the Victorian era. Jane and Antoinette echo one another’s repressed desires and passions. Jane is plain and fits into the role of an ideal Victorian woman, she is a heroine, one who is very confident. She is able to speak the truth against governing and authoritative figures in her life since childhood. Mrs Reed for example …’can see all you do and think…, …’how you wish me dead’ suggesting how Jane was conscious of people’s behaviour towards her as ‘unjust’. In contrast to Jane, Antoinette does not fit the image of an ideal Victorian woman and is therefore an outcast. Moreover, both women rebel against societal norms, wanting their inner voices’ heard. The novels explore how they fight for individual identity, gender status and how the two protagonists struggle in the realm of a patriarchal society.

The notion of stigma attached rights of women within society. A stereotypical Victorian male, The significance of Edward Rochester the Jane and Antoinette’s life. ‘My master’ exemplifies how this was embedded into the woman of the time and a constant reminder of the undervaluing position of women in the patriarchal society. There is a mutual attraction between Jane and Rochester when she amazes him with her intellect. The relationship is one of passion and balance, Rochester tries to forcibly seize Janes power ‘ I will clasp these bracelets on these fine wrists’ reflects the ownership and the imprisonment women faced, a reminder of the power and control that men had over women and how marriage enslaved women to the system. In contrast to this, Jane is able to express to Rochester how the relationship is not defined by social class or gender as she ‘need a man to complete her’ but ‘spirit that addresses your spirit’ implying how Jane refused to conform to the patriarchal system and staying true to her morals,

Antoinette is seen as the significant other to Jane. She contests Rochester’s masculinity and is not submissive towards him like Jane, as their relationship was based on his mere sexual gratification and not love. Antoinette evokes insecurities in Rochester as she would be deemed as a deviant to the Victorian societal norms and a threat to Rochester’s reputation. As a result Rochester exercises his patriarchal power over Antoinette in confining her into the ‘dark gloomy halls’ in the attic of Thornfield Hall. Implying once Rochester has manipulated her into trusting him, he entraps her to his state and silences her inner being driving her to ‘madness’ when he calls her with a different name ‘Bertha’ stripping her from her identity.

A Freudian theory in both novels, exemplifies how both authors used symbolic motifs, for instance Bertha is locked away as a reflection of Rochester’s hidden secrets.

Rochester incites the desires and passions of both women that are repressed and only evident within their dreams. Bertha wishes her inner desires to be fulfilled. She is idealistically dreaming of the idea to live in England happily with her husband (quote). Perhaps she becomes a ‘powerless outcast for love’, because she was unfortunate to have a ‘mad’ mother who did not educate her with appropriate values. Bertha’s dream evokes her madness to set fire to Thornfield Hall she commits suicide but leaves a part of her in Rochester when he loses his sight as a result to striping Antoinette of her identity and causing her to lose her psychological state due to Rochester’s narcissistic behaviour towards Antoinette, her setting fire is a symbolic reaction to her childhood trauma and her attempt to take back control and ultimately death as her only way out of the patriarchy.

Janes childhood is repressed and she is forced to contain her inner child by Mrs Reed when she is locked away in the red room due to her feisty temperament. This is where Jane experiences her first dream the trauma of which stays with her throughout her adult life. However her final dream enables her to reconcile her Id, ego and superego. She senses the calling of Rochester in her dream almost like a God like call, a spiritual awakening. This allows her intuition to guide her to true ‘longing love’ and survive in the patriarchal society. After finding her identity and becoming ‘equal’ to Rochester in status and wealth, Jane marries Rochester and lives a happy life where both are seen as one ‘…Blest- Beyond what language can express.’

To conclude, Various theoretical approaches have been applied to both novels however a feminist theory is a particularly dominant one and ties in with strongly with the themes of both novels.

In this essay as you can see, I will mention the Bildungsroman which are samples of Victorian age English literature. As a result of research, you can find answers to questions such as: How was the Victorian age? How affected in literature? What is Bildungsroman? What are the features of Bildungsroman? How did it come about? How were the characters in the novels?

