Research Task 4

Pages: 22, 85, 141, 242, 243, 244, 254, 268, 271, 272.

Janes’ day-dreams reflects the way that Jane learns to express her passions over the course of the novel. After a turbulent childhood, Jane fulfills a Victorian ideal of womanhood. Jane’s dreams thus reveal the raw emotions she attempts to mask in order to be an ideal Victorian lady. So this is why Jane pays “inordinate attention to the details of her dream life” (85)

The three watercolour imaginative landscapes which Jane painted while she was attending Lowood Schol reveal her great awareness for dreams. Jane describes the drawings as visions of her “spiritual eye” (242). Rochester declares, “I daresay you did exist in a kind of artist’s dreamland while you blent and arranged these” (244)

The first painting shows a ship’s mast a bare hand, and a bracelet rising out of a turbulent green sea. The second painting is of a wild-rustled hill below a night sky in which a cosmic female form is visible. The third is a monumental bleak human head rising out of the ocean, supported by hands and resting on an iceberg. One could argue that these pictures represent Jane’s unconscious life and the extent of her suppression and passion.

The dreams in Jane Eyre can also serve as a warning of future events or a representation of events in Jane’s life. Some of Jane’s dreams also bring her trouble. Jane experiences two dreams about children on page 268 and 271, these dreams may reflect a fear inside Jane, namely that marrying Rochester will alter her identity.

In one of these dreams there are a barrier separating Jane and Rochester. This barrier can represent Rochester’s marriage to Bertha Mason.

Thus the dreams in Jane Eyre serve several complex functions. They serve as warnings of trouble or foreshadow good fortune, reveal Jane’s passionate inner self. They can also be seen as general symbols, direct reflections of Jane’s emotions or they emphasize several noteworthy moment in her life. Jane’s ‘preternatural’ dreams are intended to suggest her extrasensory perception, and so these dreams are comments on Jane’s situation as well as presentiments.

The dreams and painting operate as a narrative strategy as it shows us Jane’s emotions and it foreshadows events that will take place

Research Task 3

1.

The “women question” refers to the argument about the roles of women during the nineteenth century. Woman had specific gender roles which they had to fulfill.

Women were not free as it was a male-dominated society. So in Jane Eyre the “women question” is how the different roles of woman in the society are seen as a theme in Jane Eyre.

2.

·         Page 97 in Chapter 10: She had stood me in the stead of mother, governess, and latterly, companion.

·         Page 103 in Chapter 10: FairFax, and got that lady’s reply, stating that she was satisfied, and fixing that day fortnight as the period for my assuming the post of governess in her house.

·         Page 110 in Chapter 11: A more reassuring introduction for a new governess could scarcely be conceived;

·         Page 111 in Chapter 11: I anticipated only coldness and stiffness: this is not like what I have heard of the treatment of governesses;

·         Page 116 in Chapter11: He commissioned me to find a governess for her.

·         Page 117 in Chapter 11: She came and shookhand with me when she heard that I was her governess;

·         Page 120 in Chapter 11: I suppose he had considered that these were all the governess would require for her private perusal;

·         Page 132 in Chapter 12: “I am the governess.”

·         Page 132 in Chapter 12: “Ah, the governess!” he repeated; “deuce take me. If I had not forgotten! The governess!” and again my raiment underwent scrutiny.

·         Page 158 in Chapter 14: Not three in three thousand raw school-girl-governesses would have answered me as you have just done.

·         Page 170 in Chapter 15: But now you know that it is the illegitimate offspring of a French opera-girl, you will perhaps thing differently of your post and protegee: you will be coming to me some day with notice that you have found another place-that you beg me to look uot for a new governess, &c.   

·         Page 171 in Chapter 15: “How could I possibly prefer the spoilt pet of a wealthy family, who would hate her governess as a nuisance, to a lonely little orphan, who leans towards her as a friend?”

·         Page 188 in Chapter 16: Write under it, ‘Portrait of a governess, disconnected, poor, and plain.’

·         Page 205 in Chapter 17: “Why, I suppose you have a governess for her: I saw a person with her just now-is she gone? Oh, no! There she is still, behind the window curtain.”

·         Page 206 in Chapter 17: You should hear mama on the chapter of governesses: Mary and I have had, I should think, a dozen at least in our day.

·         Page 206 in Chapter 17: “My dearest, don’t mention governesses.”

