Jane is also perceived to be mentally strong, rebellious, and courageous. (E.g. when calling John a murderer, before sent to the Red Room): throughout all the beatings and pain she has suffered, she carries on: “I resisted all the way: a new thing for me.” (Chapter 2). Brontë uses this to describe her views on society: that it is generally run by cruel people who treat people with lower statuses badly. Therefore, throughout the novel Jane Eyre, Brontë illustrates to the reader her views to the reader: that people, who are being treated badly, should rebel, in order to receive rights similar to their brothers.
However, Miss Abbot talked to Jane about the Reeds, showing signs that she knows how they treat Jane, but all the same telling her that she will have to put up with it: “And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them.” This also shows how independent Jane is, and in addition Brontë used this to show some of her other views on society, for example that we don’t know what happens behind closed doors.
Jane is proven to be studious, as shown in Chapter 8, while in Lowood: “That night, on going to bed, I forgot to prepare in imagination the Barmecide supper, of hot roast potatoes, or white bread and new milk, with which I was wont to amuse my inward cravings. I feasted instead on the spectacle of ideal drawings, which I saw in the dark - all the work of my own hands.” Jane writes this after she has excelled at Lowood; she is no longer dwelling on material things like food, but instead she is more concerned with expanding her mind, and what she can do. This characteristic of Jane could be a message from Brontë that even people from harsh backgrounds can have pride in themselves, and can mature. This quotation links back to when Jane made her observations of the Red room; throughout the time from the Red room to Lowood, not only has she been able to become more observant of her surroundings, but Jane has also been able to encourage herself to focus on her studies (her “wants”) more than her necessities, because at this stage in her life at Lowood, her necessities such as food and clothing are provided, whereas in the Reed household she struggled to maintain a supply of them.
Jane is shown by Brontë to be courageous: “What would Uncle Reed say to you, if he were alive? …My uncle Reed is in heaven, and can see all you do and think; and so can papa and mama: they know how you shut me up all day, and how you wish me dead” (Jane talking to Mrs Reed). Jane is also shown to have matured greatly; although rebelling, she has a valid argument and is using it in the correct manner to put her point across.
Jane uses this new-found courage to become a mouth-piece for Brontё’s views on society. With this courage, she says, “I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed; and this book about the liar, you may give it to your girl, Georgiana, for it is she who tells lies, and not I.” (Chapter 4). In this quotation, Jane is talking to Mrs Reed, and is courageously telling her Brontё’s views, that, through the novel, affect the reader by making them think about it.
Jane is also very imaginative. This also refers back to her observance, and how much she matures throughout the early stages of the novel: “Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour...fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from fairy tales and older ballads...With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way.” (Chapter 1). This characteristic is used again to show how Jane escapes the hardship of her childhood. The maturity of Jane is also shown through how she uses simple methods to escape her pain and bad memories, for example reading books to help her relax and forget the bad memories. Brontë could have used this characteristic to show that one of her views on society is that people, stupidly, use violence to relieve themselves of the pressure, whereas instead they could use peaceful methods such as relaxing.
Jane is also illustrated as forgiving: "No severe or prolonged bodily illness followed this incident of the red-room: it only gave my nerves a shock, of which I feel the reverberation to this day. Yes, Ms. Reed, to you I owe some fearful pangs of mental suffering. But I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did: while rending my heart-strings, you thought you were only uprooting my bad propensities." (Chapter 3). This means that through everything she has gone through, she can still forgive her Aunt as she is sent off to a boarding school. Brontë included this to show society that no-matter what happens; there is some way in which you can forgive the creator of it.
Brontë uses Jane Eyre as a messenger: showing how she disagreed with gender issues, as men were seen as superior to men (at that time). This is shown when John says that he is inheriting the Reed house, instead of it going to Mrs Reed. It is also seen through John’s abuse of his sisters and mother. Jane, as a messenger of Brontë, says the following:
"Women are supposed to be very calm generally; but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex." (Chapter 12).Jane quotes this, giving out the message that both males and females should be equals in society: which was Brontё’s view.
Another quotation said by Jane talks about the Reed family in general: “Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones”. Not only does is talk about the Reed family, but it is also a metaphor used by Brontё to show her views. This metaphor is used to state the message that once people have prejudice views, and they have not been educated against them, the prejudice will grow stronger and stronger until it strangles and takes over them (like a weed grows in and around a stone, and then wraps itself around it). Overall, Brontё uses the metaphor of prejudice to illustrate to the reader how prejudice can be difficult to remove from a person once they have started using this (or in the metaphor, once the weed has started growing). Only when that person has been educated (represented by the fertiliser) can the prejudice die, and ultimately stop.
Brontë also demonstrates how religion was used as a threat, whereas nowadays, religion is more of a choice, rather than a burden used as a threat. “God will punish her: he might strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would she go? ...Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don't repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney, and fetch you away” said Miss Abbot”. At the time when Brontё was writing the novel, education was focused at religion in England, and therefore Brontё uses Jane Eyre as a mouth-piece for her views on religion. Later on in the novel, when Jane is grown-up, she encounters three religious figures: Mr. Brocklehurst, Helen Burns, and St. John Rivers. Each one of the three figures represent a type of religion, that Jane, in due course, rejects, as she still matures and forms her own ides about morality, principles, and faith. Therefore, it is possible to say that because Jane Eyre represents Brontё, and Jane created her own view on faith and religion, Brontё also created her view on faith and religion, so Brontё has used the novel to put across her views of society to the reader.
Brontë makes the audiences feel empathy for Jane, as it is written in the 1st person. The audience feels empathy because they hear Jane’s point of view on the world, and her “bias” views give us an impression of the world and the people inside it.
Because we can only see Jane’s world from her perspective, we gather an image Jane lonely and deprived, therefore we empathise towards her.
Overall, Jane Eyre is successfully used as a mouth-piece for Charlotte Brontё’s views on society and general life. The novel Jane Eyre illustrates for the reader an image of gender inequality against women, by discussing how women need the same amount of love and care that men get, at any stage in life.
Jane Eyre also shows Brontё’s view on religion; for example, when Miss Abbot threatens Jane with God striking her dead in the middle of the night. Later on in the book, Brontё gives the reader an insight into her own views on religion, by showing how Jane creates her own personal view on religion.
Social status is also a major theme described throughout Jane Eyre by Brontё. In Jane Eyre, Brontё gives her view that everyone, no matter what social status, should be given the necessary amounts of love, care, and education.
To sum-up, Jane Eyre is a successful mouth-piece for Brontё’s views of religion, social status and gender inequality.
