Free Essay

Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

In: English and Literature

Submitted By Rumens
Words 744
Pages 3
English: Education System and school reforms during the Victorian Age; Charity schools, the theme of the educational model in “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte; the theme of Utilitarianism in the novel “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens

The Cultural context during the Victorian period and the Education Act of 1870
Before 1870, education was largely unregulated and emerged in various forms such as the dame schools and charity schools. Dame schools were run by women who had little or no educational training themselves and were unsanitary, sometimes exploitative businesses where working-class children were taught basic literacy in overcrowded classes. The charity schools movement ensured basic education for children of low income families. These schools were run and owned by private individuals and were financed partly by student subscriptions and partly by endowments. The curriculum was based on strict moral and religious discipline, lessons were often taught from the Bible and students learned to be submissive and accept their lowly position in society.
The upper and middle class sent their male children to expensive public (private) boarding schools and to college to become gentlemen, future heads of industry, finance and business, or top-rank civil servants to be employed throughout the Empire, in other words the future ruling class. Upper and middle-class girls were closely guarded by their parents till marriage and were generally educated at home by a governess. They had to hand their property and money over to their husbands on marriage and their only means of earning an independent living was through teaching or writing. They were only expected to read novels and learn embroidering, singing and playing the piano as their role in life was to marry and have children.
However, the spread of literacy during the Victorian Age had a strong impact on the cultural development of the age and culminated in the Educational Act which provided primary education all over the country. In fact finally, in 1870, the government introduced a bill to provide public elementary education in England and Wales, which was passed after six months of contentious debate. Its introducer, William Edward Forster, explained that its purpose was supplementary, to ensure an efficient school in every part of the kingdom, to make the erection of such schools compulsory where they did not already exist. The full significance of the Education act of 1870 lies in the fact that the English state then definitely assumed direct responsibility for public education, whose provision became a state service like that of defence or the administration of justice; it was no longer a matter of private charity conducted by the well-to-do for the benefit of the poor. For the time being, this responsibility was confined to elementary instruction; but its extension was unavoidable.
By the end of the century women’s position ha changed too: there were schools and colleges for women and they acquired the right to enter various professions.

Chapter 5 of the novel “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, the educational model in the Victorian boarding schools

Summary of the chapter: January 19, the date of Jane's departure from Gateshead has arrived. She rises at five o'clock in the morning, so that she'll be ready for the six o'clock coach. None of the family rises to bid Jane farewell, and she happily journeys far away from the Reeds. The day of Jane's arrival at Lowood is rainy, windy, and dark. Jane is led through the unfamiliar, labyrinthine halls of Lowood, until she reaches a large room in which eighty other girls sit doing their homework. Soon it is bedtime, and Jane wearily makes her way to bed. The next day, Jane follows the full routine of the school, studying from pre-dawn until five o'clock in the evening. The chapter is filled with Jane's observations of the school. Jane discovers the kind Miss Temple and the unreasonable Miss Scatcherd, who unfairly punishes Helen Burns. While solitary and isolated through most of the day, Jane does converse with Helen, who tells Jane that Lowood is a charity institution for orphan children.

Modelled after the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge where Charlotte Brontë and her sisters Maria, Elizabeth, and Emily were sent, Lowood is not appealing. The school day begins before dawn, the students are offered eat meager rations of burnt and unappetizing food, and the grounds surrounding the school are blighted and decayed. The chapter shows the harsh realities of charity-school life in Victorian times.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Abuse In Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte

...protagonist Jane Eyre shares the sound of her last name with something that exists to travel everywhere in the world: air. Jane endures a series of unfortunate and tumultuous events at a very early age, which travel alongside her wherever she goes in life. Written by Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre accurately describes society and the unfortunate way of life in the Victorian Era. Jane alleviates from various forms of abuse at the end of the novel, and finds her piece of happiness. Brontë wrote Jane Eyre with a very personal touch; Jane was a character formed by deep analyzation of people during the Victorian Era – an era of morality. It is not by Jane’s mouth that readers become aware of such suffering, but...