·         Page 207 in Chapter 17: And I was quite right: depend on that: there are a thousand reasons why liaisons between governesses and tutors should never be tolerated a moment in any well-regulated house;

·         Page 208 in Chapter 17: Amy Eshton, not hearing or not heeding this dictum, joined in with her soft, infantine tone: “Louisa and I used to quiz our governess too.”

·         Page 208 in Chapter 17: “I uppose, now,” said miss Ingram, curling her lip sarcastically, “we shall have an abstract of the memoirs of all the governesses extant: in order to avert such a visitation, I again move the introduction of a new topic.

·         Page 308 in Chapter 24: “I am your plain, Quakerish governess.”   

·         Page 316 in Chapter 24: “Gentlemen in his station are not accustomed to marry their governesses.”

·         Page 322 in Chapter 24: I shall continue to act as Adele’s governess;

·         Page 322 in Chapter 24: “You will give up your governessing slavery at once.”

·         Page 359 in Chapter 27: you intend to make yourself a complete stranger to me: to live under this roof only as Adele’s governess;

·         Page 359 in Chapter 27: and to avoid fluctuations of feeling, and continual combats with recollections and associations, there is only one way-Adele must have a new governess, sir.”

·         Page 360 in Chapter 27: merely because I feared Adele never would have a governess to stay if she knew with what I mate she was housed, and my plans would not permit me to remove the maniac elsewhere-though I possess am old house, Ferndean Manor, even more retired and hidden than this, where I could have lodges her safely enough, had not a scruple about the unhealthiness of the situation, in the heart of a wood, made my conscience recoil from the arrangement.

·         Page 412 in Chapter 29: and the girls, as soon as they left school, would seek places as governesses: for they had told her their father had some years ago lost a great deal of money by a man he had trusted turning bankrupt;

·         Page 418 in Chapter 29: “I left Lowood nearly a year since to become a private governess.

·         Page 424 in Chapter 30: Diana and Mary were soon to leave Moor House, and return to the far different life and scene which awaited them, as governesses in a large, fashionable, south-of-England city, where each held a situation in families by whose wealthy and haughty members they were regarded only as humble dependents, and who neither knew nor sought out their innate excellences, and appreciated only their acquired accomplishments as they appreciated the skill of their cook or their waiting-woman.

·         Page 427 in Chapter 30: In truth it was humble-but then it was sheltered, and I wanted a safe asylum: it was plodding-but then, compared with that of a governess in a rich house, it was independent;

·         Page 444 in Chapter 32: “Indeed,” cried Rosamond, “she is clever enough to be a governess in a high family, papa.”

·         Page 456 in Chapter 33: It seems her career there was very honourable: from a pupil, she became a teacher, like yourself-really it strikes me there are parallel points in her history and yours-she left it to be a governess: there, again, your fates were analogous;

·         Page 457 in Chapter 33: But when an event transpired which rendered inquiry after the governess necessary, it was discovered she was gone-no one could tell when, where, or how.

·         Page 457 in Chapter 33: You should rather ask the name of the governess-the nature of the event which requires her appearance.”

·         Page 458 in Chapter 33: Since you won’t ask the governess’s name, I must tell it of my own accord.

·         Page 512 in Chapter 36: There was a young lady, a governess at the Hall, that Mr.

·         Page 512 Chapter 36: Rochester was about forty, and this governess not twenty;

·         Page 513 in Chapter 36: However, on this night, she set fire first to the hanging of the room next her own, and then she got down to a lower storey, and made her way to the chamber that had been the governess’s-(she was like as if she knew somehow how matters had gone on, and had a spite at her)-and she kindled the bed there;…The governess had run away two months before;     

·         Page 514 in Chapter 36: for a more spirited, bolder, keener gentleman that he was before that midge of a governess crossed him, you never saw, ma’am.

·         Page 542 in Chapter 38: I meant to become her governess once more, but I soon found this impracticable.

3.

The governess had an important role in her student’s life. She had to be an example for her students and she had to teach them skill which would help them to attract a good husband.

Thus the position of the governess could sometimes be confusing as she had so many different roles that she had to fulfill.   

Research Task 2:

1.