Victorian age that marked the 19th century, various scientific, technological and medical occurred. There was also a population increase due to these developments. Changing affected the country deeply. The public encouraged hard work and respect. Political movements and especially women phenomenon emerged. People were in wealth. Britain was in abundance in the 19th century. There was development with the industrial revolution. However, many negative changes occurred in society. The bans announced during this period were quite unusual. Society had a patriarchal structure. Individuals had responsibilities towards the family and discipline was dominant at home. Suppressing all kinds of sexual emotions and activities was quite common. For this reason, the sexual parts in the Bible were deleted and a new Bible was printed. With this social structure and moral perception, some movements arose and literature influenced by these movements. These movements were determinism, historicism, sentimentalism, idealism, etc. The features of the period were the subject of English literature. Of course, some criticized this period. Novels gained importance as the popularity of literature increased.

So, what is the Bildungsroman in this age? As the word Bildung means developing thing. A process of formation is highlighted here. It is a literary genre that focusing on the progression of the hero and explaining his current situation. From this point of view, we can say that Bildungsroman is realistic. This novel has a young character and is expected to reach maturity over time. The novel begins with explaining what the character has experienced since childhood and ends when he is an adult individual. Also, we see the effects of movements in such novels. This term was first introduced by Karl Morgenstern in 1819, however, it was popularized by Wilthem Dilthey in 1905. This term called coming-of-age novel. The name is used less. In general, if we look at the features of the Bildungsroman, it has three features. Firstly, a Bildungsroman relates to growing up a person who tries to adapt to life conditions and gets experiences. Secondly, the character suffers a loss before embarking on a journey. The purpose of a Bildungsroman is maturity and character begins to struggle with ever-increasing hardships. Finally, the genre has a conflict between the main character and society. The character accepts society’s perceptions of value, gives up mistakes, and helps others when the character is mature. All of the Bildungsromans contain a thematic pattern and elements. We can analyze step by step. It comprises a child without mother or father (probably stepfather), a conflict with one of the family members (especially father), conflict of generations, the child leaves home and enters a larger society to have interaction with other people, the child receives either institutional education or self-education, life experiences and seeks for professional and social achievement, professional and society requirements, the character remembers his/her painful days and suffers, after physical alteration, alters morally and psychologically. Thus, formation completes. These stages reveal the system of bildungsroman. In this way, it makes it easy for the reader to identify the Bildungsroman. There are also narrative strategies. These are autodiegetic narration ( first person singular), representing chronotope (First is formation time, secodly is time of telling.), directly narration, ironic tone and social experiences. The events are transferred in a classical way, directly to the reader in chronological order. So far, I talked about what a Bildungsroman should have and how it should be. If we come to the period writers, these are a few authors. It is Charles Dickens who marked the Victorian Age and reflected the injustices of the period. Dickens had a bad childhood and had to work before completing his education. He wrote many novels and short stories. His two best-known works are David Copperfield and Great Expectations. Another writer is Charlotte and Emily Bronte. Bronte sisters inspire from experiences and reflected on their works. The most known works are Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) and Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte).

Jane Eyre and David Copperfield are the two most important novels. Jane Eyre of Charlotte Bronte is about the love between two persons, religious repression and male supremacy. It supports women’s rights. This work effects from Romanticism movement. The author inspires by own life. Jane has no parents. She starts to living her aunt-in-law. There are other children at home and they never get along. Jane is sent to boarding school by aunt-in-law and gets rid of her. Although hardships, she makes great friendships at school. She loses her best friend in an epidemic Typhus. Jane leaves the school as a teacher and gets a job. She takes care of a child and then becomes friend with the child’s father (Mr.Rochester). Mr.Rochester is married and he keeps his wife in loft. After learning this, Jane leaves home with disappointment. Jane looks for a job in a town, stays at st.John home.John proposes marriage to Jane but does not accept. She hears sound of Mr.Rochester at a moment, goes to see the Mr.Rochester. The house burns, his wife dies, Mr.Rochester loses one’s sight. They decide to get married, Mr.Rochester is treated and sees their first child.

David Copperfield of Charles Dickens is about a child growing up with stepfather, social relations, education system. His father dies before David was born. He grows up with his mother and childminder. After a while his mother marries someone. This man is tough and rude. His father dies before David was born. He grows up with mother and childminder. After a while his mother marries someone. This man is tough and rude. David is constantly beaten and marginalized. Davis is sent to boarding school. His mother dies with new baby. Stepfather sends to London to work but he does not like where he goes. He decides to find his aunt and finds. He begins a new life and goes to school. He is successful in lessons and becomes a lawyer. David marries a girl named Dora and Dora falls, dies. Later, marries with Agnes, his schoolmate. He is happy now.

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

(David Copperfield Mr Micawber’s advice to David Copperfield, Chapter 12)

“Ride on! Rough-shod if need be, smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on over all obstacles, and win the race!”

