The Victorian Era is renowned for the many changes and the complexity wherein people had to build a life for themselves. The midpoint of this era was the strict social hierarchy. One’s social standard was determined by your place in the hierarchy, your class. In this era there were four distinct classes: upper, middle, lower and paupers. Upper class was the royal families – “nobilities,” middle class was rich families, but required the title of royalty. Lower class was seen as the working class, doing dirty jobs – literally and figuratively. Last on the hierarchy were the paupers. Philanthropists aimed at them in 1890 to reduce poverty. This class was known for the high scale poverty, old age, unemployment and illnesses. An identity is linked to one’s name, family and to one self through the social class you belonged too. Othering is hierarchy’s best friend, with social classes forming, people who don’t belong there are considered as outsiders. Othering also occurred in gender and role of gender in the Victorian era, the middle class wife othered the pauper’s wife. The two worlds were not associated with each other. Gender was surely associated with the social class; one’s class unfolded the role in one’s gender – thoughts, voice and actions. The role of the woman was inferior to the role of a man, again othering. The role of the man has not changed since then: the head of the house, received higher education, be brave, be honoured, the list goes on…the perfect picture of man is created. In contradiction to the role of a man, the woman’s role is to be her husband’s perfect accessory: talk only when talked to, stay at home, be polite and have children. Through this lifestyle prescribed for women, feminism evoked the fight for equality of men and women. Ideology is formed through the thought of equality for women: The idea of a world with equal rights and opportunities. Imagery of idealism is also created in the different social groups – thoughts about a better life by women or men, wanting to be wealthier, royal, or even braver. Ideology is created by the aspects of the social class and the role of gender which played a big part in the Victorian Era.
Response towards Charlotte Brontë’s Preface
Brontë gives recognition to the public, the press and the publishers – which all had influence on her work and more specifically on the second edition of her novel, Jane Eyre. She shows affection towards the opinions of her readers.
She also gives acknowledgement to a small group of people, who she describes as “in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong; whose ears detect in each protest against bigotry – that parent of crime – an insult to piety, that regent of God on earth.” She is defending her novel, her pride against this group who criticize her.
She defends the importance of Christianity and spirituality in her time and the fact that it is relevant today - “Self-righteousness is not religion.” She’s also defending her own seeing about religion and is making it clear to the readers.
She’s winning readers over through her preface even before the readers started reading Jane Eyre. Brontë is showing herself to the readers and how she would like to be noted. She has the last say in the preface, making her seem to be like the stereotyped role of a man. She’s ended the criticizing with the last word.
Brontë writes under the name of a man, Currer Bell, showing another side of masculinity. She is fighting for her equality in writing and sharing opinions. She want so be heard and in the Victorian Era to be heard, you had to be a man. She’s illuminating the truths that have conveniently been covered such as the idea of the voice of a woman should not be ignored anymore. Brontë sees it as her duty to reveal the secrets kept or the truth that has been kept away, the world may hate her for it. The world representing the conservative Victorian Era.
Ironically, Brontë seen as a feminist writes a remarkable dedication to a male writer: Mr. Thackeray, author of the famous Vanity Fair. She praises him for also unrevealing the truths, saying what the world didn’t want to hear. The same as Brontë, making them two of a kind.
In the preface, Brontë creates an identity for herself. She’s not just another Jane from the block. A sense of strong will is proven throughout the whole preface, providing her novel with ideas and proving why she wrote it. Her values, liberal views and motives which also influenced her novel, Jane Eyre, is clearly stated, making it a timeless hit.
Commentary on the reception of Jane Eyre by Victorian middle-class readers
Regarding The Christian Remembrancer and The Quaterly Review the reader is opened to the emotions towards the novel. Strong sense of criticism is thrown towards Brontë for changing the role of gender in Jane Eyre. The ideological idea of the role of a man and the opposite role a woman was pushed far aside. The ideological boundaries were broaden through the actions of her female characters and male characters in Brontë’s novel. She protests against these ideological boundaries of the Victorian Era through the use of her main character: Jane Eyre.
A strong feeling that Brontë’s own life is shown through this novel, giving it an autobiographical quality. “Jane Eyre professes to be an autobiography, and we think it likely that in some essential respects it is so. If the authoress has not been, like her heroine, an oppressed orphan, a starved and bullied charity-school girl, and a despised and slighted governess, at all events we fear she is one to whom the world has not been kind.” This quality gives Brontë’s novel a universal feature relating to the women of the Victorian England time.
The Victorian Era was known to be grateful for what God has given you. “Jane Eyre is proud, and therefore she is ungrateful too. It pleased God to make her an orphan, friendless and penniless, yet she thanks nobody, and least of all Him.” The role of both ideology and gender are both unfamiliar to the conservative Victorians. Jane’s not hiding her unsatisfied feelings of her lifestyle which means she is ungrateful and she not fulfilling life as a Christian – “ungodly discontent.” The critics throw rocks at the heroin of Brontë’s novel, because she is not made known as the perfect example of her gender and changing the course of the idea of the ideal life.
The rule of love was also broken in Jane Eyre. The idyllic relationship is caught between boundaries, this known boundaries in known as class. Upper class or middle class was not accompanied with classes below them, it would be known as an “illegitimate romance.” Jane and Rochester contributes to breaking this ‘rule of society’ in the Victorian England. Jane was considered as part of the lower class and Rochester was higher up on the social hierarchy. Both of their actions went against what was expected of them from their own society and the readers of the novel.
The criticism revealed in both the reviews can be directly linked to the thoughts of the humanity of the Victorian Era. Their idea of ideology and the role of gender were strictly black and white, with no grey areas. Brontë and her heroin were caught in this lifestyle, defeated by the presence of a man or a royal. This universal theme is still relevant today – especially the role of gender in the modern society.
No comments:
Post a Comment