Charlotte Bronte is a prime example of a woman who had already triumphantly demonstrated her ability.

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Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre in 1847, when no women had succeeded in writing a play; essay, history or philosophical treatises of generally acknowledge merit. But when it came to novels, Charlotte Bronte is a prime example of a woman who had already triumphantly demonstrated her ability.

Jane Eyre is a fictional-autobiography, as many of Charlotte Bronte's own experiences are mirrored in those of, Jane Eyre throughout the book. When Charlotte Bronte's father was left a widower with six children, he arranged for his dead wife's sister to act as housekeeper. Although she seems to have been a respectable and dutiful person, she never ceased to regret being obliged to spend her life in windswept Yorkshire, (where Charlotte Bronte was born), instead of sunny Cornwall. She never became a warm or loving substitute for the mother the six children had lost. This mirrors Jane Eyre's childhood, because as a 10-year-old orphan, she was unwanted and neglected in the home of her uncle's widow Mrs Reed, of Gateshead Hall. Her cousins, Eliza, John and Georgiana are fondly treated, while Jane is made to feel unwanted. Jane was "consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John and Georgiana Reed". Mrs Reed tells her quite unfairly, that until she can be more frank and sociable, she cannot be accepted on her cousin's terms.

The unquestionably autobiographical quality in the writing of the first part of Jane Eyre is also portrayed, when Jane is sent away to be educated at Lowood, a charity school for girls of good family. During her first few months, Jane suffers greatly, as do all the girls, from hunger, cold, and severe discipline, and following an outbreak of typhus, the school was reformed and improved. It is at this school that Jane loses her best friend Helen Burns' through tuberculosis. Similarly in 1824, Charlotte's two eldest sisters were sent off to a boarding school for the 'daughter's of clergymen', called Cowan Bridge School, in the northwest of Yorkshire. They both died of tuberculosis, probably because, like Lowood, the school was not a good one. Charlotte and Emily were also sent to Cowan Bridge for short periods while still absurdly young, about eight and six respectively. The death of the older sister's probably saved them from a similar fate, and they were mercifully removed. Charlotte however was obviously old enough to retain a vivid recollection of the sufferings and miseries that marked the daily routine of the girls boarding at Cowan Bridge. They were probably the first stimulus in her developments as a creative writer, just as Lowood in the book is seen to be a strong influence in the early development of Jane's character.
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Jane Eyre is a young girl of ten. She has been left with the Reeds who are relatives of her family. Head of the family is Master John Reed who is a fourteen-year-old boy and he continually bullies Jane. He is the heir to the family's wealth. He has two sisters, one called Eliza (Lizzy for short) and one called Georgiana (Georgie for short).

Charlotte Bronte uses first person narration when telling the story through Jane. This has the effect of allowing us to see things from Jane's point of view, although perhaps just how the ...

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