Jane Eyre
- originally published in 1847.
- Criticism- has shifted from a feminist to a postcolonial reading.
o Critics have been looking at the politics of language.
- Until mid-1980s- most of the criticism was FEMINIST- looking at the treatment of
gender and sexuality in Jane Eyre. i.e. does it challenge or reinforce patriarchy?
o E.g. Gilbert and Gubar- ‘Madwoman in the Attic’- says Jane Eyre
CHALLENGES patriarchy.
o G&G’s reading echoes the Victorian reaction- e.g. Rigby’s review- Rigby is
scandalized by the novel.
o G&G’s ‘Everywoman’ needs investigating. Jane’s experience is distinctly
white and English and middle class. >>>> This is NOT representative of
EVERY woman’s experience as a whole.
This term is based on a blindness towards other women.
What about the racially and culturally ‘other’?
- G&G are not concerned about Bertha. Bertha is a Creole- an ambiguous term > can
refer to a white/black person born in the West Indies. G&G just treat her as an alter-
ego for Jane.
o Bertha has no autonomy- just acts out Jane’s repressed desires- she does
Jane’s bidding >>> like a master/slave relationship.
**** SO G&G’s reading has been challenged by post-colonial critics****
- Feminists fail to recognise issues of colonialism and slavery.
- JE seems reluctant to engage with issues of British colonial slavery. (this is
replicated in G&G’s feminist critique)
- JE is a first person narrative SO > emphasises the PERSONAL- it is concerned
primarily with the aspirations of m/c women. Thus doing, it criticises the social
structure i.e. issues of gender, sexuality, class.
- BUT **** It compares the plight of a lower m/c woman to the plight of a slave. ****
*** There is a language of slavery ***
- E.g. Frederick Douglass- was born as a slave in the American south- he speaks
against the use of slavery as a metaphor for other forms of oppression.
o He points out a gap between the metaphor and reality. The metaphor works
to DETRACT from the horror of slavery.
o A double-edged language is used in Jane Eyre.
o The metaphor- trivialises the nature of slavery.
- a parallel is drawn between domestic, gender oppression and slavery.
o The red room// the attic.
- Jane is represented as a rebel slave. But she is precisely NOT a slave- if she went to
the West Indies, she would be a mistress!.
- Jane looks in the mirror- doesn’t recognise herself- how could she acknowledge
herself as a slave?
- *** Dramatising Jane as a slave- a way of belittling slavery???***
Bertha
- For G&G- Bertha is a figure associated with violence, insurrection etc.
- Bertha is killed off, so that Jane can marry her master.
- Bertha commits 5 violent acts in the novel.
o E.g. her destruction of the veil- a rebellion against the institution of slavery
(veil as representing Rochester’s wealth from slavery) BUT Bertha was an
heiress to a slave-owners fortune- why should she be against it?
- Is there a slippage in the representation of Bertha- black or white?
o Bertha endowed with stereotypical characteristics of blackness.
Represented as a slave rebel- how Jane represents herself.
Also Bertha like a slave rebel in early writings.
Jane Eyre II
- A double-edged strategy: deals with lower m/c white women BUT problematic links
with black women.
- Shifting colonial focus to India.
o At Moor House, Jane discovers she has ‘more’ relatives. E.g. St John- who is
training to be a missionary in India.
- originally published in 1847.
- Criticism- has shifted from a feminist to a postcolonial reading.
o Critics have been looking at the politics of language.
- Until mid-1980s- most of the criticism was FEMINIST- looking at the treatment of
gender and sexuality in Jane Eyre. i.e. does it challenge or reinforce patriarchy?
o E.g. Gilbert and Gubar- ‘Madwoman in the Attic’- says Jane Eyre
CHALLENGES patriarchy.
o G&G’s reading echoes the Victorian reaction- e.g. Rigby’s review- Rigby is
scandalized by the novel.
o G&G’s ‘Everywoman’ needs investigating. Jane’s experience is distinctly
white and English and middle class. >>>> This is NOT representative of
EVERY woman’s experience as a whole.
This term is based on a blindness towards other women.
What about the racially and culturally ‘other’?
- G&G are not concerned about Bertha. Bertha is a Creole- an ambiguous term > can
refer to a white/black person born in the West Indies. G&G just treat her as an alter-
ego for Jane.
o Bertha has no autonomy- just acts out Jane’s repressed desires- she does
Jane’s bidding >>> like a master/slave relationship.
**** SO G&G’s reading has been challenged by post-colonial critics****
- Feminists fail to recognise issues of colonialism and slavery.
- JE seems reluctant to engage with issues of British colonial slavery. (this is
replicated in G&G’s feminist critique)
- JE is a first person narrative SO > emphasises the PERSONAL- it is concerned
primarily with the aspirations of m/c women. Thus doing, it criticises the social
structure i.e. issues of gender, sexuality, class.
- BUT **** It compares the plight of a lower m/c woman to the plight of a slave. ****
*** There is a language of slavery ***
- E.g. Frederick Douglass- was born as a slave in the American south- he speaks
against the use of slavery as a metaphor for other forms of oppression.
o He points out a gap between the metaphor and reality. The metaphor works
to DETRACT from the horror of slavery.
o A double-edged language is used in Jane Eyre.
o The metaphor- trivialises the nature of slavery.
- a parallel is drawn between domestic, gender oppression and slavery.
o The red room// the attic.
- Jane is represented as a rebel slave. But she is precisely NOT a slave- if she went to
the West Indies, she would be a mistress!.
- Jane looks in the mirror- doesn’t recognise herself- how could she acknowledge
herself as a slave?
- *** Dramatising Jane as a slave- a way of belittling slavery???***
Bertha
- For G&G- Bertha is a figure associated with violence, insurrection etc.
- Bertha is killed off, so that Jane can marry her master.
- Bertha commits 5 violent acts in the novel.
o E.g. her destruction of the veil- a rebellion against the institution of slavery
(veil as representing Rochester’s wealth from slavery) BUT Bertha was an
heiress to a slave-owners fortune- why should she be against it?
- Is there a slippage in the representation of Bertha- black or white?
o Bertha endowed with stereotypical characteristics of blackness.
Represented as a slave rebel- how Jane represents herself.
Also Bertha like a slave rebel in early writings.
Jane Eyre II
- A double-edged strategy: deals with lower m/c white women BUT problematic links
with black women.
- Shifting colonial focus to India.
o At Moor House, Jane discovers she has ‘more’ relatives. E.g. St John- who is
training to be a missionary in India.
