Introducing Jane Eyre: An Unlikely Victorian Heroine

Introduction

When Charlotte Brontë set out to write the novel Jane Eyre, she was determined to create a main character who challenged the notion of the ideal Victorian woman, or as Brontë was once quoted: "a heroine as plain and as small as myself" (Gaskell, Chapter XV). Brontë's determination to portray a plain yet passionate young woman who defied the stereotype of the docile and domestic Victorian feminine ideal most likely developed from her own dissatisfaction with domestic duties and a Victorian culture that discouraged women from having literary aspirations. Through the following activities, students can learn the expectations and limitations placed on Victorian women. Contemplating Brontë's position and desire for literary achievement in that context, students will consider why she felt compelled to write Jane Eyre and then to publish it under the male pseudonym Currer Bell.

Guiding Question

• How does Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre refute the notions associated with the ideal Victorian woman?

Learning Objectives

At the end of this lesson students will be able to:

• Identify those qualities and traits associated with the ideal Victorian woman
• Evaluate Charlotte Brontë's decision to publish Jane Eyre under a male pseudonym.
• Analyze the opening chapters of Jane Eyre in the context of criticism of the novel

Background Information for the Teacher

During an era when etiquette guides circulated freely, empire waists gave way to tiny-waisted corsets, and tea parties grew in popularity, it might seem incongruous that realistic novels would set the Victorian literary trend. Perhaps the socially conscious novel may have been a result of the belief of the rising middle class of Victorian England in the possibility for change, since they had witnessed such economic changes in their lifetimes. Works such as Charles Dickens' Hard Times, George Eliot's Middlemarch and Charlotte's Brontë's own sister Emily's Wuthering Heights featured female characters that represented trapped and repressed Victorian women marrying for the wrong reasons, disillusioned with family life, and relying on their physical beauty as a means to gain attention and advancement.

And then, along came the character Jane Eyre: physically uninteresting yet passionate and intense in her desire to express her emotions and thoughts. It is no wonder that Currer Bell's (Charlotte Brontë's pseudonym) novel was considered groundbreaking and bold. Jane is a heroine battling the same societal limitations as her literary counterparts, but her raw narrative voice never fails to expose her Romantic sensibilities, psychological depth, and her adamant desire to stay true to herself.

Browse the "Biography" section of the Charlotte Brontë page of the EDSITEment-reviewed Victorian Web website to find additional biographical information on Charlotte Brontë. Victorian Web also has a wealth of resources related to Victorian social history, including the brief The Position of Middle-class Women, which provides some context for Jane's status as a governess. A general overview of the Victorian Age is also available.

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

• Review the lesson plan and the websites used throughout. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• Students can access the primary source materials and some of the activity materials via the EDSITEment LaunchPad.
• Review and play the “Victorian Women’s Rights” game and make sure it operates on the computer(s) that will be used in class.
• The full e-text of Jane Eyre is available via the EDSITEment-reviewed University of Virginia Electronic Text Center.

Suggested Activities

1. Who is the ideal Victorian woman?

2. Brontë's Career Options as a Victorian Woman

3. A Controversial Heroine

Have students freewrite for a few minutes in response to the prompt, "How can a magazine reflect a particular time and culture? Use an example in your response." Have student volunteers share their responses and examples before beginning a brief discussion of how current magazines target different populations and therefore have different content. For example, Seventeen magazine targets teenage girls interested in the latest fashions while Working Mother targets women trying to juggle their careers and motherhood.

Direct students to the March 1850 issue of Godey's Lady's Book, which is available via the EDSITEment-reviewed Internet Public Library. Explain to students that Victorian women in America did not have a diverse selection of magazines from which to choose, and Godey's Lady's Book was the one popular periodical to which women could turn for fashion, literature, and even moral guidance. While this is an American publication, the themes in the articles contained do have similar concerns as those in British society. It should be read, however, within the context of the material presented in the remainder of the lesson plan.

Have students form small groups to explore the March 1850 issue of Godey's by clicking on different pages of the text and skimming some of the text and images. Have them discuss the following questions:

• What generalizations can you make about Victorian culture based on Godey's?
• What is featured in the section entitled "The Work Table"? What does this say about a middle-class Victorian woman's perception of
• "work"?

• How does Goethe define the role of the Victorian woman?
• How does he see the woman's role as having advantages over the man's role?
• On what is the woman "dependent"?
• How does the image complement the text?

In order to synthesize the content of the Godey's issue and the article, have partners write from the point of view of a candidate competing for the title "Ideal Victorian Woman" (a Victorian version of the Miss America pageant if you will). You might ask them the following questions:

• What skills or qualities should your candidate emphasize in the speech?
• How has your candidate spent most of her life?
• What have been the guiding influences in your candidate's life?
• Why does your candidate feel qualified to serve as a role model for other Victorian women?
• On what merits would the ideal Victorian woman be judged?

Have students play the "Victorian Women's Rights" game for the year 1840, via the EDSITEment-reviewed Internet Public Library, the same time period when Charlotte Brontë was embarking on her career as a writer. In this game, students literally "knock on the doors of Victorian opportunity" to discover the job-related, academic, economic, and civic opportunities available (or rather not available) to women during this time period.

After students have played the "Victorian Women's Rights" game for the year 1840, organize the class into small groups to summarize what they learned about a woman's rights in early Victorian England. Then, have these small groups focus on the information they learned behind the "job" and "study" doors. Ask groups to brainstorm about how a young single woman in Victorian England may have been able to support herself economically.

