158 Cognitive Discourses International Multidisicplinary Journal ISSN 2321-1075 Volume 1, Issue 1, July 2013

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CHARLOTTE BRONTES JANE EYRE AS AN

UNCONVENTIONAL NOVEL
1 2
Dr.Kaushal Kotadia and Dr.Parul Popat

Abstract
The novels of the Charlotte Bronte are autobiographical and unconventional in nature. According to
Charlotte, she described reality in her novels. There is no doubt that Jane Eyre is an autobiographical novel.
The heroine Jane Eyre is Charlotte herself. Jane is an intelligent, honest, plain-featured young girl forced to
contend with oppression, inequality, and hardship. Although she meets with a series of individuals who threaten
her autonomy, Jane repeatedly succeeds at asserting herself and maintains her principles of justice, human
dignity and morality. She also values intellectual and emotional fulfillment. Her strong belief in gender and
social equality challenges the Victorian prejudices against women and the poor.
The development of Jane Eyres character is central to the novel. In this article, we have tried to show
that there are many incidents, which can prove it an unconventional novel.
Key words: Autobiographical, Plain-featured, Unconventional, Similarity,

Jane Eyre is a story of unconventional treatment. Charlotte Bronte and her sisters, Emily and Anne,
were writers. Once they discussed the heroines of their novels. Except Charlotte, all other Bronte sisters believed
that heroines should be tall, beautiful and should belong to high society. Such a heroine is not supposed to do
hard work. Instead, she is supposed to be interested in music, dancing, and embroidery, merry-making and
attending parties. However, Charlotte did not believe in these ideas. She opposed the ideas of her sisters and
said, I will prove to you that you are wrong. I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself. The
heroine will be quite interesting. I am going to prove this. The result was Jane Eyre.
Charlotte Bront was a British novelist. She was the eldest out of the three famous Bront sisters ie
Anne and Emily whose novels have become standards of English literature. Charlotte and her sisters were
inspired by the Romantic authors of the time including Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth and Lord George
Gordon Byron. As sisters and authors, Charlotte, Emily and Anne gave one another moral support, shared
creative ideas and proof-read one anothers work. As the oldest of the Bronte authors, Charlotte approached her
writing career as a means to financial independence and to support her siblings.
She wrote four novels The Professor, Villette, Jane Eyre and Shirley. The First two novels were
based on her personal experiences at a boarding house. Here, she most probably fell in love with a Belgian
scholar. Charlotte Bronte, in her novels, revolted against the traditions of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and
William Makepeace Thackeray. Charlottes novels are the novels of passions, not of manners.
Jane Eyre is a novel by Charlotte Bronte. Her novels are not rich in presenting a wide view of life. The
same matter is repeated by her in her novels Jane Eyre and Villette. Her novels repeat the governess, the tutor
and the school. They often interwoven with the cleric and the mill owner. Except Shirley in all her novels, the
story is told in first person.
The novels of the Charlotte Bronte are autobiographical in nature. They are the fragments from her own
life. According to Charlotte, she described reality in her novels, but according to E A Baker, the one reality,
she thoroughly knew was herself and her little world. She tried to reach what might be called the sensations of
the soul, for these were the only sensations that interested her.
Charlotte Bronte constructed the plots of her novels on her limited experiences. Her range was limited
but she could make use of her experiences aptly and could create a novel like Jane Eyre. The novel was received
with great love and enthusiasm. Charlotte Bront structures the thirty-eight chapter novel according to stages in
Jane Eyre's life.

