BRONTE SISTERS

1. The Bronte sisters were Charlotte, Emily and Anne. They spent most of their
life in isolation, in a remote part of northern England. They didn’t receive a
formal education, they were mainly self-educated.
2. In 1846, they published a volume of poetry, and they decided to use
pseudonyms. Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre.
3. Their father, an angelican priest, changed the family name into Bronte as a
sign of admiration for Horatio Nelson, who had been made Duke of Bronte, in
Sicily.
JANE EYRE
1. Jane Eyre was published in 1847 and was an immediate success. The novel of
Jane Eyre tells the story of a poor orphan girl who grows up in a hostile
environment. Jane Eyre lived with her hostile aunt and then Jane was sent to a
very strict school where was not given enough food and clothing.
2. Jane becomes a governess to a child at the home of the wealthy
Mr.Rochester. She falls in love with her employer; just before their wedding,
she discovers that he’s alredy married and keeps his wife hidden in the attic of
his home. Jane leaves him and goes back to him after his wife’s death. Mr.
Rochester was attracted to her soul and not her physical appearence.
3. In the Victorian world the woman was seen as the “angel of the home”,
expected to devote herself exclusively to her family.
4. The most important theme is the analysis of the social position of a governess
in Victoria society. Jane is refined and has educated manners, however she is
treated like a servant. Charlotte Bronte criticized a society which offered few
opportunities to women who were educated, but poor. If Jane had been a man,
she might have attempted to improve her position. Being a woman in her social
class, the only chance she had was working as a governess.
5. Charlotte Bronte presents a new kind of heroine: an independent and
unconventional woman. Jane Eyre is a courageous woman who struggles alone
to overcome her problems and improve her situation. The use of the heroine as
narrator gives unity to the novel, Everything is seen from Jane’s point of view.
6. Jane wants to be loved, not merely in a romantic sense, but as a human being
deserving affection and worth of value.
7. Jane Eyre can be seen as a “Bildungsroman”, a novel in which the main
character evolves through the course of the story. In the end, Jane, learns to
control her passions in favour of reason.
8. Jane Eyre isn’t a gothic novel but is filled with many elements of the gothic
novel. There is mystery in the novel concerning Mr.Rochester’s past, there is a
ghostly atmosfere and there is the appearence of a fortune teller and the
precence of a secret. The romantic love between Jane and Mr.Rochester can be
also interpreted as a typically gothic element.
9. Bildungsroman indicated a novel of growth. It focuses on the intellectual and
spiritual developement of the main character and the problem he faces from
childhood to adult life.
10. Jane refuses a proposal of marrige twice, so as not to sacrifice her moral
integrity. Marrige is presented as a relationship between equals, not as a social
compromise.
11. The novel is structured around five separate locations. Every place
represents a stage in her life and has a symbolical name.