In this essay I will explore and account how Bronte presents her characters in conflict with society in Jane Eyre. To do this I will show a number of times in her life when she gets into conflict with society and she doesn't fit in. These times are the red room incident, the party and Thornfield Hall and the marriage with Rochester. I will be looking at how Bronte uses techniques to make it clear to the reader how her characters are in conflict.
I will also look at how Mr Rochester and Bertha Mason conflict with society.During the first few chapters we begin to understand that Jane does not fit into the family she is living with and isn't an ordinary girl. We can see that she does not fit in with the family because she is excluded from the group and is bullied by John. The conflict with society in this case is because she is in a class that she doesn't belong, other people are in conflict with her because she is different. The family all know that Jane's parents where dead and that she depends on them for everything.
. Women during that time where considered inferior to men and were not given many of the rights they have today.A woman would not have anything that belonged to her and when she got married anything she did have was her husband's. Jane was an orphan and was living off her Aunt, this is why she is disliked in the house so much. She defended herself against one of John Reeds usual attacks and was punished by being put into the Red Room. A modern reading of Jane Eyre would suggest that the Red Room incident was in a way trying to suppress Jane's sexuality.
The room she is put into scares Jane and she seems to think it is haunted; words like 'dark' 'broken reflections' 'seldom entered' and 'remote' all suggest a feeling of loneliness and helplessness.This suggests repressed sexuality because of how lonely it is, she can't express herself with anyone and is very isolated. The colour of the room suggested how Jane feels as she is put into the room 'red damask' 'crimson cloth' 'blush of pink' are all red colours. Red is the colour of anger, passion, blood and sexuality.
This is one of the first accounts that we can obviously see Jane's true character - courageous, passionate and unusually strong feelings about justice and morality from an early age.In the Red Room Jane begins to scare herself by imagining a ghost was in the room, she screamed for help and then collapsed. After the Red Room incident Jane becomes ill and tells her doctor that she wishes to go to school. The owner of the school, Mr Brocklehurst, intimidates Jane very much and is quite a cruel and old fashioned man.
We can see this by several references made by Jane just on his appearance 'Black pillar' 'carved like a mask' 'base voice' these all suggest an intimidating man who would seem very frightening to Jane who is still only about ten years old.He is a very self righteous man, we know this because he boats about how disciplined his school is and tries to make it seem like he is perfect. Repetition is used to suggest plainness; this gives the idea of everything being disciplined. Everything seems very regimental 'The eighty girls sat motionless and erect. ' This gives the impression that even the way the sit to do their homework is controlled by the school. Jane is in a lot of conflict with the school of Lowood because she is a very passionate girl who is once again being oppressed.
We discover that the school Jane is going is just as bad as what she already faces at homes, no doubt to Ms Reed's intervention. As soon as Jane arrives at the school (Lowood) the use of pathetic fallacy immediately shows how Jane's stay is going to end up. 'Rain, wind and darkness filled the air' this shows that Jane feels alone, scared and quite possibly angry at being sent here by herself. As she enters the building she describes everything as 'large' 'immense' and 'huge' this gives the impression that she is still a very small girl and that everything seems all to much for her.
Later on when Jane has grown up she has got a job as a governess in Thornfield Hall. The reader now begins to think that Jane is going to finally get a new start and simply fit into her job and stay quiet. As soon as Jane meets her boss Mr Rochester we soon realise that her hopes of fitting in are not going to happen. When she meets him, he is not how she expected him to be 'Stern features and a heavy brow'. He doesn't seem a very attractive man and it is because of this reason Jane is not afraid to help him. Later on there is a party at Thornfeild and Jane is asked to come down and join in.
We can see that Jane becomes isolated from the party 'I slipped out of the room unobserved' this shows that as she left the room no one even noticed that she had gone. Jane understands that Bertha does not like strangers 'She cast on me an angry glance' This shows that whenever something bad happens Jane is immediately given the blame and on several occasions Jane is referred to as stupid and terrible. Bronte uses several techniques to make the reader believe everything at the party seem fragile and insubstantial.Some of the techniques she used where similes like a bright mist trolled down the hill'.
She also used repetition to show how things where insubstantial 'they' 'they're' 'mist' are all repeated several times. This technique helps get the point across of everything being the same and Jane not fitting in. Later on in the novel 'Jane Eyre', Jane is going to get married to Mr Rochester. This straight away indicates that she is in conflict with society as this is not meant to happen as she is of a lower class than he is. During these chapters we also see Rochester's conflict with society.
Three ways of seeing his conflict is by showing Rochester's frustration and circumstances arising from his arranged marriage because he was part of the middle class. Show how dubious attitudes to different people who are referred to as other. Rochester's wife Bertha Mason can be regarded as the alter ego to Jane, e. g. -How Bertha is a lot more sexual and passionate than Jane Eyre. We can see Rochester's frustration at several points in the chapters 25, 26 and 27.
'I know you won't kiss the husband of Berthas Mason' He says this as if he was talking about someone else in discussed.This shows that he is frustrated by the situation he is in with Bertha Mason. 'You only ask why I keep her in the house' this shows that he clearly doesn't want her in the house as much as anyone else would. He also calls her 'a hag' and a 'witch' suggesting she is evil, insane and this gives a sense that he has been good to her for not locking her in prison.
We can see the dubious attitudes given to those considered to be 'other' as well. Some of these are 'whether beast or human being' 'The clothed hyena rose up' and 'The maniac bellowed'. These all suggest that Jane believes Bertha to be some type of beast that is neither animal nor human.She is obviously afraid of Bertha and doesn't understand her. In conclusion to my essay I have discovered that Bronte uses several techniques to show how her characters are in conflict.
She does this because she wants to explain to the reader how at the time people were judged by their class and sex. Bronte clearly disagrees with this and therefore uses sympathy to make the reader agree with her. She writes the novel from Jane's point of view and Jane isn't sympathetic towards people in conflict with society (even though she suffers from it) and this makes the reader sympathetic towards those characters in conflict.Bronte's comment on characters in conflict with society is that, it is a cruel thing and that it should not happen in the world.
She probably wanted to get this message across because although her family was considered middle class because her father was a vicar, he did not have the money to belong in that class. Bronte was probably also writing this because as a woman having a novel being published, taken serious or getting good reviews was unheard of. For these reasons she wrote all her books under a mans name.
