Subtle feminism hidden in plain sight of Jane Eyre

Bronte teaches us the power of 'No'

Dear Reader,

Thank you for your patience on this one. It’s taken me a whole week while juggling my actual paying job to get through 535 pages of Jane Eyre, but I’m still on track of my promise to deliver 51 thoughts of classic literature. While researching, I found one of Charlotte Bronte’s letters who was hustling at the time, managing a full-time job and her passion:

“The thought came over me am I spend all the best part of my life in this wretched bondage, forcibly suppressing my rage at the idleness the apathy and the hyperbolical & most asinine stupidity of these fat headed oafs and on compulsion assuming an air of kindness, patience & assiduity?

Me too girl, me too. Some of us are still in the wretched bondage, even if we are 178 years apart.

On a side note, I was at the gym yesterday, and a man approached me and introduced himself politely. Even with the visible discomfort on my face, he continued his array of questions and invited me to shake hands with me. Drenched with sweat, I felt uneasy touching an unknown person. I couldn’t say no. I’ll explain soon why I bring this up and how Jane helped me question some of my own traits this week.

The Complexity of Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre, both the book and the character is a cocktail of self-constraint, feminism, class, mystical interventions, delirious love, and finally pseudo empowerment (let’s face it, none of us are really free I suppose and Bronte knows that).

Jane Eyre is a curious, complex story, although everyone is most interested in the love story of Jane, I want to focus on her transition to womanhood and how her community and religious beliefs impacted her life, thoughts, and innate powers. I tried my best to get inside Jane’s mind, but only got more questions than answers. Similar to how most of the characters related to her. Orphaned at a young age and left unloved by her guardians, Mrs. Reeds, she was considered a wild child; had very little self-constraint, spoke her mind, and told elders off. Jane also has to deal with the shortcomings of being poor, along with looking just plain and orphaned, life was flowing against her. With a heartless aunt and a set of cousins who would constantly remind her that “she had no money, and she ought to beg and not live with Gentlemen’s children like them”. Any form of subjugation would drive her rebellious spirits into a manic frenzy. At age 10, she was branded as a mad cat, when she called her odious cousin, John Reeds, “a tyrant murderer, a slave driver”.

As events pass, little Jane realizes that the more she punishes her wrongdoers, she receives pain in return. Early on, she is insistent on calling out those who suffocate her, particularly by John, who once hit her so badly that she bled. Yet, Jane got reprimanded instead for troubling her benefactor, her master. She screams in pain “How is he my master? Am I a servant?” Remember this line reader.

There is a subtle air of feminism throughout Bronte’s writing, just like Jane. Not too explicit, but the presence is felt. Bronte had no choice but to make it less obvious, as she says in one of her personal letters:

I cannot write books handling the topics of the day—it is of no use trying. Nor can I write a book for its moral—Nor can I take up a philanthropic scheme though I honor Philanthropy”

Beauty, Class, and Rebellion

Even with all the love she had to give, little Jane could never get the favor of her guardians. Confused by the constant damnation she faced at home caused by her restlessness and her wildness, she felt judged and wished if only she was “a sanguine, smarter and a better-looking child, her troubles at home would end”. Complementary characters suggest that if Jane was not just plain and pale, and was a pretty child and “not a toad” there would have been some compassion towards her. Bronte herself had insecurities about her appearance, which manifested in Jane. While I read these passages, I couldn’t help but sympathize, I’m not sure about you reader but being a toad growing up is not easy. Being made to feel inferior for one’s appearance is an insecurity we all carry closely. Restlessness, signs of expostulations, and free-spiritedness, are all signs of a naughty, wicked child, no matter which century you live in. If only she were richer and beautiful, her deeds would have been considered just natural implications of her age.

Restlessness, signs of expostulations, and free-spiritedness, are all signs of a naughty, wicked child, no matter which century you live in.

The Red Room and Universal Suffocation

Jane was once locked up in a spooky red room, where her uncle John passed away and recollects: “My heart beat rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed; suffocated: endurance broke down.” I’m aware that this sentence was just an episode of her terror, but I too have felt this many times before, and so have many minorities. We have all felt this and continue to feel this suffocation. Jane is then sent off to a charity school, no longer tolerable to her household.