Words: 1947 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

The Absence Of Family In Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte

...Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë has a heroine who refuses to be placed in the traditional female position of subservience and who disagrees with her superiors. She stands up for her rights, and ventures creative thoughts. Jane is a narrator who comments on the role of women in society and the greater constraint imposed on them. Family was extremely important to a woman in the Victorian period. It provided emotional and financial support to her as a child and an unmarried woman. Later in life, it defined a woman as a wife and mother. Due to Jane being an orphan, she is cast into a sort of societal wilderness. Without a mother to show Jane her proper place in society and without a father to care for her until her husband can take his place, Jane is left totally astray from societal values. Lacking support, Jane has to face her problems head on and alone....

Words: 624 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

How Does Charlotte Bronte Create Identity In Jane Eyre

...Although most readers of Jane Eyre are enthralled by the illusion of suspense surrounding the climax of the novel and its subsequent falling action, Charlotte Brontë has, in fact, already delivered a subtle clue concerning her Jane’s fate through her use of a first-person narrative and her personal experiences in nineteenth century Victorian society. During this era, women were relegated to domestic tasks and frivolous hobbies meant to distract them from more satisfying aspirations such as authorship, which Jane, the novel’s protagonist, desires. However, the mere existence of the novel Jane Eyre foreshadows Jane’s eventual achievement of the personal agency that enables her to explore creative and intellectual gratification through her memoir...

Words: 1607 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

How Does Charlotte Bronte Use Imagery In Jane Eyre

...Charlotte Brontë’s use of imagery throughout Jane Eyre symbolizes clashing emotions of many different characters. Most of the imagery present in Jane Eyre symbolizes characters’ moral struggles against their conscience ("Jane Eyre." Novels for Students 12). Jane Eyre is full of diverse forms of imagery from nature (Gregor, 115). Different forms of imagery serve important roles in the novel by displaying the wild passion and also self control of the characters (Solomon, 2). In order to completely understand Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, the reader must first start with the symbolic form of the novel (Solomon, 2). Two ubiquitous images that dominate Jane Eyre are fire and water. These two images symbolize the great heat of lust and also the...

Words: 1968 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

How Does Charlotte Bronte Use Syntax In Jane Eyre

...Jane Eyre is a spectacular book written by Charlotte Brontë which allows many readers to connect and feel as if they are part of the book. Charlotte Brontë uses various types of styles in her writing making reading feel like home. The main theme of the book is trying to find a place where you feel loved. Jane is on a quest to find love, family, and a place where she feels she belongs. Jane’s life events are written in chronological order. Through this process, we watched Jane Eyre come from a traumatic childhood and turning into an independent, strong women. Some of many different styles found throughout the reading are symbolism, syntax, and imagery. The contribution to the main theme of the book is tremendous giving it more meaning. Each symbolism...

Words: 803 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

How Does Charlotte Bronte Use Inequality In Jane Eyre

...Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre was written during the Industrial Revolution, which while making way for new inventions, also allowed for the chance to express newer, more controversial ideas. Jane is a woman that during her youth, had been externally molded to what society would expect of a proper young lady, yet her thoughts are running with beliefs that are ahead of her time, such as the idea that a woman has wasted potential, and are equal in capability to a man, and thus, have actions that are more outspoken not considered taboo. However, Jane has the tendency to revert back to the teachings she had received as a child, despite the revolutionary mindset that she possesses. From Jane’s time as a student at Lowood school, her ideas have...

Words: 865 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Jane Eyre

...200 Term Paper Jane Eyre: Charlotte Brontë One of the most brilliant works of Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre was published in 1847 during a time when women were considered social embellishments, and nothing more than offspring bearers for that matter. She defied these beliefs by doing something no women did in that time, write. This book was revolutionary, especially since the release of Jane Austen’s works, which had a lot more of a happy ending feel that were published a century before. Charlotte Brontë and her sisters Emily and Anne, wrote novels that were much more dark and mysterious. Jane Eyre became one of the most successful novels of its era. This novel is set in the early decades of the nineteenth century, and depicts themes such as social class, religion, and gender relations. The novel is a hybrid of three genres: a romantic novel, a bildungsroman novel, and a gothic novel. Each of these genres are used in Jane Eyre, and rightfully so. They help to tell the story of Jane Eyre’s life in the most mysterious, sometimes supernatural, and retrospective way. I believe that Charlotte Brontë depicted her life through the novel of Jane Eyre, she did this by using her own experiences in life, namely through some key developments from her life translated into Jane Eyre’s life. Jane Eyre and Charlotte Brontë embody each others lives. This is clear through all the similarities between the novel and real life. Some examples of these are: both Jane and Charlotte being orphans,...

