Monday, October 23, 2017
How well did this book show the Victorian era?
Jane Eyre isn't exactly set in the type of Victorian era that we might think of at first. When I think of the Victorian era, I think of a busy street in London with horse-drawn carriages making their way downtown. This book is set more in the country but still includes horse-drawn carriages and candles as light. There are also multiple examples of the separation of class. There are servants and masters that are separated by wealth and wealth means power. For example, the Reeds treated Jane poorly because she was poor. Her parents left her with no money to use to claim a spot in a higher class to be considered wealthy and worth something in her aunt's eyes. So, what do you think? Did I miss anything that you think that Bronte was trying to show as she wrote this?
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A few more things that can be seen as "Victorian" are Mr Rochester's popularity in the community, because popularity adds to the separation of class, and you can add in the style of courtship that applied in the Victorian era. It's different from now because you plan it in advance and the marriage is usually to tie wealth and family, very much unlike what we see today.
ReplyDeleteI find it to show the victorian era exactly how I had imagined it to be. First thing that makes it stand out to me as victorian is how the women were treated. They were definitely not equal to men. Also the gothic theme also helps with a victorian era feel. Life back then seemed to have a very diverse range of people. High class and a low class in other words. Jane feels that all throughout the book because she says she hadn't really thought of herself as a high class person but lesser than everybody around her. So this is why I find this book to be a great example of the victorian era.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Jane Eyre really represents what the Victorian Era was like through many ways. One example of this is the class division that's shown throughout Jane Eyre's entire life. Even back at Gateshead, Jane Eyre was separated from others because she did not come from a wealthy family. And at Lowood, Jane Eyre along with the other girls were treated as poor peasants. This use of class division throughout the novel really shows what the Victorian Era was like, at least through Bronte's view.
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