Dissertation On "Home, belonging and women: feminist study of Jane Eyre’s

search for home and identity in Jane Eyre"

 Chapter One
Introduction

Bold, outspoken, and independent, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre has gained recognition as one of
the strongest examples of a feminist heroine in the canon of women's literature. While a few critics
try to make the case that Jane is not, in fact, deserving of this title, most typically reinforce the
assessment that Jane is an excellent example of early feminism. Contrastingly, Jane Austen's Fanny
Price is not so easily awarded this distinction. At least as often as a critic determines that she does
ultimately display qualities of a feminist heroine, another determines that she ultimately succumbs
to and reinforces patriarchal values.
Charlotte Bronte is well-known as a serious advocate for the Victorian woman, an advocate and
not a feminist. There is a great difference between being an advocate for woman affairs and a
feminist. The proof is that the advocate can be either a man or a woman. Jane Eyre is a reasonable
example to support this point of view. Jane is a fictionalized version of Brontë herself. But although
Brontë's world is undoubtedly based on nineteenth century society, it should be remembered that
the world conjured in Jane Eyre is not reality; it is a world constructed by Brontë to tell a story.
Perhaps Jane Eyre retains such power and relevance because Charlotte fabricated the book from
the cloth of her own psyche, her own passionate nature; and so, although the British culture has
changed drastically since the book was written, the insights into human nature which Brontë gave
readers remain. Jane herself is Charlotte's most highly resolved character. Charlotte seems to know
Jane intimately, so intimately that it seems likely that Jane is "Charlotte's avatar within her fictional
world" (Mirriam Allott, 1973).
Jane Eyre
While Jane Austen's Fanny Price is often seen as an unlikely candidate for a feminist heroine,
readers often celebrate Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre as a strong feminist, perhaps even the strongest
feminist character in nineteenth century fiction. Both characters are introverted, plain girls who
occupy marginal positions within the families in which they live. Both are subject to forms of
physical and emotional abuse within these families. However, while Fanny responds to this abuse
primarily by becoming even more submissive and self-denying, Jane responds to her more severe
abuse by becoming outspoken and at times defiant. While Fanny is a ward, separated from her
parents by her aunt and uncle's offer of patronage, Jane is an orphan whose Aunt Reed only keeps
her because of a promise made to her uncle on his deathbed. Fanny lives with a well-intentioned,
though often emotionally cold and distant, patriarch but is removed from some of her obligations
to him because of her marginal status within his home. Conversely, Jane, as an orphan girl raised
by her aunt, has no patriarch to whom she belongs or to whom she owes gratitude and duty. These
differences would seem to allow Jane more opportunities to subvert patriarchal values. In addition,
Jane's wider range of experiences, her years as a student at a charity school for girls, her experience
as a governess, and her move to Marsh End, would seem to allow her more opportunities to form
friendships with other women as these experiences widen the circle of her female acquaintances.