Words: 1606 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Jane Eyre

...Charlotte Bronte’s first published novel, Jane Eyre, although fictional, contains many autobiographical elements. There are many parallels between Charlotte and Jane and after researching it is evident that Charlotte Bronte drew on aspects of her own life to create Jane, in addition to the characters and the plot of the novel. These include connections between their childhood, adolescence, and love life and give a greater insight in to Charlotte’s thoughts and opinions. Charlotte Bronte, born on April 21st 1816, is the third of six children born to Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell Bronte. Much like Bronte’s father, Charlotte’s father was also a “poor clergyman” (Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte). At the mere age of five, Charlotte lost her mother to cancer and the six Bronte children were to be in the care of their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. This theme of death parallels Jane’s early childhood, and having lost both of her parents, Jane is also put into the care of her aunt, the abusive Mrs Reed. Aunt Branwell, according to Bronte’s biography, “knew where her duty lay, but she appears to have derived neither pleasure nor contentment from the doing of it” (David Cody, Hartwick College, Charlotte Bronte: A brief biography). It is thought that Bronte drew heavily and exaggerated aspects of her Aunt Branwell to create Mrs Reed and there is a sense of hatred towards both women, with Jane having remarked that “[she] hates to live [with her aunt]” (Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre) Jane Eyre’s...

Words: 501 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Examples Of Worldview In Jane Eyre

...Everyone has their own worldview. Many authors such as Charlotte Bronte may even include their worldviews through their characters or their story. These worldviews open the doors to readers on the author’s perspective. Readers are then able to determine what the author’s views are and see the evidence in the author’s life. This insight into the author’s life sometimes reflects the history of their life. Charlotte Bronte reveals her personal life and beliefs through Jane Eyre who experiences a difficult childhood and a spiritual journey toward knowing God. In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte’s Christian worldview is seen through man’s sinful nature from her experiences as a child which is shown through Mr. Brocklehurst, St. John’s and Helen’s view...

Words: 1640 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

How Does Jane Eyre Stand The Test Of Time

...test of time. Jane Eyre and The Joy Luck Club both connect the maternal figure and use the narrative language to tell the stories of the women in both novels. Charlotte Brontë has created a novel that is referenced often and allows coming of age novels to spring-board off of her beliefs. Amy Tan’s coming of age novel could stand to be the test of time and can be modeled after Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre not only stands the test of time by showing the importance of women in society through Jane, but also first person to iterate the importance that Charlotte Brontë draws the reader into the narrator’s feelings. The Joy Luck Club uses the narrative language which can stand the test of time for the future similarly to Jane Eyre and develop characters through first person. Often times Brontë does not mention Jane’s mother, however, when she does elaborate on a...

Words: 1506 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Foreshadowing Jane Eyre

...Charlotte Brontë was the third of six children in the Brontë family. In 1824, she and three of her sisters enrolled at the Cowan Bridge School, the inspiration for Lowood in her novel Jane Eyre. Sickness broke out at the school claiming the lives of Charlotte’s two older sisters. As a result, Charlotte and her younger sister Emily were withdrawn from the school and began studying under their aunt. In 1831, Charlotte left home to spend a year of study at Roe Head. Three years after her departure from said school, she returned as an instructor for the next three years. After that, she held many other jobs as a teacher or governess. Charlotte later decided to take up writing along with her two sisters, and all three published their first novels in 1847. Charlotte’s novel was Jane Eyre, a love story with a main character modelled after Charlotte herself (World’s). Jane is a governess and teacher who falls in love with her employer, who has many secrets to be revealed. In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë uses many literary devices to enhance the story including foreshadowing, point of...

Words: 1241 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Jane Eyre Evaluation Essay

...fictional book that I have chosen to analyze and evaluate is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. In the book, multiple ideas can be found that were contrary to the beliefs during that era in time in which the book was written. Some of the contrary ideas are the double standard of sexuality, division between women and men, feminism, racial politics and education. Jane Eyre definitely has some underling touches on various ideas and provides in-depth examples and details on each theme. Charlotte Bronte selection choice of details provided to create settings, character descriptions, and interactions between characters helps create each of the themes that can be found in the fictional book. Jane Eyre is a young orphan being raised by Mrs. Reed her cruel aunt that was supposed to care for her after her uncle died. One day, as punishment for fighting with her bully cousin John Reed, Jane’s aunt imprisons Jane in the red-room, the...

