Research Task 1: Introduction

Research Task 1: Introduction

1.      Definitions

Class: it is the division within society based on how much wealth one owns and the financial history of one’s family.

Gender: The different roles men and women occupy in society

Feminism: The demand of equality of women in the eyes of the law and society by women.

Ideology: It is a particular belief system which guides the way one views and reacts to life. 

2.      Preface of second edition of Jane Eyre

·  Bronte was motivated to write this preface to thank the people who supported her controversial book but furthermore to make a point to the harsh critics of her books, mainly the members of the higher class,  about the ideology they live by.

· The argument that Bronte presents is on the issue of conservatism and the religiousness that would accompany it.  She is very direct in her criticism and uses the Christian and bible references illustrate the points. Her rhetoric style indicates her frustration at the ideology she is standing up against.

·         Bronte writes as Currer Bell as she did not want her book to be at a disadvantage due to the prejudice against women at that time. She wanted the book to be judged on how good it was and she believed that it was as good a book as written by any man.                                                                                                                   

Victorian Class and Gender ideologies

The Jane Eyre reviews found in “The Christian Remembrancer” and “The Quarterly” reflects Victorian class and gender ideology.  Jane Eyre was a controversial book in that it was critical in the way it portrayed upper classes; mainly the way they lived their lives and how they mistreated the working class. The reviews criticising Jane Eyre are based on these class and gender ideologies which she opposes and this can be seen throughout their text.

From such a title such as “The Christian Remembrancer” one can gather a conservative nature in their publications. It first argues the sex of the writer, and it insults women by stating that “Who indeed but the a woman could have ventured, with the smallest prospect of success, to fill octavo volumes with the history of a woman’s heart.’ Thus indicating that only a woman would be lacking enough in sense to publish what she deems as important to her though they may be little success. According to this review it is an emotional risk rather than a practical one. The other publication “The Quarterly Review” also has this undermining view on women stating that “No woman trusses game and garnishes with the same hands” and “Above all no women attires another in such fancy dresses as Jane’s ladies assume”. These quotations show how society viewed women as being unable to master or concentrate on more than one skill and having inherent base qualities such as jealousy. The publications then are reflectors of the paradigm of the Victorian Society.

Women were not the only victims of Victorian ideology; the working class were also perceived in a derogatory manner. The Christian Remembrancer states that if the author had not been part of the working class, “[the reader] fear[s] [Jane] is to whom the world has not been kind”, thus showing how the society then thought that the working class deserved the poor lives they led. The Quarterly Review also emphasises how “it pleased God to make her an orphan, friendless and penniless” elaborating this idea of how the poor deserve their low status in life as it was ordained by the unquestionable will of God. In this regard of similarity one can assume that these were the current ideologies of the Victorian era.

The class and gender ideologies discussed above were the basis upon which these reviews were written. These ideologies can be detected throughout the article not only in words written in these reviews but also the general sarcastic and condescending tone found. Therefore it can be concluded that Jane Eyre was successful in disrupting the general societies what of thinking and living.