Background

The Victorian Era

Jane Eyre’s exploration of her own identity and personhood is also a journey of recognizing the crisis and failures of the Victorian Era. It was during this time that the British Empire was colonizing the globe, a factor that determined the affluence of the British nation. This led to a newer economic structure and a fast-emerging middle class that had its own interests and modalities of existing. Jane’s journey touches on some of those middle class and working class concerns such as social mobility, education, and working rights. Jane represents the struggle of what these concerns meant for women, especially an orphan woman during this time.

This bildungsroman takes us through the developments in Jane’s life, including many transformational moments where Jane has to make important decisions that would influence her life. Her inner monologues and asides with the readers feature in this journey, as the protagonist navigates a new world where she needs to find her anchor. Her financial independence, initially through her job and later through her moral obligation toward her love, serves as her anchor.

Pseudonyms

Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, and Anne Bronte published under the titles of Currer Bell, Ellis Bell, and Agnes Gray respectively. Even as women were entering the realm of writing, the attitude toward books written by women was different from how men’s writing was perceived. Women’s writing was largely regarded as unimportant and read only as a passing hobby by other women. It was mostly men’s works which were known to be era-defining masterpieces. In this context, the Bronte sisters wrote under pseudonyms to ensure that their work was taken seriously.