Mr. Brocklehurst, a traditional Christian, heads Lowood Girls School where Jane lived for 8 years. At the time of their meeting, he hands over the 10-year-old with the manuscript of the ‘Child’s Guide’ with recollections of children who died for their apparent falsehood. Deceit he strongly feels is “akin to falsehood, and all liars will have their portion in the lake burning with fire and brimstone”. When she said she loved reading Revelations, Daniel, Genesis Samuel, Job, and Jonah but disliked Psalms, he recoiled and said “she had a wicked heart and should pray really hard to change it”. The ‘Child’s Guide’ was an interesting term. I found nothing online that explained what it was or whether it existed. After some digging, I unearthed ‘The Good Wife’s Guide’, popular in the 14th century which encouraged ladies to manifest qualities of obedience, and humility with views such as “Do not be arrogant or answer back to your future husband or to his words and do not contradict him, especially in front of others.” I would like to assume that the Child’s Guide is something similar. Did Charlotte know of this text and alluded to a counterfeit on purpose? Was there a hidden proposition? Reader, I hope you can realize how little women’s rights progressed and why Jane’s provocativeness and truthfulness were so intolerable to those who hid behind strict regimes and societal expectations, even 5 centuries after this manual was first released.

Jane’s secret gift of premonitions through dreams, warding her from harm makes her a special kind; this subtly echoes through the book. No regime or restrictions could contain her gifts. Jane, now within the restricted walls of Lowood, observes her fate unfolding. Dressed alike, and treated equally as the lowest creatures on earth, there was no wealth discrimination among the Lowood girls. They speak when spoken to, consume burnt potatoes, and are harshly shamed for their poor attention spans, tardiness, or carelessness. Such traits would be coined casually as ADHD nowadays.

There is no room for error, only perfection. Mr. Brocklehurst once cruelly wanted the girl’s top knot to be chopped off because of their unruly curly hair claiming that it was his duty to the sovereign “I have a Master to serve whose kingdom is not of this world: my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh; to teach them to clothe themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety”.

Restraint and Transformation

Amongst the strict values, she finds a friend who is in stark contrast to her, pliable, religious, ready to bear a dozen floggings on the neck from her superiors without a flinch; so natural to Helen but alien to Jane. Our protagonist is constantly bewildered by this level of subjugation, Helen is a sweet child and her only shortcoming is being disorganized or daydreaming. Helen shows her the foundation of endurance and claims it “was silly to even say that one cannot bear what is our fate”. I must admit, I don’t agree with her situation but Helen might have a point with that.

If Helen had WIFI and an iPhone would she think the same way?

In the age of constant need for dopamine, any inconvenience is met with an instant need for comfort. Switching off our lives to live through others, only because the one we live in is just a little painful. A continuous loop of watching strangers doing mukbang videos, GRWMs, and 10-step skincare routines is our sedative, aiding us to a dreamland where we wish to live forever. So accessible, right in our palms, this daily cocaine.

Helen Burns, Jane’s first true friend showed her kindness and power of forgiveness. This is where Jane’s inner child starts evolving. Jane vehemently opposes many wrongdoings that she observes, but learns to fight it silently, as she realizes that her soul and circumstances only get a worse beating with her passionate emotions.

She quietens.

Growing up in a traditional Christian household, I too started life as a wildfire, with an immense amount of energy and unbidden force. But, these feelings are considered wicked in our world. As time went on, I quietened too, and so have many more. The struggle was no longer worth it, we all complied. Little Jane is us, me, you; our childlike form, pure and unadulterated by worldly expectation. Screaming at top of her lungs over the injustice, the ultimate leverage we entangle ourselves with. Unknowingly signing ourselves up to lifelong servitude.

In the age of constant need of dopamine, any inconvenience is met with an instant need for comfort. Switching off our lives to live through others, only because the one we live in is just a little painful.

A dangerous case of Typhoid hits Lowood, and Helen is a suffering participant. Even as death knocks at her door, she believes: “I had not qualities or talents to make my way very well in the world: I should have been continually at fault.” The system crippled her to believe that it was her inner faults that inhibited her journey on earth. Learning about Bronte’s own life, she had a repulsive reaction to prejudiced doctrines but was considered a spiritually inclined woman. There is a moment when Jane questions her creator but Helen reminds her “that there is a place as heaven and her immortal state will live with him, without any faults”. What a beautiful thought for the eternal sufferer.

All Jane ever wanted was true affection that was denied, she says to Helen:

“Look here; to gain some real affection from you, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse, and let it dash its hoof at my chest”.

The Power of Saying No

With the cards she dealt with, Jane grows up to be an almost perfect lady, a gifted painter, well educated, and begins her journey as a governess at Thornfield Hall. Jane, with her plain and unassuming demeanor, girdled by religious teachings, still has big dreams, unlike women of her age. These are ideas Helen could never imagine for herself, limited by her own beliefs. She dreams one day to run a school for girls.

Jane starts falling in love with the heir of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester, but wealth and status keep them apart. Rochester is a Vulcan look-alike, twice her age, moody and harsh at times, sarcastic, and even immoral.

