JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte Conventionality is not

JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte Conventionality is not morality Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018

date of first publication : 1847 genre · A hybrid of three genres: 1)the Gothic novel (utilizes the mysterious, the horrific ( Bertha Mason), the romantic ( the Byronic hero); 2)the romance novel (emphasizes love and represents the notion of lovers destined for each other); 3)the Bildungsroman (narrates the story of a character’s internal development as he or she undergoes a succession of encounters with the external world). The main quality of this novel is the voice of a woman who speaks with frankness about herself Jane is the narrator of the story and all is seen from a woman’s point of view. The narration in the first person is : i) more convincing as it has an autobiographical tone; ii)more emotionally involving; iii)readers have to draw conclusions only on the limited basis of the narrator’s point of view. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018

� EDWARD ROCHESTER Edward Rochester BYRONIC HERO : mysterious because of his past life; • dark and charismatic man despite his stern manners and not particularly handsome appearance. • He wins Jane’s heart, because she feels they are kindred spirits. • Although Rochester is Jane’s social and economic superior, and although men were widely considered to be naturally superior to women in the Victorian period, Jane is Rochester’s intellectual equal. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018

EDWARD ROCHESTER � Rochester was a former libertine who married a woman just to gain more wealth but he regrets this period of his life. He is unconventional because he is attracted by Jane’s soul and personality rather than to her physical appearence. He scorns the conventions of the Victorian society- He is an outcast , an outsider beyond the normal conventions of society. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018

• JANE is THE OUTCAST , a free spirit fighting for recognition and self-respect in the face of a money-oriented society • She is an anti-heroine because she is not beautiful but she has a fervent intelligence. • An orphan since early childhood, Jane feels exiled and ostracized at the beginning of the novel, and the cruel treatment she receives from her Aunt Reed and her cousins only increases her feeling of alienation. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 JANE EYRE 5

• Her desire to find a true sense of home is accompanied by her intense need for autonomy and freedom. • She believes in her ideals without compromise. If she lives as Rochester’s mistress, she will sacrifice her dignity for the sake of her feelings. Differently from Victorian heroines who have external beauty, Jane has got inner beauty. Charlotte Bronte doesn’t focus on appearances. Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018 Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 JANE EYRE 6

• Bertha Mason is a complex presence in Jane Eyre. • She represents Jane’s” truest and darkest double”. • Bertha is Jane ‘s «alter ego» as she acts for Jane at an unconscious level. • One could also see Bertha as a manifestation of Jane’s subconscious feelings—specifically, of her rage against oppressive social and gender norms. Jane never manifests this fear or anger, but Bertha does. Bertha expresses the feelings that Jane must keep in check. Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018 Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 BERTHA MASON 7

• The mystery surrounding Bertha establishes suspense and terror to the plot and the atmosphere ( Gothic element) • She is also seen as a symbolic representation of the “trapped” Victorian wife, who is expected never to travel or work outside the house and becomes ever more frenzied as she finds no outlet for her frustration and anxiety. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 BERTHA MASON 8 Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018

BERTHA vs JANE BERTHA tall large rich attractive sensual -short -thin -poor -plain -pale and quiet BOTH Both Jane and Bertha are marginalised, isolated women in a male patriarchal world , both of them travel from one prison to another. Bertha is denied the reassuring happy end and her destiny is still haunting many women in a number of countries , trapped in other types of prisons , rooms where they may be physically free, but where they minds continue to be frequently suffocated, their voices silenced or, even worse , their bodies violeted among the indifference of what it is called « the civilised world» . Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 • • • JANE 9

THEMES Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 1. LOVE VS. AUTONOMY 2. SOCIAL CLASS 3. GENDER RELATIONS 10 Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018