Words: 727 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Pursuit of Women: Equality and Respect

...of women: equality and respect --Jane Eyre Jane Eyre is known as one of the greatest and most permanently popular novel in the world of English literature in the nineteenth century. Written by Charlotte Bronte, a great woman writer in England, it is the first English book I have ever read. I can’t forget how excited I was when I read the novel three years ago for the first time.” It is such an amazing and excellent work that it attracts me deeply,” I thought to myself. Up till now, I have read the novel several times and each time I read it, there were some new feelings and thoughts occurring to me, which made me gain a lot. Charlotte Bronte, the author of Jane Eyre, was born in 1816 in northern England. She lived in a family of poets and her father Patrick Bronte was a curate of Haworth. Charlotte has one brother and four sisters. The young Brontes learned their lessons under the guidance of their father and read books borrowed from local library. With their vivid imagination and hard work, some of them have made great achievements in literature. Charlotte Bronte finished her great work Jane Eyre while her sister Emily Bronte is famous for the novel Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre is an influential work. It is widely believed that the book is a reflection of its author Charlotte’s real life. It tells a story about an orphaned poor British girl, who suffers a lot of pain but still pursues love and respect bravely. The girl’s name is Jane Eyre. Her early life at Gateshead was terrible...

Words: 1410 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Qwerty

...crucial to the novel ‘Jane Eyre’. Discuss Crucial is a very strong word to describe a concept in a novel. In the novel ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Brontë, the concept of ‘sight and vision’ plays a very large part, although it is unknown whether this is a deliberate, or just an accidental feature. If Charlotte Brontë did, indeed, include frequent references to the concept of ‘sight of vision’ deliberately, then it may be argued that it is crucial, though perhaps not to the story of the novel but as a contributor of the literary techniques that help to make ‘Jane Eyre’ the classic that it is today. Throughout the book, many literal references to ‘sight and vision’ occur. This happens in the very first chapter, when the child Jane looks in the mirror and believes herself to be a ghost: “The strange little figure there gazing at me with a white face and arms speckling the gloom, had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy half imp.” Jane is treated badly, by her Aunt Reed and cousins, and is treating herself harshly as a result of it. This quotation shows her lost inside herself, with no one to turn to, believing herself to be ugly. Jane judges many people’s character by their looks, for instance; Miss Temple ,at Lowood, who is beautiful and so Jane believes to be kind. Her judgemental assumption proves to be correct as Miss Temple treats jane and her terminally ill friend Helen with kindness and Generosity. As Jane grows older, and...

Words: 377 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

A Romantic Ending in an Anti-Romantic Novel: Does Jane Eyre End Well?

...Summary: This paper discusses the ending of Jane Eyre, discussing whether it is a “good” ending. The paper draws on three criticisms of both the novel and Romantic literature in general to conclude that, yes, it is indeed a good ending because it both fits the prevailing realism of the main character’s worldview, and conforms to the predominant literary trends of the period. A Romantic Ending In An Anti-Romantic Novel: Does Jane Eyre End Well? This paper discusses the ending of Jane Eyre, discussing whether it is a “good” ending. The paper draws on three criticisms of both the novel and Romantic literature in general to conclude that, yes, it is indeed a good ending because it both fits the prevailing realism of the main character’s worldview, and conforms to the predominant literary trends of the period. The climate in which Charlotte Bronte wrote her magnum opus was one that had almost fully recovered from the rationalist excesses of the Enlightenment. The existing climate had replaced ‘scientific’ realism with Romanticism of the Byronic sort, drawing on the ancient ideals of chivalry and the new ideals of individual freedom to craft a literature in which suffering does not end with the last romantic sunset. Ultimately, concepts such as happiness cannot be guaranteed to skeptics like Jane Eyre and “hideous” men like Rochester -- only the divine union of passion can be guaranteed. Yet, for Bronte’s characters, this is sufficient reward and an appropriate...

Words: 1266 - Pages: 6