There’s an old Spanish saying that the devil is so good at his job because he is so old.

Rochester seems to be of that kind, deceitful but intelligent. But she saw the unseen invisible spirit that we fall in love with, and accepted all the bad that comes with it. She is so captured by his essence that she even calls him her master multiple times. Jane finally gave herself to serve her master, obeying his every, need almost in a trance. Little Jane would be disappointed.

Rochester was strange and intelligent, not conventionally beautiful, just like Jane. She met aspects of him in her, the rebellious, curious sides. When their marriage drew close to the date, she was apprehensive about the life she would lead with him, girdled by wealth and pretentious society: “And then you won't know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any longer, but an ape in a harlequin's jacket”. Guided by her divine providence she finds out the truth of him being already married to a mad woman, Bartha, who lived hidden within the mansion for over 15 years. Rochester is the ultimate sinner in her eyes. Unable to tolerate a life of adultery, she decides to refuse him and starts another new journey finally. Once again she found that strength of restraint through the most arduous times and cries”

“I had injured- wounded- left my master. I was hateful in my own eyes. Still I could not turn, nor retrace one step.”

Jane undergoes strange ordeals that ultimately carry her to independence and fate brings her to an extended lost family. She now heads her new school, teaching the unfortunate souls who were once like her, her dream somewhat fulfilled and liberated. Her lost family which included a cousin, St. John, an ambitious missionary in a spiritual psychosis of sorts wanted her to be his wife, as a duty to his sovereign and live a life not for love but of service. Jane, all her life yearning for love and ready to exchange it for a few broken bones, could never do herself this disservice.

What good service is it to God, by lying to yourself?

Jane’s self-constraint developed over the years and experiences, protected her through the great asks of men. Whether it was refusing to accept herself as a mistress to Rochester or forsaking true love to help pursue St. John’s lofty ambitions. At the prospect of losing her, both Rochester and St. John reminded her that she would end up alone and hopeless without a man in her arms. She refused both.

Her gift was the ability to see through BS.

Rochester, absolutely ruined by his mistakes seeks her; his home was destroyed by a fire carried out by his first wife, leaving him without any status. Now, alone and losing most of his fortune, he was finally her equal. The beam had balanced, and Jane preferred it instead of being trapped amongst his upper-class society. Another round of coincidental events eventually leads them to each other. Most think she shouldn’t have chosen him in the end, but I suppose the readers at the time wouldn’t have appreciated it as you do. I’d like to believe it was an equal exchange. Rochester loses his old self in the fire, and Jane finds him now stripped away from all his sins. I couldn’t imagine a better way for Jane to live the rest of her life; a rebel, who didn’t care for societal expectations she got what she wished for in the end.

Alternatively, it could have been Bronte’s own subtle way of telling the women of her time that if you are going to make your husband your master, he better walk through fire for you, literally.

Bronte’s faith centered around a direct connection to the universe or her God, instead of depending on teachings conjured by men. Her work was chastised as subversive and anti-Christian by some as it didn’t conform to the teachings of the time. She gives accounts but never her personal views of what the characters experienced. I’d like to believe Bronte knew what she was doing, her subtlety was on purpose. Jane Eyre was Bronte’s manual for women on how to navigate this world. She conveys softly that rebellion only causes more harm to the rebel and that patience and endurance might be a woman’s greatest strengths in the man’s world. It’s the only way she could get her work out in the world too.

In her transition to womanhood, Jane rejected the traditional gender-biased doctrines she grew up with but accepted the spiritual facets of it instead. We all have a choice, with the knowledge we are parted with. She made sure she didn’t lose her true identity; the ever-questioning inner rebel, the nonconforming standards she held herself with. Following her inner guidance, than what was expected, she could have led an easier life if she accepted to be Rochester’s mistress or a loveless companion of St. John’s. But she refused to let expectations dictate her. And that’s her lesson to the women of all times.

Don’t forget yourself. People, and circumstances all will try to come in your way, between you and yourself. Don’t let them.

Fight for yourself.

Who else will?

I wish I had this superpower to say No. Like Jane, I have myself been in many such situations, forced to comply with men and women, to do things I disliked. Whether it was taking up the wrong degree at college, picking up jobs that made me unhappy, or giving myself up in a relationship. I hope someday I’ll have this power that Jane possessed. And, I hope I don’t shake hands with men I don’t know anymore.

This review marks the beginning of my journey into revisiting beloved classics. I'll be sharing weekly reflections and drawing modern parallels to timeless works throughout the year. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to leave a comment! If you’d like to stay updated, don’t forget to subscribe to weekly newsletters filled with insights and more.