(David Copperfield James Steerforth to David Copperfield, Chapter 28)

John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me…every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shrunk when he came near…the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence—more frequently, however, behind her back.

( Jane Eyre, Chapter 1-4)

“You have saved my life; I have a pleasure in owing you so immense a debt. I cannot say more. Nothing else that has being would have been tolerable to me in the character of creditor for such an obligation; but you, is different—I feel your benefits no burden, Jane…I knew…you would do me good in some way at some time; I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you”

( Jane Eyre, Chapter 11-16)

Both novels have common themes patterns that I mentioned above. Both have a hard life, causes, and what they are. David and Jane are fatherless or motherless children. They struggle with life on their own. There is constant pain in their lives. Despite all these experiences, one becomes a teacher and the other becomes a lawyer. Charlotte and Charles effect determinism, historicism. Writers base on in chronological order. For David, has sentimentalism in addition to melodrama and idealism. Sentimentalism contains childhood and suffering experiences, pastoral setting. To give an example of determinism, Jane becomes an independent woman and teacher. In David, Betsey is an independent woman. Flat is usually one feature. Static does not change. Dynamic is change. David is round of flat. Jane is a narrative of love. The narration of both is the autodiegetic.

We call this kind of novel Bildungsroman because it includes all the stages I wrote. To both writers are inspired by his own life, one of the characters is female and the other is male. As a result of, in line with this information, Bildungsroman is a literary genre that has specific features.

Published in 1847, Jane Eyre shocked Victorian England. Written in a form of a Bildungsroman, usually reserved for the male voice, the story follows Jane’s journey of maturation as she develops her own identity. We see her grow from a child with unfortunate circumstances into an assertive woman who is able to marry a man, Edward Rochester as his equal. Victorian England was in an era of rapid economic growth and social upheaval as the sharp divisions between classes began to be disrupted. Charlotte Bronte, who had written under the male pseudonym Currer Bell in order to be taken more seriously, was both criticised and praised as she challenged gender norms by putting the spotlight on a woman who was neither exceedingly beautiful or born into affluence, yet able to steadily reach happiness by being headstrong and independent. Bronte was able to speak a truth that let many Victorian women find relatability and comfort within this book, maintaining its popularity even to today.

It was surprising to see Jane Eyre front and centre on the sheet for text suggestions for this assignment. Many of the feminist values emphasized in Bronte’s work are still if not more relevant today. Prior to conducting research into different manifestations of Jane Eyre I was at a loss at how others could appropriate this story into something with new meaning. When I stumbled upon Wide Sargasso Sea I was honestly shocked at how Jean Rhys was able to give new purpose to the story Charlotte Bronte had begun. Published in 1966, over a century after Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea lends an outlet for the Creole Woman’s voice. The main character is not Jane this time but instead Bertha, the elusive bestial madwoman locked up in the attic and Rochester’s first wife. Jean Rhys writes:

‘The Creole in Charlotte Bronte’s novel is a lay figure- repulsive which does not matter, and not once alive, which does. She is necessary to the plot, but always she shrieks, howls and laughs horribly, attacks all and sundry – off stage. For me she must be right on stage.’

In Jane Eyre, Bertha is a menacing and sinister presence. She is described as a ‘clothed hyena’ and the reader never truly understands her as a person. She is only another one of Jane’s obstacles in her journey of self-empowerment. Delving into this project with minimal knowledge of the plight of the Creoles, Bertha was one of the characters I gave little thought to. Jean Rhys herself was a Creole and similarly to how Bronte weaved pieces of her own life into her story, Rhys was able bring to the surface a side of Bertha and Bronte’s work that is both uncomfortable yet critical in understanding women’s voices. Although Jane Eyre is still widely celebrated today for its feminist values, which challenged a context that heavily rejected and suppressed women’s self-agency, it lacks in intersectionality. Rhy’s post-colonial response to this has given a voice to a marginalized character and subsequently racial identity.

Wide Sargasso Sea exposes the circumstances that led the beautiful Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway to become Bertha Mason. It is revealed Rochester had married Antoinette for her hefty fortune, their union being one without love. As the majority of the story cover’s their honeymoon, the reader begins to realize Rochester is not what he seems in Jane Eyre. Antoinette’s struggle for a place of belonging stems from her delicate identity of being a Creole woman. Someone of European decent born into the West Indies, neither accepted by the black communities freed from Creole subjugation yet also unable to assimilate into European circles due the believed contamination of their blood due to the island tropical climate.

