Assignment 4
I should have loved to have been more than a fly on the wall during this time of original thinking and freshness. This seemed a moment in time when one’s individuality was tied with independent thinking, novel ideals and passion that could not be fed with rhetoric. The fact that the French Revolution, a large scale revolution, inspired Judith Sargent Murray, an American, to publish a women’s-rights essay in 1790 on The Equality of the Sexes, and Olympe de Gouges in the writing of Declaration of Rights of Women and Citizen (1791) and others was an important leap for humanity. At this time, the nineteenth century, women had become part of other movements such as socialism, abolitionism, and humanitarianism, women had begun to understand their lot was no better than a slaves, or any other oppressed group.
The first women’s college was opened in 1837 Mt. Holyoke. Oberlin College became coeducational in the 1830’s and by 1880 there were 40,000 women enrolled in higher learning institutions. In England, Queens College was opened and in 1869 Girton was opened with a plan of study modeled after Cambridge. Many of these women became leadership for the women’s movement. Some would say “education begets education”. This was more than helpful for me in that it made my scope broader, and allowed me to see Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre in the company of others in their fight for human dignity.
Another situation in 19th Century time period was homosocialism. Proper women were excluded from “male” pleasures such as saloons, sporting events, public events, dining, playing cards, large dinners, political discussions and etc. An English writer in 1857 pointed out that it was …”impossible for the sexes to break ground on any but the most commonplace topics of conversation since they had in common almost no pursuits, interests, tasks or sentiments. Only two of the same sex could communicate meaningfully.” This was the climate in which Jane Eyre; Charlotte Bronte came up against, ignorance only repealed by idiocy.
It was improbable that a woman could simply walk into, hope in, and live out her destiny when hers and every other woman’s destiny was provided for her before birth. Women were slowly bleeding to death, and knew it, but due to the shock of being treated as insignificant she sometimes was not quite able to figure out the depth, or even the boundaries of her wounds. This is why I believe that Bertha was so significant in Jane Eyre; I believe Bertha was a symbol of Jane’s angst, a symbol of Jane’s entrapment. Perhaps she was also a part of Jane’s battlefield of her mind, her fury about the way she was treated; she was Jane’s fire, even her true anger.
Page 342 says, “With more rope, which was at hand, he bound her to a chair. The operation was performed amid the fiercest yells and the most convulsive plunges. Mr. Rochester then turned to the spectators: he looked at them with a smile both acrid and desolate. ‘That is my wife’.”
Everybody around is affected by status, class, roles, fears, anger, no one has been treated significantly in the culture. They all seemed to be entrapped, bound by the culture in which they live. Whether accepting of their lot or not the culture was dense, acrid and held its grip. This is where I respect Jane Eyre the most, she is the one who demands decent and right treatment not only for herself, but also for Adele. She moves deftly at times, not so much so at other times, but she is constantly perhaps even cautiously conscious moving forward. She allows herself to taste victory and to understand what it means to over-run the hurdles of hatred and fear to become the author of a new script which she owns and defines for herself.
“This is where I respect Jane Eyre the most, she is the one who demands decent and right treatment not only for herself, but also for Adele… She allows herself to taste victory and to understand what it means to over-run the hurdles of hatred and fear to become the author of a new script which she owns and defines for herself.”
ReplyDeleteI’m not entirely sure what you’re getting at here. I feel as though this thought is disjointed from the rest of what you’ve been saying. Or, allow me to rephrase as I’m probably making no sense [as is often a malady of mine], so I’ll elaborate [hopefully].
You give several examples of women’s movements or people that break the societal norm and not only accomplish grandeur on personal levels, but social ones. Wherein lies my problem. These movements go beyond self and push towards not only the greater good for self but for all. I can only imagine the toil and sweat put in to opening the women’s college, or the grief possibly suffered by the madam who wrote the essay on woman’s rights.
Jane, on the other hand, while affecting herself and other’s around her. I’m curious as to how Jane, as her character [and not as the working, brilliant mind of Bronte] fits in to this category. She’s affected no one but the immediate people she associates with, and is, throughout the entire text, the victim of cause and effect. Not so much is she “lucky,” but entirely indebted to circumstance and other people, and frankly, males. Would she have been as fulfilled and happy in the end without her brush with wealth?
You give compelling examples as to Bertha’s importance, but I’m curious about Jane’s in the earlier part of your blog. Not to be too critical entirely, but Jane was a mirror for many other thoughts that many other women have had, and men as well. And on the point of men, as they’re so poorly neglected in the realm of feminism, have just as admirable thoughts towards and have worked to equality and empowerment of women.
So I ask again, what is so deeply admirable about Jane?
Jane Eyre Response
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting on my writing regarding Jane Eyre. I appreciate your comments and also your criticism. It made me think more about what I was writing or at least made me think a little more concretely about my writing.
After Mr. Brocklehurst’s visit Jane had a confrontation with Mrs. Reed. She admonishes herself to speak. SPEAK quite a simple word that carries so much power. For women then and for women now we are still reminding ourselves to SPEAK. Perhaps if nothing more, to speak is enough. Jane said, “Speak I must; I had been trodden on severely, and must turn; but how? What strength had I to dart retaliation at my antagonist? I gathered my energies and launched them in this blunt sentence…:” There are times when we make things too simplistic and lose sight of light being shed in our presence. After confronting Mrs. Reed the following were Jane’s thoughts, “I was left there alone, winner of the field. It was the hardest battle I had fought, and the first victory I had gained. ….First, I smiled to myself and felt elate; but this fierce pleasure subsided in me as fast as did the accelerated throb of my pulses.” Her courage came in her SPEAKing out to the person that had hurt her, and speaking out in the midst of her circumstances, in the midst of her pain. I smiled at the victory for her, and I admired her courage. As one who has known oppression, it is difficult to SPEAK one’s displeasure to one’s oppressor damn the consequences.
Perhaps my imagination is much too vivid for most; however, how can one live a life in front of people and affect them and those who are around them, but not their future or the world’s future? Home and the people around you is where influence begins not ends.
To believe that Jane’s life was no more than luck, indebtedness to circumstance and men is not what I saw at all in Jane Eyre. I do not see Ms. Eyre as victim of cause and effect. There are too many occasions where she could have kept quiet and probably would have been seen as a nice person, but nothing more than that. I believe we bring into our lives what we want and she wanted equality not only from Mr. Rochester but from others around her as well. She was left an inheritance from her uncle was that not the right thing to do? Was it not the right thing to do to have integrity regarding saying no to marriage with a man she did not love, and yes to one she did? In debt, or we not all in debt to those who surround us from our parents to others, but is that not a part of life?
I do not believe men were purely neglected in the realm of feminism at all. There have always been male feminists and will always be, just as there were whites who walked with Martin Luther King. However, that does not speak for the majority of men, nor did the few whites who marched with King speak for the majority of whites as evidenced even today. I still believe that we as women do not know the deepness of our wounds, or their boundaries until we are put in a position to either explore them, or heal them.