Jane Eyre is the best novel by Charlotte Bronte. Though the main theme of this novel is the struggle of a female character named Jane Eyre, money, class and status are also very important themes of this novel. To tell the truth, Jane Eyre belongs to a good family with a good background, but she is an orphan. She suffers in every step of her life and as she does not have money, she has no class and cannot enjoy high status. What we can understand from Jane’s struggle in the novel is that the writer tries to portray the hardship of common men of the Victorian age. Those who were rich at that time used to enjoy many advantages and often oppressed the poor and helpless. Throughout the novel, we can see that money provides power to the rich. Those who do not have money have no power. Despite coming from a good family, Jane suffers a lot in every step because she is an orphan and does not possess money. On the other hand, those who have money insult Jane as they wish and she endures it all. At that time, the condition of Victorian society was like this, which is completely different from the society we see today in England.
Class was definitely a very important issue and those who belonged to the upper class of the society had many advantages. All the people in the society were in favor of them, and even the government took their side. In contrast, the poor and orphans had no facility in society. However, we can see a very different England today with poor and lower class people enjoying many advantages. The government provides various kinds of assistance to the orphans today. Back then in the Victorian age, orphans like Jane Eyre neither had class nor status. In fact, looking at the status of those days, we can see that the condition of the poor was inhuman. It looks as if the poor were not even human beings at all. Only the rich fell into the category of human beings.
In the Victorian age, those who were clergy used to enjoy a good status, but even their power was declining gradually. We can see this in a religious priest in the novel who is at the helm of Jane Eyre’s school. He always tried to show off his power, but he was losing it gradually. With this character, Charlotte Bronte tried to portray why the power of the clergy or priest should be taken away. There was a kind of democratic spirit on the rise in contemporary England and people envisaged a country with rights preserved for all the people. There was a movement going on in England at that time, and one of the targets of the movement was the priest or clergy. People in the society wanted clergies or priests being stripped off their power and they wanted to make the society a ‘modern society.’
Charlotte Bronte is an extraordinary writer. Through Jane Eyre, she actually envisioned an England and a society where the poor and orphans would have no lack of honor and they would be able to keep their prestige and honor intact. So, in this novel, we can see that even though Jane Eyre is a poor and orphan girl, she is well aware of her status, honor and self-respect. Though she does not get much honor from society, she is seen struggling for her honor and status. Looking at the people around Rochester, we can understand that they do not respect Jane. They think that Jane is poor and there is no need to respect a poor. However, she does not give up and tries her best to stand with her head held high. So, when she comes to know about Rochester’s wife, who is insane, she does not want to become a concubine or mistress of Rochester and escapes from there. Here, we can see her strong self-respect. Many helpless and poor girls at the time were forced to become mistress or concubine of the rich like Rochester to lead a decent life, but Jane Eyre does not want to submit herself to a life like that. She dreams to do something good and big, and make her own identity in society. Through the characterization of Jane Eyre, the writer draws a picture of a future England that was not made possible in her lifetime, but it did come into reality, at least to a large extent, in England hundred years later. Looking at today’s England, we can realize that girls like Jane Eyre do not need to suffer that much.
Many people consider Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre a romantic novel, and some others see it as a gothic novel. However, the main subject matter of this novel is social oppression. The writer portrays social injustice and oppression in every step and she wants to say that people cannot live happily in a society in the presence of such oppression. The biggest example of it is Rochester who has everything but is not happy in life. He becomes happy only when he finds out the value of Jane Eyre and realizes that he should love her and respect her because Jane, who may be poor and orphan, but is a good girl. For this reason, Rochester tries to change himself and finally changes himself. So, he is happy, even though he is blind. We can see that Rochester is the happiest and the most fortunate person in the novel.
Considering the social status and the type of class identification that existed in contemporary England, many would consider Jane Eyre fortunate because she finally gets a good husband, despite being a poor and orphan girl. On the other hand, the writer tries to show something different. She wants to say that Rochester is not happy, despite having everything in life. He may have class and money, but he is not happy. Rather, he is unlucky that he is married to a girl who does not love him and he does not get respect from those who are around him. In contrast, he gets everything- love, honor and respect- from Jane Eyre. So, from this point of view, Rochester is really lucky.
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