Antoinette confesses to Rochester: ‘’I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all.’’

Her sense of self is vulnerable due to her racial complications and unlike Jane who is able to further define herself as she matures, Antoinette falls deeper into uncertainty. The symbolism of the name is significant in understanding how identity is so important to characters like Antoinette who do not. Rochester renames Antoinette into Bertha upon realizing in horror she shares her name with her mad mother. Although Antoinette is indignant at first, she succumbs later when she feels hopeless. Antoinette’s renaming and censoring is evidently a metaphor for the subjugation of colonies. Rochester cannot and will not understand Antoinette and can only strip her of her last piece of identity and lock her away. Through Rochester and Antoinette’s relationship, Rhys reveals the imperialism that covertly lines the narrative in Jane Eyre and examines this acclaimed feminist story with new racial context. Jane, who is white, does not have to experience Rochester’s repulsion and xenophobia towards other cultures and her autobiography written 10 years after a happy marriage with him is pointedly named ‘Jane Eyre’. Jane escapes her husband’s control as she only agrees to marry him when her autonomy would not be compromised.

The use of voice and point of view is also significant in both texts in. In Wide Sargasso Sea, point of view changes multiple times throughout showing how difficult it for women and especially women with racially ambivalent backgrounds to sustain their own voice. Part 1 is written through the eyes of Antoinette, Part 2 is taken over by Rochester and Part 3 is told through Bertha, Antoinette’s new assigned fragmented identity. In this way Rhys is also to display Antoinette’s downfall. As Jane Eyre is an autobiography of sorts, Jane has full control over how her story is portrayed. She even is granted the power to address the reader with the line:

‘Reader, I married him’.

The way the two individual heroines’ use their voice is also indicative of the way they both develop into womanhood. As children, it is expected for their accounts to be somewhat unreliable, although Antoinette is more disjointed than Jane. However, from that point onwards, Antoinette’s only becomes more interrupted while Jane’s only becomes more sequential and organised.

Antoinette and Jane also seem to mirror each other. Jane has a similar experience of being locked up as a child where she also questioned her own sense of self. She faints from fright and awakens to a fire similarly to how Antoinette awakens to her own home burning as a result of the black community’s protests. They grow up with many hardships and the absence of familial love and also end up marrying the same man. In Jane Eyre, Antoinette seems to be a manifestation of Jane’s fear of Rochester’s ability to dominate and ruin her (mirror reference). The major aspect of themselves that is different is their racial background. This difference between them decides the fact that Antoinette must die in order for Jane to prosper even if their lives do seem to parallel each other.

Those familiar with Jane Eyre would already foresee the tragic ending awaiting Antoinette. Her fate is predetermined, only making her story more heartbreaking. Rhys makes use of foreshadowing to exemplify the hopelessness of her situation. On their honeymoon, Rochester already decides to hide her away in the attic as he says: ‘I drew a house surrounded by trees. I divided the third floor into rooms and in one room I drew a standing woman.’ Antoinette also seems to foresee the end as she dreams of her act of arson and suicide before committing to it: ‘Now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do’. She is still a character that cannot escape her death even when granted a voice.

Postcolonialism relied on an understanding of the drivers of colonialism to finally achieve momentum as a movement. Wide Sargasso Sea will inevitably be bound to the text it is so desperately trying to deconstruct. As I was doing some background research into the construction of each book, I thought that the title of Rhy’s work was brilliantly chosen and summative of the work as a whole. The Sargasso Sea is a calm area surrounded by more violent waters, resulting in it being overabundant in sargassum, a type of seaweed. However, it is within the confines of the stagnant waters of the Sargasso Sea where marine endangered species can breed and recuperate.

Sylvia Maurel says it best: ‘In its dormant waters, repetition has a creative function, both lethal and fecund, The Sargasso Sea is the seat of cyclical renewal, of creation within recreation.

Introduction

The relationship of mothers and their daughters has been brought out in many literary works by many authors. Feminist themes have been popular with authors because they are of high demand and they talk about the issues that affect women and try to bring these issues to the people concerned. Jean Rhys and Charlotte Bronte are among the many authors that have brought out a feminist theme in their books.

