Research Task 4:

Jane’s dreams and paintings:

·    Rochester takes interest in Jane’s three paintings.

·    Jane begins having dreams about children (which she and Bessie had a conversation about)and continues to have a series of dreams after meeting Rochester more personally during a walk through Thornfield.

·    Jane dreams about Blanch Ingram marrying Rochester.

·    After Rochester and Jane’s engagement, she starts dreaming of children yet again.

·    After Jane leaves Rochester and Thornfield, she starts dreaming about the red room.

In Jane Eyre there is a lot to do about dreams and it is a regular theme of the novel that helps us characterize Jane comprehensively. Her dreams tell us that even though she doesn’t have a liking towards fantasy, her dreams occur naturally, meaning she doesn’t force it. Jane’s dreams sum up just how hard she is emotionally trying to cope with the pressure of becoming the ideal Victorian lady, which is something she hopes to become. Jane’s emotions usually reflect her dreams. She later also starts painting and those paintings are mostly the physical images to her dreams. Her dreams expresses cautions of future events that may or may not happen in her life be it good or bad. After every significant dream Jane has, something severe happens that brings her misfortune. Jane’s dreams and paintings do not necessarily characterize her as a dreamer, but, since her dreams are never really joyful, it gives us the idea that she is struggling to cope and adapt with her surroundings.

Research Task 3:

Question 1

The woman question refers to social change in later parts of the nineteenth century and it also questioned the fundamental roles of women at that time in specific countries. Women wanted to be treated the same as men, just because they are female does not mean they do not have the right to an education, to file for divorce, own property or to live independently on their own. Feminist fought for these rights and they wanted women to have a voice of their own. The feminist movement of the nineteenth century enabled women to have certain rights and they gave more attention to what women want, women were removed from the sanctity of the domestic habitat, bringing them into new forms of employment etc.

Question 2

·           Chapter 10: “Miss Temple, though all changes, had thus far continued superintendent to the seminary; to her instruction I owed the best part of my acquirements; her friendship and society had been my continual solace; she had stood me in the stead of mother, governess and latterly companion.” After spending two more years at Lowood as a teacher, Jane decides she is ready for a change, partly because Miss Temple gets married and leaves the school. Jane and Miss Temple had a great relationship and Miss Temple was like a mother to her and she made Lowood a home for Jane. “…and got the lady’s reply, stating she was satisfied, and fixing that day fortnight as the period of my assuming the post of governess in her house. I know busied myself in preparations.” Jane comes to the conclusion that she wants to be a governess and accepts a position at Thornfield.

·           Chapter 12: “I am the governess.” Jane meets Mr. Rochester for the first time without even knowing she did. Mr. Rochester fell off his horse when his horse slipped on ice, Jane is there and helps him to his feet she introduces herself, but she only finds out later that evening that the rider was Mr. Rochester.

·           Chapter 16: “Listen Jane Eyre, to your sentence, tomorrow, place the glass before you and draw in chalk you own picture, faithfully, without softening one defect... write under it, ‘Portrait of a Governess, disconnected poor and plain’.’’ In chapter 16 Jane is asked to draw a picture of herself as a governess.

·           Chapter 17: “Why I suppose you have a governess for her…?” In chapter 17 Mr. Rochester returns accompanied by a party of elegant guests. Adèle joins the party and the guests start a conversation about governesses. The high class ladies start talking and agree that governesses are incompetent. Jane is forced to join the group but spends the evening watching them from a window seat, she gets very upset.

·           Chapter 24: “You shall give up your governessing slavery at once.” Mr. Rochester tries to turn Jane into something she does not want to become. He tells her he will dress her in jewels and he will fit her to her new social station, at which point Jane becomes terrified and self-protective.  Mr. Rochester wants Jane to give up all her governessing duties and become her wife.

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Question 3

Poovey defines the governess term broadly in his excerpts. The Governesses according to Poovey, were constantly placed under social stress to do certain tasks and therefore struggled to adapt to their lifestyles. These tasks were to act as a mother and teach young girls the art of getting an honourable man. They were not allowed to show or express any sort of desire and were seen as sexless beings

Research Task 2:

Question 1

I, along with Miss Abott, have been prompted by Mrs. Reed to go lock young Miss Eyre in the red room. I don’t believe that what she did deserves this kind of punishment, in fact, I’m not siding with Miss Abott and Mrs. Reed on this one, but I have to do as I am told. I could see the child getting more and more nervous as Miss Abott kept on mentally breaking her down, by saying some very uncalled things. As we put her in the room, I tried to calm her down and reason with her. I told Miss Abott that young Jane never did something like this before, but my cry clearly fell onto deaf ears. I think I should rather keep quiet. I tried talking to Jane again, I felt quite sorry for her and just wanted to help her. We left her in the red room for a few minutes until we heard a scream. We rushed to her and she was in shock. Clearly something was wrong, but after Mrs. Reed arrived, poor Jane had no chance of explaining. We had to lock her up again and leave her for even longer. From this day onwards I was always nice to Jane.

