How does Charlotte Bronte use the different houses in her novel Jane Eyre?

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How does Charlotte Bronte use the different houses in her novel Jane Eyre?

In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses different locations in particular different houses to produce a structural base for the story and to provide a basis for Jane’s progression through life and the changes she experiences. The houses are a background to the plot of Jane Eyre that is the evolution of Jane from lonely orphan at Gateshead into an established and well-developed character at Ferndean who is Mr Rochester’s equal. Throughout the story Jane lives in many houses all that are different in certain aspects but in some aspects they are similar. One such aspect is that all the houses have a dominant male in Gateshead it is John Read in Lowood it is Mr Brocklehurst and at Thornfield even though she is equal to Mr Rochester when they are alone when guests are present she must then observe the social hierarchy which means Mr Rochester is dominant over Jane.

Another similarity is that in each of different and contrasting houses there is always an over all feeling of Jane being trapped and constrained inside their walls. Jane is always fighting against the dominant males in the houses as seen when she encounters John Reed and calls him a murderer. She always rebels against the dominant male in the household until she meets Rochester who is not only the dominant male but also a kind and loving person. Apart from the dominant male in each house there is also a kind guide such as Bessie in Gateshead and Miss Temple in Lowood. There is one exception and this is in Thornfield where Mr Rochester is both the dominant male and kind presence in the house. In Jane Eyre houses play an important part in shaping and forming the structure of the novel. The represent important milestones in Jane’s progression through life.

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When Charlotte Bronte was writing this novel the role of women was below men which is very different from today in that Men ruled society and women had little to say and this is represented in the fact that a male in each house always dominates Jane. For an educated woman who needed a job in Charlotte Bronte’s time the only respectable line of work that she could get in to was the job of a governess. Charlotte Bronte shows the reader that it is very hard for any one to move out of their social group this demonstrated at ...

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