It seems, then, that Charlotte Bronte may have positioned Jane Eyre in situations that could well
display both qualities of a feminist heroine. Is Jane Eyre, in fact a successful feminist heroine? An
answer to this question necessitates an examination of Jane's role in patriarchy at large as well as
her reactions to the various patriarchal models she encounters. It also requires a review of her
relationships with other female characters, not only those women from whom she receives
mentorship and support, but also, and perhaps more importantly, the one female character for
whom Jane is given the responsibility of female mentorship:
Adele.
In some ways Jane's situation as an orphan girl reflects a magnified version of the situation of all
women in Victorian society in that all women experienced disempowerment. Gilbert and Gubar
reflect this thought in discussing Jane's flight from Thorn field: Her terrible journey across the
moors suggests the essential homelessness--the nameless, placeless, and contingent status--of
women in a patriarchal society" (364). A woman in Victorian England typically had little or no
economic position, social status, or legal rights of her own. Instead she received her economic and
social status based on the position of her father or husband. Drew Lamonica points out that in
Victorian literature as well as Victorian society, "Membership in a family entitled children to
certain 'services' that did much to secure their social status as adults, including rights to
primogeniture, inheritances, dowries, and arranged marriages." She further states that a woman's
prospects for marriage were closely tied to the social and economic position of her father, "who
provided for her dowry or settlement" (71). Because of this situation of complete dependence, the
same father or husband who served as a woman's protector and provider also could serve as her
oppressor. The father/daughter and husband/wife relationships were not typically ones of equality;
the relationship had to come on the father or husband's terms, whatever those were. Thomas E.
Jordan notes, "Within the [Victorian] household it was an accepted value that the father was in
charge and that the children obeyed" (66). Wives were similarly expected to observe their
husband's authority.
Illustrating the mindset behind this cultural value, Perkin writes, "Aware, if only dimly, that a
woman lived completely under her husband's protection or cover, traditionalists justified this on
several grounds ... someone had to rule the household, otherwise disputes would be endless, and it
was better for the husband to be the ruler, since he was stronger, wiser, and knew more of the
world" (29-30).
This is not to suggest that most Victorian fathers or husbands were tyrannical or abusive, although
legally they had a right to be. Often, in fact, patriarchal society viewed this dependence as being
advantageous to women. Perkin describes this mindset when she writes, "Being physically and
economically the weaker sex, their dependence, the theory went, was for their own good" (1).
However, a Victorian husband or father in the very act of "protecting" a woman, often robbed her
of her agency. He made decisions for her because he thought he knew what was best and secluded
her from knowledge of the world in order to "protect" her innocence. Jane's lack of such a
patriarchal protector and provider forces her to provide for and protect herself.
In the beginning of the novel, Jane is completely without a patriarchal protector. While Bronte
portrays Mr. Reed as a guardian who would be sympathetic and benevolent to Jane, his death
leaves her to defend herself against the verbal abuse of Mrs. Reed, her children, and even the
servants. Jane is also forced to defend herself against the physical abuse of John Reed. The Reed
family makes it painfully clear that Jane is not a member of the family and has no rights to their
protection or love. John G. Peters points out, "Early in the novel, characters describe Jane almost
exclusively with derogatory labels. And by so doing, they marginalize Jane.
When the Reeds call her an 'imp' or a 'rat,' they both punish her by insult and psychologically
isolate her from their family" (59). Lamonica, discussing Jane's position in the Reed household,
notes, "Jane's place at Gates head is ultimately anomalous: she is less than a servant, family and
yet not family, an unnatural child, a 'kept' orphan, a heterogeneous thing" (72). Being thus cast out
and left without patriarchal protection, it is clear from the beginning that Jane will have to protect
and provide for herself; she must develop a sense of independence and assertiveness. As many
critics have noted, Jane comes to display these traits even within the Reed household. Kate Flint
observes that "Throughout the novel, Jane [is] characterized by activity, rather than by a tendency
to become passively absorbed in the lives of others" (181). Rosemary Babcock similarly notes
Jane's early assertiveness as well as her unwillingness to become subservient in order to gain
affection; Babcock comments, "Rather than succumb to the emotional and physical rebuffs made
to her by the Reed household and integrate into the family system on their terms, Jane experiences
what little independence is open to her to deal with their rejection" (50). Lamonica points out that
Jane, in fact, eventually rejects the Reed family. She states, "the Reeds are not a family she would
want to join anyway. And the child eventually learns this herself, maintaining her difference and
distance from them" (70). In fact, Jane also rejects the one early gesture of patriarchal protection
she experiences when she believes the ghost of her uncle Reed is arising to defend her. Jane
explains, "This idea, consolatory in theory, I felt would be terrible if realized" (16). Of course, it
seems reasonable for Jane to be afraid of a ghostly protector; however, later in the novel, she
actually welcomes the ghostly maternal presence that comes to her in a "trance-like dream" (325).
This maternal figure, unlike Mr. Reed's apparition, is apparently comforting in both theory and
realization.
Jane encounters her next major patriarchal figure in the person of Mr. Brocklehurst. While he
assumes the role of patriarchal oppressor to the girls of Lowood school, demanding
Home, Belonging in Jane Eyre
The present study will entail an examination of Jane Eyre concentrating on the way in which the
concept of home is represented. “At times home is nowhere. At times one knows extreme
estrangement and alienation. Then home is no longer just one place. It is locations” (hooks 1990:
47). There will be a focus on the various locations in which the female protagonist Jane Eyre is
placed, and how this may be linked to her character development. Due to time constraints, I will
be focusing on one of the surrogate homes, Gates head. Jane Eyre is described by Gilbert and
Gubar as a:
distinctly female Bildungsroman in which the problems encountered by the protagonist as she
struggles from the imprisonment of her childhood toward an almost unthinkable goal of mature
freedom are symptomatic of difficulties Everywoman in a patriarchal society must meet and
overcome: oppression (at Gates head), starvation (at Lowood), madness (at Thorn field), and
coldness (at Marsh End).

