I need a summary on this, please
When Charlotte Brontë set out to write the novel Jane Eyre, she
was determined to create a main character who challenged the notion
of the ideal Victorian woman, or as Brontë was once quoted: “a heroine
as plain and as small as myself (Gaskell, Chapter XV).” Brontë’s
determination to portray a plain yet passionate young woman who
defied the stereotype of the docile and domestic Victorian feminine
ideal most likely developed from her own dissatisfaction with domestic
duties and a Victorian culture that discouraged women from having
literary aspirations. There were many expectations and limitations
placed on Victorian women. Considering Brontë’s position and her
desire for literary achievement given that context, we are able to see
why she felt compelled to write Jane Eyre and to publish it under a
male pen name, Currer Bell.
During an era in which etiquette guides circulated freely, empire
waists gave way to tiny-waisted corsets, and tea parties grew in
Empire waists: a style of dress fitting just below the bust, leaving the waist and hips
undefined, that became fashionable in the early 19th century.
popularity, it might seem unlikely that realistic novels would set the
Victorian literary trend. Perhaps the socially conscious novel may have
been a result of the belief of the rising middle class of Victorian England
in the possibility for change, since they had witnessed such economic
changes in their lifetimes. Works such as Charles Dickens’ Hard Times,
George Eliot’s [another woman using a male pen name] Middlemarch
and Charlotte Brontë’s own sister Emily’s Wuthering Heights [published
under Ellis Bell instead of Emily Brontë,] featured female characters that
represented trapped and repressed Victorian women marrying for the
wrong reasons, disillusioned with family life, and relying on their
physical beauty as a means to gain attention and advancement.
And then, along came the character Jane Eyre: physically
uninteresting yet passionate and intense in her desire to express her
emotions and thoughts. It is no wonder that Currer Bell’s novel was
considered groundbreaking and bold. Jane is a heroine battling the
same societal limitations as her literary counterparts, but her raw
narrative voice never fails to expose her Romantic sensibilities,
psychological depth, and her adamant desire to stay true to herself.