THEMES LOVE VS. AUTONOMY Jane Eyre is very much the story of a quest to be loved. Her fear of losing her autonomy motivates her refusal of Rochester’s marriage proposal. Jane believes that “marrying” Rochester while he remains legally tied to Bertha would mean sacrificing her own integrity for the sake of love. On the other hand, when she escapes from Thornfield Hall and she enjoys economic independence teaching the poor, she lacks love( because she cannot satisfy her feelings as a woman) Her experience away from Thornfield Hall is necessary to test Jane’s autonomy. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 • 11 Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018

Jane Eyre is critical of Victorian England’s strict social hierarchy: the complicated social position of governesses. As a governess , Jane is a figure of ambiguous social standing. Jane’s manners and education are those of an aristocrat, because Victorian governesses were expected to possess the “culture” of the aristocracy. Yet, as paid employees, they were more or less treated as servants; thus, Jane remains penniless and powerless while at Thornfield. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 THEMES -SOCIAL CLASS 12 Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018

Jane perfectly understands this double standard( appearance /social class and reality/her individuality ) when she becomes aware of her feelings for Rochester: she is his intellectual, but not his social equal. Jane herself speaks out against class prejudice , just as in Chapter 23 she tells Rochester: “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you—and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. ” Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018 Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 THEMES -SOCIAL CLASS 13

Jane struggles continually to achieve equality and to overcome oppression. In addition to class hierarchy, she must fight against patriarchal domination —against those who believe women to be inferior to men. The headmaster of the school and Edward Rochester, for example, are male figures who threaten her desire for equality and dignity. Each tries to keep Jane in a submissive position. In her quest for independence and self-knowledge, Jane must come to Rochester only after she is sure that they marry as equals, when she can be financially independent. Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018 Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 THEMES - : GENDER RELATIONS 14

THEMES - : GENDER RELATIONS 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, too 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. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex. Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018 Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 In Chapter 12, Jane articulates what was for her time a radically feminist philosophy: 15

THE SETTINGS GATESHEAD –The Reeds’ home, the place of Jane’s childhood. LOWOOD SCHOOL-the place of Jane’s education MOOR HOUSE-The Rivers’ house on the moor, the place of temporary banishment THORNFIELD- Mr. Rochester’s house , the place of independence and young love. FERNDEAN-Mr. Rochester’s rural mansion, the place for a new start Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 5 settings 16

THE SETTINGS as stages in her life GATESHEAD –It stands for “gateway”: The beginning of Jane’s awakening as an independent girl LOWOOD SCHOOLSymbolically it concides witha «low» time in Jane’s life MOOR HOUSE-The wilderness where Jane tries to give a new sense to her life THORNFIELD-the place of mystery and temptation ( “thorns” –spine ) FERNDEAN-or Fern Hill-The new Eden for Jane , where she finds a mature love. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 5 settings 17

SYMBOLS • • The red-room can be viewed as a symbol of what Jane must overcome in her struggles to find freedom and happiness. The red-room symbolises Jane’s position of imprisonment in the house but also , on a larger level, in the Victorian society. Although Jane is eventually freed from the room, she continues to be excluded from love and socially ostracised. The room is recalled in the difficult moments of her life when she is humiliated at Lowood. when she decides to leave Thornfield after Rochester has tried to convince her to become his mistress. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 The Red-Room 18 Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018

VICTORIAN ELEMENTS 1. Plot ( settings) ( «Conventionality is not morality) 1. Realistic portrait of a female character Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 2. Moral values of the Victorian society 19 Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018

ROMANTIC ELEMENTS 1. Romantic sensibility ( personal feelings , sense of autonomy and freedom); impressions in Jane’s narration) 3. The Byronic hero – an outcast and outsider in contrast with the Victorian society. Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 2. Emotional use of language ( subjective 20 Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018

GOTHIC ELEMENTS 1. Childhood terrors in the school 2. Mysterious setting (Thornfield) 4. Gloomy atmosphere of the place (mysterious signs, noises, sounds) 5. Bertha’s madness and death Raffaella Mannori -Victorian fiction 2018 3. Sense of supernatural ( dreams) 21 Raffaella Mannori Victorian fiction 2018