Charlotte Brontë is described by Eagleton as having a “double-edged attitude to the question of

secure settlement” (1988: 73). This highlights the concept of “home” as a coalition, as connoting
both safety and security while implying a danger at the core. This concept may be applied to Jane
Eyre, as through the female protagonist Jane, the ambivalent nature of ‘home’ is explored. Jane is
orphaned, a status which emphasises the double marginality of a character who is female with no
connections and no authentic sense of ‘home’ or identity as defined by domicile and relations.
Therefore, every place in which Jane locates herself serves as a “surrogate” home and the
temporary and impermanent nature of these ‘homes’ lends Jane’s sense of self worth and self a
precarious and unstable quality. It is important to examine the other female characters that are
situated in every phase of Jane’s development. Each female character, from Eliza and Georgina
Reed, Helen Burns and Diana and Mary Rivers to Blanche Ingram and Bertha Rochester serve as
‘role models’, allowing Jane to measure and establish her own identity and reject unsuitable
models of femaleness in order to create a more viable self. Leavis explains that Bronte’s object
“…was to show how the embittered little charity child finds the way to come to terms with life
and society” (Leavis 1966:12), doing so through the creation of “…positives- the demonstration
of the conditions for Jane’s growth into full life and possession of lasting happiness” (Leavis
1966:13). The following chapter will be structured according to the development of the character
of Jane Eyre as defined through the various ‘homes’ she located herself:

Jane Eyre moves from stage to stage of Jane’s development, divided into four sharply distinct
phases with their suggestive names: childhood at Gates head, girlhood, which is schooling in both
senses, at Lowood; adolescence at Thorn field; maturity at Marsh End [moor House], winding up
with the fulfilment in marriage at Fern dean (Leavis 1966:13).

Idea of Settlement
The idea of a “secure settlement” is examined during the first phase of Jane Eyre’s development
in the novel, at Gates head, the home where she lives as dependent of the Reed family. The
pervading images of storms; shipwreck and disaster are “images which seem to express [Jane’s]
own bewildered sense of what life is like, since they correspond with her condition in the home of
the Reeds” (Leavis 1966:14). Thus the reader receives the impression that there is an instability
associated with Gates head as a home for Jane, a sense of impermanence entrenched by her orphan
status and lack of familial ties. The novel opens with Jane reading, observing a cold and stormy
day through the window,

At intervals, while turning over the leaves of my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon.
Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with
ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast (1998:8).

Her orphan status renders Gateshead a “surrogate” home, as she has no direct family connections:
“I was a discord in Gateshead Hall: I was like nobody there…”(1998:16).Her cousin John Reed
emphasises this state of dependence and lack of belonging when he states:
You are a dependent, mamma says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to
beg, and not live here with gentlemen’s children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear
clothes at our mamma’s expense… all the house belongs to me (1998:11)

Gilbert and Gubar point out that the major preoccupation in the process of self-definition

For all Bronte’s heroines is the” [struggle] for a comfortable space” (2000:437). Jane’s efforts to
clear literal and figurative space for herself in a home which is not her own and in which she does
not feel she belongs, emphasises aspects of her lonely orphan status and also, how the temporary
security and safety provided by a home may be quickly usurped.

I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having
drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement… ‘It is well I drew
the curtain,’ thought I; and I wished fervently [Cousin John Reed] might not discover my hiding
place (1998:8-9).

Throughout the novel, Jane Eyre struggles to assert her own sense of self-worth, and from the
earliest phase at Gateshead, this process of self-definition is undermined. Pearson and Pope state
that from the very beginning of the novel [Jane Eyre] is forced to strike out at her captors –
asserting her own worth (1981:165). An early example of this occurs when Jane is discovered
behind the curtain in her window-seat hiding place, unsettling any temporary security and safety
she had established for herself. Cousin John proceeds to physically attack Jane and she, as the
marginal outsider, is finally forced to retaliate:” …I received him in frantic sort. I don’t very well
know what I did with my hands, but he called me “Rat! Rat!’ and bellowed out aloud” (1998:12).
Despite the fact that Jane acts in self-defense, she is severely punished, and the admonishment
made by one of the maids serves to entrench the feeling of loneliness and marginality that Jane
suffers:
 ‘For shame! For shame!’ cried the lady’s maid. ‘What shocking conduct Miss Eyre, to
strike a young gentleman, your benefactress’s son! Your young master!’

‘Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?’

‘No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep…’(1998:12).

Her status in the home is thus reduced to that below servant, she is truly a dependent in every sense
of the word and increasingly made to feel unwelcome.

Leavis states that “each experience initiates a new phase of being for her, because she has learnt
something new about the possibilities of being a woman, represented in the female role models
throughout the novel, are made available to Jane in each new location/phase of her life. Jane
overhears a conversation between the two maids, Bessie and Abbot, which highlights the role of
femininity and entrenches society’s preconceptions about the value of the Victorian woman, and
her own position in the social structure.

‘Poor Miss Jane is to be pities, too, Abbot.’

‘Yes,’ responded Abbot, ‘if she was a nice, pretty child, one might her forlornness; but one really
cannot care for such a little toad as that.’

