Gender and independence as a theme in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Gender and independence as a theme in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

In her childhood, Jane felt imprisoned, “locked in” to a household/a family on which she was financially dependent, but at the same time she was “locked out”, isolated, rejected, humiliated, as her aunt and cousins made it very clear to her that she was unwanted, barely tolerated in their home.
GATESHEAD PARALLEL

Her cousin John even says “you are a dependent […]; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us”. John Reed is already considered as the sole heir of the house at 14 because he’s the only male figure left in the Reed family he’s already given so much power because of his gender.
Jane grows up in a very toxic and unhealthy environment. Her physiognomy is always evoqued as something that would make her more “valuable” and appreciated by people (women/object comparison)

At Lowood, (low) Jane faces difficult life conditions which enhance her passionate nature and her resilience. The unfair treatment she receives develops her critical thinking and her independent mind. Nevertheless, Jane says she receives an excellent education. This consolidates her strong will and gives her the possibility to think for herself. She then becomes a teacher at the school.

When she leaves Lowood and starts working at Thornfield as a governess for Adèle, Mr Rochester’s ward, she is finally relatively independent, she finally earns a living. She feels like she belongs at Thornfield, and grows attached to her new home. Jane is always composed and put together because that’s the manners she was taught: in chapter one she is called too passionate for expressing her feelings (standing up for herself) because it is considered improper so she tries repressing her true self. R sees that she’s muffling her true opinions and asks her to speak up what she actually thinks, they are not equals at first but you could say that in a way he’s the first man to consider her as an intelligent person he can have an actual debate with. J’s physiognomy was always brought up by everyone around her but in this relationship looks are ignored, J even admits finding him unattractive. Their love stems from the intellectual stimulation they bring each other.


Jane Eyre has worked for her independence, and that is why, when she gets over her joy in the moment, we can sense through her apprehensive thoughts and her strange dreams that the prospect of marrying Rochester unsettles her. She fears that she will be tying herself down, she who has always longed for freedom and autonomy, and that the marriage will force her submission to the groom. She does not want to fall back into a situation of economic dependence.

Some theories say that Bertha —Rochester’s mad wife— is the personification of Jane’s anxiety about the wedding, a kind of self-destructive embodiment of her repressed fear and anger. Jane is used to repressing her passionate nature, and as she does not manifest any of the rage accumulated by years of living in a drastically unfair society, Bertha does. Thus she tears the bridal veil, and stops the wedding from happening, fulfilling Jane’s unconscious self destructive wish.

After the revelation of Bertha’s existence, Jane leaves Rochester: she refuses to live a life of sin even by his side. It is as if she chooses her independence and principles over love and passion.

St John rescues her and offers her a chance to be autonomous and earn a living again as a teacher. However, a year later, when he starts to pressure her to marry him, she feels entrapped in a loveless relationship, almost compelled to do as he wishes. When she hears Rochester’s voice call her name, it is as if he frees her from St John’s hold.

She comes back to Rochester a very fulfilled young lady, having found a real family and obtained complete financial independence thanks to her uncle’s heritage. Her relationship to Rochester in the beginning is not an equal one ; he is her employer and is represented as an independent manly figure. It then balances as if Rochester needed to be dragged downward(belittled) (house burned down, blind and lost a hand) and Jane upwards (financially independent, meets her kin, makes her own choice of returning to him) so they could finally be in an equal relationship at that time and age. Jane says that him being blind for two years is the circumstance that “drew them so very near” “for she was then his vision”. His blindness permits him to ask Jane to help him which makes him more vulnerable and encourages their mutual respect.

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