Question 2

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree. It is in the red room that Jane learns life the hard way and eventually has to accept the circumstances she’s going to grow up in. She had to make a choice. She could have given up and accepted her fate and lived an unhappy life consumed by depression. Typical of a stout character with a strong will, as she grew up, she fought for what she wanted and believed in.

Question 3

The red room plays a commanding role in Jane Eyre according to Sandra M. Gilbert. The red-room served as a “prison”, both mentally and physically. This was the first taste Jane had of the trapped and bound Victorian female which she was to be made into, and which she fought against so fiercely. The red room incidents played a role in her life throughout the novel in many different ways and it had an impact on her decisions and the way she handled certain situations in the novel.

Research Task 1:

Question 1

1.      Class:  

·    A set, collection, group or configuration containing members regarded as having certain attributes or traits in common, it can be defined as a kind of category. (A social stratum whose members share certain economic, social or cultural characteristics: social rank.)

·    Social ranks (Upper, Middle and Working class)

·    Power = money

2.      Gender:

·    Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

·    No division between gender and sex

·    Men were the seen as the “superior” sex

3.      Feminism:

·    It is a movement for social, cultural, political and economic equality of men and women. It is a campaign against gender inequalities and it strives for equal rights for women. Feminism can be also described as the right to enough information available to every single woman so that she can make a choice to live a life which is not discriminatory and which works within the principles of social, cultural, political and economic equality and independence.

4.      Ideology:

·    A set of ideas that constitutes one’s goals, expectations and actions.

·    An ideology can be thought of as a way of looking at things, a comprehensive vision, as a common sense and several philosophical tendencies or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society.

Question 2

·    Brontë writes this preface in order to respond to the feedback she’s received since the release of  the first edition of Jane Eyre.

·    She begins the preface with comfort, but in the later parts she clearly has a message or defensive response she wants the readers to take note of.

·    She gives acknowledgement and miscellaneous remark to those that she feels deserve it and in my opinion rightfully so.

·    She defends the novel against those that have slandered it.

·    Brontë answers a few questions that slipped through the reader’s mind when reading the novel.

·    Her dedication of the second edition of the novel gives us an insight that this man must have inspired her in some way.

Brontë’s motivation to write this preface could have more than one reason.  She clearly states that a preface for the first edition (publication) of Jane Eyre was unnecessary, most probably due to the fact that there weren’t any responses, reviews or any form of feedback from the public and critics to analyse. She writes as Currer Bell to hide her identity and to hide the fact that she is really a woman.

Question 3

1.   Jane Eyre is written by a female and it can be seen in the way the book is writtem from a woman’s perspective. The author is a feminist and she refuses to do what the usual woman had to do in those days. Women were seen as inferior to men and it was as if their presence didn’t matter to men.

The Victorian era is evidently demonstrated in the reviews. Elizabeth Rigby’s review takes quite a hefty stab at Brontë. She illustrates the disgust which not only she, but some readers in general felt after reading the novel. She states that “we have no remembrance of another combining such genuine power with such horrid taste.” Rigby says that “sheer rudeness and vulgarity have come in for a most mistaken worship.” This contemplates that the novel wasn’t popular because of the simple fact that it was good. These statements are a confirmation that Brontë’s novel was not accepted by all in the Victorian culture. In The Christian Remembrancer, it is clear that Brontë over stepped the boundaries of what was acceptable to publish in the Victorian era, “Let her take warning” (Norton 451). Brontë is openly insulted in the review because the novel is an autobiography, “As the child, so also the woman - an uninteresting, sententious, pedantic thing.” “Jane Eyre is proud and therefore she is ungrateful too” (Norton 452).

In conclusion, these reviews make a clear cut assumption that despisement of the novel was the order of the day by Middle-class Victorians. For the middle class people the book was seen as unacceptable and Jane didn’t follow the moral rules. For them it was seen as vulgar, “She has inherited in the fullest measure the worst sin of our fallen nature- the sin of pride” (Rigby, 452).