The role of women in the Victorian age: 'Jane Eyre'

As the name “The Victorian age” refers to the woman Queen Victoria, the period of time developed a new perspective on women. The period is significant in English history and it is said that English self-perceptions are influenced by it. The cities grew, colonisation and urbanisation took place and with that came a public desire to consume literature. Especially in English literature, women achieved a new role. The women trying to obtain the right to vote and other social developments could explain the new role of women in literature. “Jane Eyre” is a great example of this.

The literature was debating the problems of society, often with a critical perspective. Jane Eyre is considered a contribution to that debate. Women generally didn’t have a strong position in society, or in matters regarding the law, their primary purpose in life was to get married to a proper husband. The ideals of young women were to act warmly, be pretty and take care of the children and husband, and in that sense also sacrifice your own interests. They should be pure and for chaste. The husband in the family had the right to divorce their wives for adultery, but the women didn’t enjoy the same privilege. In education and employment, the opportunities were limited and it was not until late into the Victorian period that universities allowed women to study. In regard to employment, it was a choice between industrial jobs with poor payment and horrible conditions or prostitution. The women were not a priority and played a minor role in society, the women were definitely oppressed. In literature the plot of many novels was a middleclass woman, entering a rich family as governess, the husband is a widower and they end up getting married. This was the idea of a better life, which generally was a life with a rich man. Women didn’t have many options to make a life for themselves without marriage, but in the excerpt of “Jane Eyre” we see a young women not accepting her fate in the shadow of a man. Jane is a governess to the daughter of Mr Rochester, and the two of them fall in love, but on their wedding day she discovers that Rochester has a mysterious mad women who lives in the house, and she is really his wife. Until then the plot is like many other novels at that time, but then Jane decides to not marry Rochester and run away. The excerpt it is a disagreement between Jane and Rochester, described of with strong feelings. Mr Rochester is very passionate and frustrated, and Jane is calm and in control of the situation, unlike women in that time.