Additionally, have students visit as a class or individually A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women (1854), available at the EDSITEment-reviewed Victorian Women Writer's Project. This summary details in direct language many of the laws that governed women in Victorian England, some of which would likely strike students today as quite odd and contrary to today's beliefs, such as

• the husband taking on ownership of all the wife's property (including wages),
• “a woman’s body belongs to her husband,”
• And that the legal custody of children belongs to the father .

• A lunatic or idiot cannot lawfully contract a marriage, but insanity after marriage does not make the marriage null and void.
• A lunatic may contract a marriage during a lucid interval. Deaf and dumb people may marry by signs

Explain that Charlotte Brontë was a young single woman during this time period in Victorian England and that Chapter VIII of Elizabeth Gaskell's 1857 biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë, available via the EDSITEment-reviewed Victorian Web, describes among other things how Charlotte turned to teaching and working as a governess in order to make a living. Chapter VIII also includes correspondence between Brontë and the Poet Laureate Robert Southey, in which Brontë turns to Southey for his assessment of her literary talent.

Have students read the letters between Brontë and Southey by scrolling down to the paragraph in Chapter VIII that begins with Southey's letter ("It is not my advice that you have asked as to the direction of your talents…). Students should read Southey's letter, Brontë's response to Southey's letter, Southey's second letter, and the two short paragraphs that follow Southey's second letter.) Ask students to consider the following questions:

• Why does Southey believe that "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life"?
• How did Brontë interpret Southey's advice in his first letter? How does Brontë explain her reasons for becoming a governess?
• Why does Brontë feel that she sometimes fails in "the duties a woman ought to fulfill"?
• How did corresponding with Southey influence Brontë's aspirations for a literary career?

Read aloud the following quotation from Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Brontë (chapter XV):

"She (Brontë) once told her sisters that they were wrong—even morally wrong—in making their heroines beautiful as a matter of course. They replied that it was impossible to make a heroine interesting on any other terms. Her answer was, 'I will prove to you that you are wrong; I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours.'"

Did Charlotte Brontë realize her goal? Explain that although Jane Eyre was a huge success when it was initially published, there were some critics who felt it was morally offensive. Share with students the words of one such critic, Elizabeth Rigby, who in the 1848 issue of The Quarterly Review (via Internet Public Library), claimed that Currer Bell committed the "highest moral offence a novel writer can commit, that of making an unworthy character interesting in the eyes of a reader."

Have students read an excerpt from Rigby's review that pinpoints the character trait that Jane possesses that makes her an "unworthy" character in Rigby's eyes. Students should scroll down the document about two-thirds and read the two paragraphs beginning with the line "We have said that this was the picture of a natural heart" (or use Edit —> Find to search the page for this paragraph).

Ask students to consider the following questions:

• Of what sin does Rigby claim that Jane is guilty?
• What evidence does Rigby choose from the novel to support her criticism?
• In Rigby's opinion, how should Jane have acted under her circumstances?

Explain to students that they will be reading Chapters 1-4 looking for evidence to support and refute Rigby's claims about Jane. Depending on time, students might begin the exercise in class, and continue it in their reading at home. Divide the class into small groups and assign half the groups the task of gathering evidence to support Rigby's criticism of Jane and the other groups the task of finding textual evidence to defend Jane's character in the face of Rigby's criticism. At the end of their reading, each group should collectively write a persuasive argument to present that incorporates the textual evidence they found during their reading. Alternatively, have the student groups debate the issue in class, insisting that their arguments be bolstered by textual evidence.

If time permits, have students read their persuasive arguments and discuss how Brontë develops the readers' sympathy and interest toward Jane by having her tell her story through first person narration and by portraying the Reed family members and Mr. Brocklehurst as cruel and insensitive. Jane is portrayed as precocious and tough, alluding to Roman history and standing up to the bully "Master John." In what other ways does Brontë have the reader, by the end of Chapter 4 (or even Chapter 1), "rooting for the underdog Jane?"

Assessment

Extending the Lesson

This lesson also may serve as an appropriate introduction to any number of other Victorian novels, including those by Brontë's siblings. Additionally, teach other Victorian writers, such as Robert Browning, who is featured in the EDSITEment lesson plan Browning's "My Last Duchess" and Dramatic Monologue.

Selected EDSITEment Websites

• Internet Public Library
  [http://www.ipl.org/]
• Godey's Lady's Book Online
  [http://www.history.rochester.edu/godeys/]
• BBC: "Ideals of womanhood in Victorian Britain" by Dr. Lynn Abrams.
  [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/lj/victorian_britainlj/
  idealwomen_01.shtml?site=history_society_welfare]
• Victorian "Women's Rights" game
  [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/women/
  launch_gms_victorian_women.shtml]
• Rigby Review
  [http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/peter.friesen/default.asp?go=252]
• Victorian Web
  [http://www.victorianweb.org/]
• The Life of Charlotte Brontë (e-text)
  [http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-Charlotte-1.html]
• "The Brontë Pseudonyms: A Woman's Image—The Writer and Her Public" by Marianne Thormahlen, University of Lund
  [http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/
  thormahlen/thormahlen.html]
• University of Virginia Electronic Text Center
  • Jane Eyre
    [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/BroJanI.html]
• A general overview of the Victorian Age
  [http://www.victorianweb.org/vn/victor4.html]
• Victorian Women Writer's Project
  [http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/]
  • A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women (1854)
    [http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/bodichon/brieflaw.html]