Jane Eyre By Bronte: The Influence of Female Characters

1. Jane Eyre By Bronte:The Influence of Female Characters Erin Hynes Michelle Nguyen Sara Muwaqet

2. Prompt It’s about girrrrrrrls! Word for Word: “Bronte populates the novel with many types of female characters who surround Jane at various points in her life—Georgiana and Eliza Reed, Helen Burns, Blanche Ingram, Mary and Diana Rivers, and Rosamond Oliver. Choose a few of these female characters, and show how comparisons with these characters shape the reader’s understanding of Jane’s character. Do not merely summarize text.” Translation: Tell how Jane’s personal qualities are emphasized by the presence of the other female characters.

3. First Question How did Charlotte Bronte’s personal life and social circumstances affect how she portrayed women in her novel? Hint: Patriarchy got me down.

4. How the Topic Relates to the Novel The female characters are people that Jane has encountered throughout her childhood to adulthood, in which they’ve influenced and shaped her current identity. Each female has taught her something unique and valuable. The males are confined to the role of challenges, obstacles, and goals—usually imposing and interesting objects. Literary The females are enemies, guides, students, and friends—more varied parts of Jane’s social landscape and foils to her character.

5. Second Question How was Helendifferent from Jane and how was her impact on Jane magnified by her premature death?

6. Very sad much depress I will never smile again Helen Burns “I heard her with wonder: I could not comprehend this doctrine of endurance; and still less could I understand or sympathise with the forbearance she expressed for her chastiser. Still I felt that Helen Burns considered things by a light invisible to my eyes. I suspected she might be right and I wrong; but I would not ponder the matter deeply; like Felix, I put it off to a more convenient season.” "I am very happy, Jane; and when you hear that I am dead, you must be sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about. We all must die one day, and the illness which is removing me is not painful; it is gentle and gradual: my mind is at rest. I leave no one to regret me much: I have only a father; and he is lately married, and will not miss me. By dying young, I shall escape great sufferings. I had not qualities or talents to make my way very well in the world: I should have been continually at fault.“ Significant moment: Helen’s death

7. Significant moment at lowood Christianity vs. Paganism and overall supernaturalism is a recurring theme! • When Helen died • Analysis:  Helen represented a mode of Christianity that stressed tolerance and acceptance.  Although she manifested a certain strength and intellectual maturity, her efforts involve self-negation rather than self-assertion, so Helen’s submissive nature highlighted Jane’s more headstrong character. Like Jane, Helen is an orphan who longs for a home, but Helen believes that she will find this home in Heaven. And while Helen is not oblivious to the injustices the girls suffer at Lowood, she believes that justice will be found in God’s ultimate judgment in that God will reward the good and punish the evil. Jane, on the other hand, is unable to have such blind faith. Her quest is for love and happiness in this world. Nevertheless, she counts on God for support and guidance in her search.

8. Helen Burns (3) her death is one of the pivotal moments in Jane’s life, marking a loss of innocence and serving as an omen preceding a life surrounded by death and the supernatural. Helen Burns is an extremely important character for 3 reasons: (1) As Jane’s first real friend, her pacifistic ideologies and companionship profoundly change the course of Jane’s development (2) her calm and saintly disposition contrasts with and therefore showcases the fiery qualities that seem curbed in Jane for the majority of the novel

9. Classism Swag Third Question Dat Cash. How did Ingram’s perceived superiorities (physical appearance, accomplishment) and material superiorities (class, wealth) change the way the reader (and Jane herself) viewed Jane and the nature of her relationship with Rochester? A.K.A Moneybags Ingram

10. Blanche Ingram “YOU," I said, "a favourite with Mr. Rochester? YOU gifted with the power of pleasing him? YOU of importance to him in any way? Go! your folly sickens me. And you have derived pleasure from occasional tokens of preference--equivocal tokens shown by a gentleman of family and a man of the world to a dependent and a novice. How dared you? Poor stupid dupe!--Could not even self- interest make you wiser? You repeated to yourself this morning the brief scene of last night?--Cover your face and be ashamed! He said something in praise of your eyes, did he? Blind puppy! Open their bleared lids and look on your own accursed senselessness! It does good to no woman to be flattered by her superior, who cannot possibly intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication… Listen, then, Jane Eyre, to your sentence: tomorrow, place the glass before you, and draw in chalk your own picture, faithfully, without softening one defect; omit no harsh line, smooth away no displeasing irregularity; write under it, 'Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain.' Significant moment: the challenge of blanche

11. Significant moment at Thornfield Love and self-esteem and social boundaries! • When Jane is mistaken into believing that Mr. Rochester and Blanche Ingram are engaged • Analysis: When Jane compares herself to Blanche Ingram she takes into account that she is not as beautiful or of the same social class but still sees her faults. This brings the obstacles in her situation to mind. However, she analyses Miss Ingram’s vices and realizes that she truly isn’t a good person and certainly not fit to marry Mr. Rochester. Jane’s ability to have a good judge of character, overlooking wealth and social class, is important because it shows how she has grown into a sophisticated and mature young womanand also gained confidence in herself.

12. Fourth Question How does Jane’s relationship with her adopted sisters change throughout the novel and how does this show how she has changed?

13. Georgiana and Eliza Reed “A sneer, however, whether covert or open, had now no longer that power over me it once possessed: as I sat between my cousins, I was surprised to find how easy I felt under the total neglect of the one and the semi-sarcastic attentions of the other--Eliza did not mortify, nor Georgiana ruffle me. The fact was, I had other things to think about; within the last few months feelings had been stirred in me so much more potent than any they could raise--pains and pleasures so much more acute and exquisite had been excited than any it was in their power to inflict or bestow--that their airs gave me no concern either for good or bad.” “I had taken a journey of a hundred miles to see my aunt, and I must stay with her till she was better--or dead: as to her daughters' pride or folly, I must put it on one side, make myself independent of it.” Significant Moment: The funeral of Mrs. Reed

14. Significant moment at gateshead • When Jane returned to Gateshead when her aunt, Mrs. Reed, was on her deathbed and she reunites with her “sisters” • Analysis: Even though the Reed women sent Jane away and were extremely cruel to her, she still treats Mrs. Reed with forgiveness and the Reed sisters with tolerance. Her feelings and behaviors towards the Reed sisters in her adulthood contrasts with how she comported herself in childhood, and serve as a marker of how far her personality has developed and matured. She is now too good for those who tormented her as a child. Above the influence.

15. Fifth Question Do you think that these women in Jane’s life were good role models (good substitutes) as a mother figure? Who was the most motherly figure in the novel?

16. Good job jane good adulthood Get that Rich boy You mine now, rich boy. Swiggityswee I cannot see.

17. Works Cited Double Rainbow Bear http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/double-images-t60177.html Literary Foil http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20225533,00.html Pic of Jane and Helen Burns http://monicasbooks.com/2013/11/18/jane-eyre-hell-and-heaven/ Grim Reaper http://www.themescompany.com/2012/03/14/grim-reaper/ Blanche Ingram http://www.jane-eyre.com/pictures/18-blanche-ingram.php Jane Eyre sitting http://www.jane-eyre.com/pictures/34-proposal.php Above the Influence Symbol http://www.reclaimingfutures.org/blog/webinar-above-influence Mother Mary http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mother-marys-birthday-celebrated-worldwide/1/150514.html