Female Children were liked to be very beautiful whereas Jane was “plain”. They were also supposed to be a typical Victorian child and be accomplished in things like music and embroidery. Jane played a little piano but not very well. A good example of a Victorian child living up to society’s expectations is Adele brought into the story later as a contrast to Jane as a child.
In that day women were not expected to contest men’s opinions, like Jane does to John, and Jane tries to gain authority by addressing John as an equal, calling him cousin John when she should be calling him Master. Jane is constantly trying to gain equality and this reoccurs throughout the novel where even as a child she takes her Aunt’s books and acts as though she can do what she likes.
Women were not supposed to be independent, but Jane constantly wanted independence and freedom, such as at the beginning of the novel when they all go out for a walk and Jane wanders off. She also appears independent in the way she later makes the most of her disadvantaged childhood, by deciding that she doesn’t have to follow rules and expectations. She does not place her trust and belief in anyone she does not know very well very easily. For example, later on with Mr. Rochester she was reluctant to trust him at first. She has been affected by her childhood and made to feel un-wanted so she had to be independent and learn how to think and act for herself.
During Jane’s time at Lowood it shows the conflict and differences between Jane and Helen’s personalities, because of religion and manners. Jane also questions and fights against punishment whereas Helen believes if she’s being punished it’s her own fault, such as when Helen gets the cane resulting in a beating for not cleaning her nails, this was due to the water being broken, Jane is outraged that they punish Helen for this, but Helen accepts her punishment. Jane later says she would have got the cane and broken it in front of Mrs. Scratched’s nose. Jane resents punishment as when in the red room, she thinks her punishment is “unjust”. And the aggression she shows towards her aunt about it when she leaves, she felt that her time in the house was spent as a servant, she thinks she had “less rights than if she was a servant”. She tells her Aunt the only person she loves less than her is her son, John.
Jane as an adult has even more expectations placed upon her. As when she was a child she is expected to be accomplished and beautiful, the second half of the novel shows the contrasts between Jane and Blanche, Jane is plain and a mere governess and not accomplished at piano or sewing, where as Blanche is accomplished at both piano and sewing, and is beautiful. Jane does not accept her position as a mere governess so always tries to assert her equality, we see this where she goes into Mr Rochester’s room, which was quite unheard of in those time. Also the way she speaks to Mr Rochester she speaks as though she is an equal, she brings up conversations about everyday happening s that he would only talk to equals about, like friendly banter. Jane also does not think before she speaks so speaks her mind very freely. Such as when Mr Rochester asks if she finds him attractive she replies very hastily and bluntly” No, sir”.
She also throughout the novel plays the role of the heroine, which is the reverse role women were supposed to accept in that era, and very unconventional. She helps Mr Rochester when he falls off his horse, then when there’s the fire in Mr Rochester’s room, then when Mr Mason gets bitten. She also ends up playing the dominant partner at the end of the novel because Mr Rochester has to be reliant on someone. Jane tells my Rochester she would not sit around while he married someone else and wait on them. She tells him she can’t go without love, she is a really person with real feelings.
Throughout the novel up to very near the end, Jane has no wealth or family. Generally people in her position would say love is not important they just marry convenience, but Jane wants to marry for love. She does not take the conventional life. She turns down St John even though it would have proved very convenient, would have given her statues, and religious favor. And she does not bother about the age gap when she finally finds love.
I also disagree with the view that Jane is in constant rebellion with expectations, Admittedly she rebels as a child, especially with her aunt, but as she gets older she matures and learns how to forgive and respect people’s beliefs, such as when she meets St John. She learns how to control and modify her passion and learns to forgive such as with her aunt she goes back to her when she is ill, even though when she left gateshead she said she’d never go back. We see when she leave Mr Rochester that she finally believes it is not right to do anything for love. She learns to accept some of society expectations and rules but even at the end she asserts he independence by saying “ I come to you an independent woman”. I think Helen had a big impact on Jane’s life and Jane thought through Helen’s views and way of looking at life, and you can gradually see Jane thinks everything through before she does things and finds different ways of looking at situations, such as she married Mr Rochester when he wasn’t married. She left him when she realized he had a wife, this shows she knows the law and followed it, she followed her head over heart. Overall she followed her heart and did what was right for her not for anyone else throughout the novel.