Research Task 3

Women Question

“The Woman Question” refers to the roles of women within their social context. It refers to the choices and opportunities available to given the restrictions of the law and the attitude towards women. “The woman question” in the novel is raised by the focus on Jane’s life, how she is bought up to act in a certain way, the way she is judged both what she says and does not just by the content of her or the degree of her actions, but because of she is a woman. When Jane refuses the proposal of Mr Rivers and tells him bluntly that she will not marry him, he is more surprised by the bluntness of her words and insists that this set up is the best for Jane. Mr Rochester tries to make Jane into something that he wants her to be by buying her expensive clothes and jewellery. Jane on the other hand refuses this, she is certain of herself and stands her ground in order to retain the identity she has forged for herself. He as a Victorian man had every right to and saw no problem with trying to turn Jane to a version of Miss Ingram, the Victorian ideal woman, Thus women were burdened by the pressures of being what society thought they roles should be.

References to being a Governess

Jane Eyre’s profession is of a governess. The first time Jane introduces the idea to herself one sees her wanting to leave Lowood and discover the world outside her comfort zone. In order to do this she sees it appropriate according to being a woman with her expertise and her low class position in society, being a governess is a way in which she can survive and escape dependence from people. When she is considering being a governess, she also describes it as being servitude. This illustrates how governesses were viewed by society despite their education. The second time is when Jane arrives at Thornfield. She as Adele’s governess is supposed to groom her into the ideal woman of the upper class society. Adele is said to have little talents and Jane’s job is to improve her, so she is able fit and be admired by Victorian society. Miss Ingram and her mother also makes a reference to governesses as they have a general dislike for them. They found them a nuisance and had an inherit mistrust for governesses because they were from a lower class than them. Miss Ingram’s mother stated that she was glad to be rid of them. Later in the book the reader is introduced to Jane’s cousins, Mary and Diana, who are both governesses. They have to leave their homes which they love in order to become governesses as their father had not enough fortunes to give them. The position as the governance, as we can observe, is therefore not taken up by wealthy people. All references in the Jane Eyre to governesses are seen as negative because of their position ion society.

Comments on Poovey Excerpts

Poovey excerpts focus on the dual roles of the governess: the roles which the governess occupied amongst her working class peers and with the families which she worked with. Poovey’s first excerpt seems to say that governesses perpetuated the gender roles in which women in Victorian society had to play. They had such an influence on young girls’ minds and how they were to view the world. This was done as that was their mandate from the parents of their pupils. The irony was that though Jane was in a way a feminist, the only job which could serve to give her a form of independence continued the values which she stood against. The fact that Jane was still able to find love contradicts Poovey’s statement of her being lack of temptation to men as Jane received two marriage proposals. Jane Eyre shows that though the role she as a governess played may have been complex, and made her an outcast to the working and middle class, she was still a woman with feelings equal to those who shunned her.