‘Not a great deal, to be sure,’ agreed Bessie; ‘at any rate a beauty like Miss Georgina would be
more moving in the same condition.’ (1998:27)

Not only is Jane given an idea of the value of beauty, represented by her cousin Georgina, but
again her sense of worth is undermined. This may have something to do with the fact that, as an
outsider and marginal figure, she feels she is not worthy of consideration, and this opinion is often
perpetuated by others and not by Jane herself. These female role models are eventually rejected
by Bronte as inadequate examples of femaleness. Mrs Reed serves as a poor nurturer, unsuccessful
in raising Cousin John, who dies in disrepute, and failing in turn with her two daughters, Eliza &
Georgiana Reed, who serve to reflect the inadequacy of the dualism of spirituality and passion.
Eliza grows to become a harsh, stern woman, described in terms of a: “sallow face and severe
mien…nun-like ornament of a string of ebony beads and a crucifix…” (1998:239). She is unable
to function or relate to the outside world, humorless and lacking in all human attributes of passion
and emotion, choosing instead to, “…seek retirement where punctual habits would be permanently
secured from disturbance, and place safe barriers between herself and a frivolous world”
(1998:246). Georgiana functions as the extreme inverse to Eliza, described by Jane as a “…full-
blown, very plump damsel, fair as a wax-work” (1998:246) and scathingly portrayed by Eliza:

‘Georgiana, a more vain and absurd animal that you, was certainly never allowed to cumber the
earth….Instead of living for, in and with yourself…you seek only to fasten your feebleness on
some other person’s strength: if no one can be found willing to burden to her or himself with such
a fat, weak, puffy, useless thing, you cry out that you are ill-treated, neglected, miserable’
(1998:247).

Jane recognizes that these female role models are ill-suited to her own identity in the initial phases
of the novel, and chooses to reject as opposed to assimilate the ideals of these females in her life
at Gates head. Eagleton observes that, living in someone else’s household and receiving none of
the nurturing care and love of a normal child, as an “exile”, Jane is increasingly prompted to rebel
(1998:72). Despite the constant demoralization she suffers at the hands of the inmates at Gates
head, Jane is able to assert her own sense of self-worth by rebelling against Mrs Reed when she
states “They [Jane’s cousins] are not fit to associate with me “(1998:28). Bronte deals subtly with
Jane’s rebellion, ensuring that Jane is quick to point out to the reader that her outburst is not
consciously calculated, “What would Uncle Reed say to you if he were alive?’ was my scarcely
voluntary demand” (1998:28). Eagleton describes the interior conflict that exists within Bronte’s
female protagonist, who functions as “both enterprising individualist and hapless victim”
(1988:64). Thus Bronte tempers Jane’s assertiveness, which may be viewed as manipulative and
egotistical, by explaining her outburst as ‘involuntary’. Bronte continues to do this throughout the
novel, often attributing acts of assertiveness on Jane’s part to outside forces such as fate;” fairies”
and the voice of nature and heaven guiding her actions. In this way Jane is able to best Mrs Reed
in a verbal attack, “Speak I must: I had been trodden on severely and must turn…” (1998:37),
which would be seemingly unfitting for a young girl:

“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 long, and how you wish me dead… I am glad you are no relation
of mine…and if anyone asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very
thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty” (1998:28, 38).

Jane acquires a sense of liberation from speaking her mind, “ere I had finished this reply, my soul
began to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom…”(1998:38).She is finally able to
establish some viable sense of self in relation to the subjugation she has suffered at the hands of
the inmates of Gateshead. This subjugation and her position in that ‘home’ and society complicate
the accepted myths associated with ‘home’. One such philosophical notion, proposed by Gaston
Bachelard, is the idea of the ‘felicitous space’. He describes ‘home’ in the following terms, “…our
house is our corner of the world. As has often been said, it is our first universe, a real cosmos in
every sense of the word. If we look at it intimately, the humblest dwelling has beauty…”
(Bachelard 1969:4). Bronte complicates this notion, as Jane harbours very little sentimental
attachment to Gateshead as a home. When questioned by Mr Lloyd, the doctor, Jane clearly
illustrates her marginal position of exile within this ‘home’:

‘Don’t you think Gateshead a very beautiful house? Asked he, ‘Are you not very thankful to have
such a fine place to live at?’

‘It is not my house, sir; and Abbot says I have less right to be here than a servant’ (1998:25).

Jane’s absent sense of belonging is reiterated at Lowood School, where she is sent by Mrs Reed.
Despite the solitude she experiences, Jane is adamant in her belief that her new, albeit temporary
home, is an improvement on the last:” I would not now have exchanged Lowood with all its
privations, for Gateshead and its daily luxuries.” (1998:78). This distorts Bachelards’s
philosophical view of home as: “…the space we love…. eulogized space…” (1969: xxxi; xxxii;
xxxiii).
Thus, through feminist post-colonial debate, informed by Marxist views and principles of new
historicism, accepted myths of home will be interrogated in the dissertation, as this dynamic and
unstable concept is explored through a rereading of Charlotte Bronte’s work.