Miss Abbot and I had to take Jane up to the red room. I could not belief that Jane was so disapproving; this is not how she usually is. Miss Eyre was resisting and sprawling about like a mad cat. I ordered her to sit still upon the chair in the red-room; I even had to threaten the young Miss Eyre with the possibility of being tied down in order to get her to behave. We left her and locked the door. All of a sudden Jane started screaming terribly so we ran up to her. Jane explained to Mrs. Reed what was going on. Mrs. Reed had a go at Jane so I retreated and went back downstairs.

2.

Yes, I agree. This is when she realised that she is treated unfair and decided to live her life as she wants and not as other people want her to. A life with dignity, integrity and pride. Here she learned to stand up for herself and because of this she was sent to Lowood and her life path were set in front of her.

3.

During the events that led up to the red-room Jane finally stands up to John Reed, this is the first time in her life that she revealed her emotions and acted upon it.

Every time that something bad happens to Jane she escapes is some way. After the red-room incident she goes to school, when Mr. Brocklehurst her in front of the whole school she withdraw herself from everyone until her name was cleared and then at Tornfield where after the wedding drama she leaves.

The red-room incident forms a big part of the novel and Jane recalls it during crucial times in her life. This is what gives her strength as it was one of the worst moments in her life but she survivedit.    

Research Task 1:

1.

Class: Class can be seen as a social thing. People get divided into different classes. During the nineteenth century three broad classes emerged namely the upper class, the middle class and the working class. Your class determines the social conditions of what you are allowed to do.

Gender & Feminism: Gender represent the social roles which men and woman must take on. In the nineteenth century the men were seen as aggressive and rational where the woman were seen as a nurturing and emotional character. Feminism is the way woman are express. Woman fought for equality, they want to be equal to men.

Ideology: a set of beliefs that fit into a greater system. It can also be seen as a set of ideas which affect the way how people live their lives.

2.

·         Charlotte Brontë criticizes her critics by stating that “conventionality is not morality” meaning that just because something is conventional and done by everyone that does not necessary mean that it is right. This can not only be applied to the 18^th Century but also to the modern day. Charlotte was referring to the patriarchal society of those days and the fact that she was criticized for writing because she was a woman.

·         When she speaks of Ahab who did not listen to Micaiah it is as if she is suggesting that the critics may even learn something if they make the effort to kisten to what other people has to say.

·         The fact that she even thanks the people, who are against her book, shows us what unique person she is.

·         Brontë wrote as Currer Bell as she knew that women’s work is to be liked on as prejudiced. She wanted people to read it without being prejudiced or critical.

·         By using this rhetorical style it is as if she wants to say that these statements should be common knowledge instead of being criticized.

·         She wrote this preface because of all the critics and praise she received and she wanted to give her point of view. She wanted to tell them how she felt about both comebacks.

3.

Through reading the excerpts from The Christian Remembrancer and The Quarterly Review we come to terms that Elizabeth Rigby is not sure whether it is a male or a female who wrote Jane Eyre, she says that “the name and the sex of the writer are still a mystery.” This shows us that gender ideologies play a big role in the Victorian era. As the people were not sure what the sex of the author was the novel were mostly read without prejudice look into it.

The novel were attacked by Elizabeth Rigby who said “never was unkindness more cordially repaid” which gives us the idea that she thinks that Brontë is taking revenge because she was not treated well during her life.

Rigby knows that the book was admired by many people but she thinks that it is only because it was a controversial novel for the eighteenth century.

Rigby is not very impressed by the characters in the novel as she says that Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre do things that “lie utterly beyond the bounds of probability.”

Jane was someone who dealt with unkindness rather well but according to Rigby she is repulsed by her sympathy for Jane Eyre as she says that Jane “dwell upon and treasure every slight and unkindness, real or fancied.”

Through saying “it pleased God to make her an orphan, friendless, and penniless-yet she thanks nobody, and least of all Him”(452), Rigby states that Jane were ungrateful for being an orphan. She says that Jane should be satisfied with what she has and her situation as it is God’s will. This brings us back to gender ideologies as Jane who are a woman should be satisfied with everything life throws at her, this was what expected of women in that era.

By stating that she does not want to “enter… into the question of whether the power of writing [is] above her” (453) shows us how people were prejudice towards woman in writing. This is ironic as Rigby is a woman herself who writes. Although she is a woman she beliefs that men are better in writing that woman.

I think that in whole the reception of Jane Eyre were more welcomed by middle-class readers as they can