They have brought about the nature of the relationship between mothers and their daughters, the challenges that they go through and how they overcome these challenges. The two works by the authors are related in that one work is the rewrite of another or almost the duplicate of another and therefore almost all the themes are the same in both books

Thesis

This paper critically examines the nature of the relationship between women and their daughters in the works of Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea and the works of Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre. It compares the relationships in the two books and brings out the similarities and the differences. It also examines the way the two authors have brought out the mother characters and the daughter characters

About the authors

Jean Rhys is an author from the 20^th century who was born in Dominica. Her birth name was Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams. She schooled in a convent school and later on in a girls school in England. She was criticized in the girls’ school and that could have formed the basis of the feminist themes in her works.

She moved quit a lot in different towns and cities and had a lot of struggles especially after her dad died. She had trouble getting her first novel published and therefore she had to pause nude for a Britain based novelist to get funds to publish her novel. Jean started her writing career by writing short stories under the supervision of an English writer called Ford Madox Ford. Ford stated that her viewpoint and her themes were fueled by her outsider status. Jean wrote many novels with feminist views and themes

Charlotte Bronte was born of an Irishman called Patrick Bronte. She was from a big family of six children where two elder ones died early. The remaining four were home schooled and therefore they developed a strong bond with each other. This bond led them to engage in artistic works together which included poetry, tales and a lot of fantasy stories.

Charlottes writing career started almost immediately after her mother died and it was fueled by her two sisters because they mostly used to write together. After their aunt died, they had finished their first novels. Charlotte’s first novel which was called professor was not published. Her first novel to be published was Jane Eyre which she wrote immediately after her first novel.

Jane Eyre was the breakthrough of Charlotte’s writing career because it was very successful and got so much attention from publishers and the literary community. Charlotte’s works was not only admired but also criticized. Many people criticized her of being very emotional and full of anger.

Her themes were also very feminist and she was applauded for her ability to bring out the female protagonists in her books. She was also recognized for her ability to bring out the human nature of their characters. This made her different and unique from other novelists and authors because they lacked the human aspect or humanism in their characters

Comparison of the relationship between mothers and their daughters in the novels

Plasa states that there are a lot of similarities between the two novels that compare the relationship between mothers and daughters in both of them which is portrayed in the theme feminine protagonist (Plasa 21). Both authors portray both characters as young women who go through a lot of struggles in their life from a troubled childhood to a troubled life and marriage.

They both were raised from religious backgrounds and they have both experienced criticism and have been looked down upon by the richer and better off people. The difference between these novels is that Antoinette character is more emotional, has gone through more stressing experiences and is less mentally stable than the Jane character

Both authors have written about two young women who lived with a lot of struggles in their early life in harsh environments. This is one striking similarity of the novels.

Jane Eyre is a novel that describes the life of a young girl called Jane and describes the stages that she goes through in her life from her childhood at Gates head where her aunt and cousins mistreat her physically and emotionally, her education, her social life and her career. It describes the early years of Jane and all the struggles that she goes through as a child until she becomes of age. Charlotte states that Jane is orphaned at an early age and she goes to live with her harsh aunt who mistreats her. (Chapter 1. pg. 8)

She is then sent to lowood institution which is very strict but with better treatment than her aunt. While at this institution, she makes friends who immensely influence her personality and her character. Jean states that Jane spends more than eight years at lowood and therefore having enough influence that enables her to be the governess of the area.

Jane starts to experience even more trouble and suffering in her older years after the death of her aunt. She experiences a lot of misfortunes with her love life and also with her career but she finally settles down with Rochester with whom she gives birth a baby boy and they live happily until her death. The main themes in this novel are female protagonist, gothic imagery and religion and morality. The feminist theme has however been brought out more in the novel

Wide Sargasso Sea is a novel about a young heiress who has had an unhappy marriage in the Caribbean which makes her to relocate to England. The novel is mostly about the female protagonist called Antoinette who brings out her story from her childhood to her marriage to Mr. Rochester which was an arranged marriage.

This novel is written in three stages that is the childhood of Antoinette in Jamaica where she also describes her mother’s mental instability. The other part revolves around the marriage of Antoinette in Jamaica. This part also describes the causes of the downfall of Antoinette and the unhappiness of her marriage. This part makes the bulk of the novel because many activities and events occur in this part. The last part is a short part and it describes the last years of Antoinette’s life in Rochester’s mansion

The relationship between mothers and daughters in the two novels is shown in the feminist protagonists and the feminist themes in the two novels. Womanhood in Wide Sargasso Sea is related to issues of slavery and those of mental instability. Feminism is shown clearly in the character of Antoinette when she went to the convent school. The friends that she makes in the convent school that is Miss Germaine and Helene portray the feminist values that Antoinette adopts for example she learns what beauty and chastity is.

