Jane Eyre A State Of Perpetual Limbo - 1837 Words

Joe Holley Bailin 6 April 2015 Jane Eyre Bronte’s Jane Eyre features a protagonist in a state of perpetual limbo between classes. An adoptive orphan placed into the socially and financially perilous role of governess, Jane continually crosses boundaries of social class and hierarchy, leaving her often on the outskirts of English domestic life and leading to a great deal of problems in her marriage to Rochester. Indeed, Jane laments her position within the English â€Å"caste† society in chapter three, when comparing her arguably less-liberated state to that of the â€Å"poor women† of England’s lower social classes, saying that she â€Å"was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste† (#). Yet, Jane’s figuring of herself among the†¦show more content†¦Jane makes clear repeatedly in the novel that she does not view her own position as a penniless orphan to have diminished her mind or soul, when she questions Rochester in chapter twenty-three, †Å"Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?† (#) To Jane, class is not a definitive illuminator of talent or worth; indeed, the novel seems to invite a reading of Jane as an independent, or at the very least self-reliant, young woman. Jane’s position from early in the novel, however, is aptly described by John Reed in the opening chapter, when he calls her a â€Å"dependent,† saying, â€Å"†¦you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not live here with gentlemen’s children like us†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (#) There is little in the novel’s depiction of English class and domestic society to contradict John Reed’s assertion; the novel’s most famous dependent, Bertha Mason, appears as an insane figure of colonial oppression and as an apparent â€Å"logical conclusion† to the prevailing English patriarchal domestic ideal. In contrast to Jane, a character presented a s an intelligent, capable young woman who is coming-of-age within the rigid confines of English domestic society, Bertha Mason represents another extreme of the dependent lifestyle: entrapment, both figurative and literal, within the patriarchal domicile. The novel’s portrayal of â€Å"dependency† is, in the case of Bertha Mason, fundamentally