Although Rochester is Jane's social and economic superior, and although men were widely considered to be naturally superior to women in the Victorian period, Jane is Rochester's intellectual equal. Moreover, after their marriage is interrupted by the discovery that Rochester is already married to Bertha Mason, Jane is proven to be Rochester's moral superior.
Rochester regrets his former informality and lustfulness; on the other hand, he has proven himself to be weaker in many ways than Jane. Jane feels that living with Rochester, as his mistress would mean the loss of her dignity. Ultimately, she would become degraded and dependent upon Rochester for love, while unprotected by any true marriage bond. Jane will only enter into marriage with Rochester after she has gained a fortune and a family, and after she has been on the verge of abandoning passion altogether. She waits until she is not overly influenced by her own poverty, loneliness, psychological vulnerability, or passion. As well, because Rochester has been blinded by the fire and has lost his manor house at the end of the novel, he has become weaker while Jane has grown in strength—Jane claims that they are equals, but the marriage has actually tipped in her favour.
Jane Eyre is critical of Victorian England's strict social hierarchy. Jane is a figure of uncertain class standing and, thus, a source of extreme tension for the characters around her. Jane's manners, sophistication, and education are those of an aristocrat, because Victorian governesses, who tutored children in etiquette as well as academics, were expected to possess the "culture" of the aristocracy. Yet, as paid employees, they were more or less treated as servants; thus, Jane remains penniless and powerless while at Thornfield. Jane's understanding of the double standard crystallizes when she becomes aware of her feelings for Rochester; she is his intellectual, but not his social, equal. Even before the crisis surrounding , Jane is hesitant to marry Rochester because she senses that she would feel obliged to him for "condescending" to marry her. Jane's distress, which appears most strongly in Chapter 17, seems to be Bronte’s critique of Victorian class attitudes.
Jane herself speaks out against class prejudice at certain moments in the book. For example, in Chapter 23 she chastises Rochester:
"Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! —I have as much soul as you—and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you."
However, it is also important to note that the nowhere in Jane Eyre are society's boundaries bent. Ultimately, Jane is only able to marry Rochester as his equal because she has almost magically come into her own inheritance from her uncle. Even though this does seem like a bit too much of a fairy tale ending for a gothic novel it is necessary because of the fact that if Jane had not have been socially equal by the end of the novel then the Victorian public would not have been able to understand why the pair would marry if Jane had stayed as a lowly servant as it was against Victorian taboo.
Jane Eyre does have her doubts herself about her equality with Mr Rochester as we find out in chapter 16 when she begins to worry about Mr Rochester’s increasing interest in blanch Ingram. Jane begins to hate herself for allowing herself to fall in love with Mr Rochester because she now begins to think that she is a fool for thinking that she was ever more then a servant to Mr Rochester. After this she begins to compare herself to blanche Ingram in an attempt to convince herself that she is not fit for Mr Rochester.
YOU," I said, "a favourite with Mr. Rochester? YOU gifted with the power of pleasing him? YOU of importance to him in any way? Go! your folly sickens me. And you have derived pleasure from occasional tokens of preference—equivocal tokens shown by a gentleman of family and a man of the world to a dependent and a novice.
This shows that as much as she would love to be equal to Mr Rochester that she is still an inferior in social status to Mr Rochester. Also she begins to see that blanche Ingram has everything that she wishes she could have as she is convinced that only these things will make her equal to Mr Rochester. This was quite true as blanche was the antithesis or Jane as Jane was in the end just a simple governess where as blanche was a lady.
After this she begins to compare herself to blanche Ingram in an attempt to convince herself that she is not fit for Mr Rochester. She starts to talk about how she should draw herself as 'Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain.' And then to draw blanche in her best colours and in all her beauty and label it 'Blanche, an accomplished lady of rank.'
She then goes on to explain what these pictures mean;
"Whenever, in future, you should chance to fancy Mr. Rochester thinks well of you, take out these two pictures and compare them: say, 'Mr. Rochester might probably win that noble lady's love, if he chose to strive for it; is it likely he would waste a serious thought on this indigent and insignificant plebeian?'"
I, personally do not believe that this is the way that Jane really feels, I believe that she has made up this rubbish to try and soften the blow that blanch has caused in her feelings towards Mr Rochester. She is trying to help herself by saying that she was a fool to ever love Rochester in the first place as he has always been to good for her standards.
In conclusion I believe as I did in that start that Jane is a definite equal to Mr Rochester as they both have the same level of: intellect, spirit and more importantly at the end of the novel they are social equal as Jane inherits her small fortune meaning that she can choose to stay with Mr Rochester as a lover rather then relying on him as a benefactor.