In this book, the independence of women characters both legally and financially depends on men within them. Antoinette’s mother sees the death of her husband as a second chance to start a new and get away from all the struggles that she has been through. Charlotte Bronte has also portrayed a Feminine protagonist in the novel Jane Eyre.

Female protagonist is shown through Antoinette by her romantic and passionate side which makes her more mature than the other children in her age. This can be shown in the novel where she says “each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever proudly interesting” (Charlotte 1, pg. 7).

Female protagonist is also shown when Jane admits that she is so attached to Helen and that she loves her and needs her. These words show the passion in her. This is shown in the novel where she says “No; I know I should think well of myself; but that is not enough; if others don’t love me, I would rather die than live… I cannot bear to be solitary and hated, Helen.” (Charlotte 8, pg. 60) There are various other ways that the female protagonist has been brought out in the novel

The novel Wide Sargasso Sea was an attempt to rewrite the story of Charlotte’s Jane Eyre. They therefore have almost the same themes and the character Jane is almost similar to the character Antoinette. Both characters in this novel grew up in an environment with limited Love.

However Jane is able to find herself and be a woman of her own identity, Antoinette still struggles to find her real self and who she really is. The gender differences are brought out in Wide Sargasso Sea as women are shown to be going through financial constraints because of the dominance of men.

Both authors show the sufferings that women go through in a society that is dominated by men. Antoinette’s mother rejects Antoinette because of her vulnerability to the discrimination that she goes through in her relationship and she thinks that Antoinette has a second chance to start again when her first husband dies. This poor relationship between Antoinette and her mother makes her so distrustful of people around her and makes her more emotionally unstable.

Both novels have feminist themes although the approaches taken by the authors are different for example in Wide Sargasso Sea, Jane has an idea of the place of women in the society and what they deserve while Antoinette does not have any idea of what a woman is in the society and she has no idea of the actions to take to change all the discriminations that occur in her life.

Jane also has quite a stable relationship with her mother even though her mother dies at an early age. Jean states that Antoinette had a poor relationship with her mother because of the difference in their beliefs and in what they want. (Part 2, 25-30)Antoinette is therefore practically lost in life and she cannot be happy and find peace and a sense of belonging like Jane does.

Wide Sargasso Sea although written almost in the same time as Jane Eyre, it brings out the female protagonist in a modern way and therefore brings out the conceptions of a modern women despite the same experiences as those of the female protagonist in Jane Eyre. Modern feminism can be said to be infused in the older feminism of the works of Charlotte.

Charlotte writes that in Jane’s world, women are seen to be under strict circumstances and they cannot therefore participate in the society as men can while in Antoinette’s world this restriction and repression is not there and women are a bit freer. Rhys therefore tries to show ways of dealing with the oppressions that women go through in a different and newer style and voice and even the structure of narration.

In the novel Wide Sargasso Sea, it is hard to determine what type of mother that Antoinette will be because of the many repressions both emotionally and physically that she is exposed to from her husband and by the lack of exposure of her identity which is caused by the experiences that she went through and the lack of happiness that existed in her life

Jean Rhys also depicts lack of faith in women to stop the oppressions that they are going through. She states that a woman cannot be successful in finding peace and equality. (Part 2, 103-104) In Jane Eyre, Jane is brought out as being mature and more developed that she has the resources to defend herself from all the oppressions that she experiences. Antoinette on the other hand cannot defend herself because she has not found herself and her identity and she cannot protect herself.

Both characters are distressed by their experiences and the oppressions that they undergo. Jane approaches these issues in a more loving and old way while Antoinette approaches these issues in a more diverse and contemporary way. In Jane Eyre, the author depicts that women can achieve their goals despite the struggles that they have to go through for example Jane gets what she wants in the end and she is finally happy despite all the struggles that she goes through

Conclusion

These two novels therefore show that women go through a lot of struggle but their success will depend with the setting that these women are in and their beliefs and the approaches that they take to solve these problems. The feminist themes however have been inspired by the backgrounds of the two authors, their experiences in life and how they dealt with the problems that they had. It was also inspired by the kind of friends that they had

Works Cited

Charlotte, B. Jane Eyre-Signet Classic. New York: Penguin Books USA. 1982

Rhys, J. Wide Sargasso Sea: Jean Rhys- Introduction. England: A. Deutch Publishers. 1966

Plasa, C. Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: Macmillan publishers. 2001