From the outset, Jane is incredibly self-aware. By the age of ten she wonders about things such as “Why [she was] always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, forever condemned? Why could [she] never please? Why was it useless to try to win any one’s favor” (Bronte #)? Jane is unusually aware of her social position and is able to interpret her situation quite well. Jane may not have honed her analytical abilities if not for this suffering. Without reason to ask questions there would have been no need to answer them. Overcoming difficulties in life sometimes lead to great strength. To answer her own question, she asks herself why “Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, [and] a captious and insolent carriage” was …show more content…
This is apparent in a debate turned feud with Mr. Rochester about whether Jane should leave or not and why: “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little . . . 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 . . . stood at God’s feet, equal,—as we are!” Jane makes specific mention of being “poor, obscure, plain and little”. This emphasizes the idea of a woman’s worth coming from beauty. Furthermore, she refers to beauty and wealth as gifts from God. According to her analysis, she is lacking both of these, thus, she is dependent on men. Jane’s society is one where people (especially women) are not valued for their intellectual worth. Even though Jane is fully capable of providing for herself, she was not permitted the opportunity to do so. In mid-nineteenth century England, respect was handed to men and earned by women. A woman’s survival was dependent on her ability to attract a man to provide for her or, serve as a …show more content…
Rochester’s equal; she earned his respect. “ . . . your rank as my equal [said Rochester to Jane].” Rochester recognized that Jane’s intellectual and emotional maturity was greater than that of those around her. Like Jane, he too saw that women are “Creatures so absorbed in care about their pretty faces, and their white hands, and their small feet,” and others felt that “loveliness [is] the special prerogative of woman—her legitimate appanage and heritage!” Rochester specifically describes beauty as a woman’s appanage, meaning a gift of land. As mentioned earlier, Jane also described beauty as a gift. However, the word appanage comes from the medieval latin word appanare meaning ‘provide with the means of subsistence’. There is significance in his diction. Rochester chose a word that meant to provide for because he too felt that a woman’s beauty provided for her by attracting a man to support her. Along with Jane and Rochester, Mary Wollstonecraft also understood that a woman’s beauty meant nothing about her cognitive ability and that “if . . . women do not resign the arbitrary power of beauty—they will prove that they have less mind than man.”(Chapter 2 As an intelligent woman A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) As an intelligent woman, Jane achieves the ‘resignation of the arbitrary power of beauty’ and proves that she has more mind than (most) men. Throughout the story, Jane is more aware than those around