1
Asst. Professor, Department of English, Nalini Arvind and TV Patel Arts College, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat.
2
Asst. Professor, Department of English & Communication Skills, Government Engineering College, Gandhinagar, Gujarat
 Cognitive Discourses International Multidisicplinary Journal ISSN 2321-1075 Volume 1, Issue 1, July 2013
Retrieved from: http://www.naspublishers.com 159
These stages center on Jane as a
Maltreated child in the home of Mrs. Sarah Reed (Janes Life at Gateshead Hall)
Child and adolescent student at Lowood Orphan Asylum (Janes Life at Lowood School)
Teenage governess and teacher at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her employer, Edward
Rochester (Janes Life at Thornfield Hall)
Wanderer through the moors after leaving Thornfield Hall. Tired, lacking food, she becomes deathly ill.
Sojourner at the home of St. John, Diana, and Mary Rivers, where Jane recovers (Jane Life at Moor
House)
Fulfilled young woman at Ferndean Manor after reuniting with and marrying Rochester (Janes Life at
Ferndean)
Jane Eyre tells her story in first-person point of view as the protagonist. Jane looks back on her life after
her marriage to Edward Rochester. She begins the narrative when she is a ten-year-old orphan being brought up
by a cruel aunt.
Jane, the heroine of the novel Jane Eyre, is a girl of 18 years. She is a plain girl without any qualities of
a traditional heroine. On the other hand, the man, she falls in love, is also not a hero in the sense of the traditional
term. He is 35 years of age. He is irritable and changeable by nature. Jane knows all this. Their love is so true
that it does not change with the change of fate and fortune. Though Jane cannot marry him when he is healthy,
wealthy and handsome, she marries him as a blind and handicapped.
Q D Leavis writes,

Charlotte Brontes handling of this love theme demonstrates that the relations between lovers should be
one of mutual need
Love does not know any difference between age and status. It is blind. This is very much true in the
case of Jane and Rochester. The love story of Jane and Rochester also prove that true love is not easy to get.
There are many hurdles to overcome.
Rochester is the owner of Thornfield Hall. Jane is working as a governess in his house. Rochester has a
different kind of a personality. He has no usual courtesy. He has fallen in love with Jane when he meets her for
the first time. He keeps on observing all the activities of Jane from distance. He remains cold to her and paid
more attention to Miss Ingram. He does so, as he wants Jane to be in love with him as madly as he is. His trick
works. Jane also falls in love with him but cannot tell him, as she is aware of the distance between them. She
also helps him many times e.g. she saves him from the fire in time. She takes care of Mr. Mason in the absence
of Mr. Rochester.
At last, on one fine dusk time Jane is moving in the garden. Mr. Rochester comes there and starts
talking about her like for Thornfield Hall. Jane is positive in her reply. Mr. Rochester says that she has to find
out a new job as he is going to marry Miss Ingram. Jane cannot stand that any longer and burst into tears. At this
moment, Mr. Rochester expresses his love for her. He says that he only loves her and wants to marry her. Thus, in
a dramatic way, Mr. Rochester proposes Jane. Rochester is a married person. However, he hides this fact from
Jane and proposes her. However, he deceives Jane; he loves her more than himself. When Jane leaves him, he is
totally ruined. Nevertheless, he is happy when she returns and marries her.
He says,

Her coming was my hope each day,

Her parting was my pain;
The chance that did her steps
delay Was ice in every vein.
Janes love for Rochester is true and great. At the time of their marriage, she comes to know the secret
of Rochesters marriage and she refuses to be his mistress and leaves Thornfield Hall. However, she never
forgets him for a moment. When St John Rivers proposes her to marry him, she rejects it. She hears the voice of
Rochester calling Jane! Jane! Jane! She, at once, returns to Thornfield Hall. She finds Thornfield Hall in ruins
 160 Cognitive Discourses International Multidisicplinary Journal ISSN 2321-1075 Volume 1, Issue 1, July 2013
Retrieved from: http://www.naspublishers.com

and learns that he has become blind and disabled. However, her love is so genuine that she accepts the disabled
Mr Rochester and marries him. After marriage, she is very happy with him.
She says,

My Edward and I, then are happy: I know what it is to live entirely for what and with what I loved
best on earth. I hold myself supremely blest blest beyond what language can express; because I am
my husbands life as fully as he is mine.
No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: even more absolutely bone of his bone and flesh
of his flesh
All my confidence is bestowed on him, all his confidence is devoted to me; we are precisely suited in
character perfect concord is the result.
Charlotte was reserve and unworldly. She had a very strong will power and was a lady of principles.

appearance, but not withstanding this denial, in the feelings of the governess and in the events of h
there is much of her own experience
There is little in the novel that cannot be traced back to a source in her own experience. She herself was aware that sh
Many incidents in the novel prove that it is an unconventional novel. However, it would be wrong to say that it is the a
To sum up, both, Rochester and Jane unconventional hero and heroine of this novel and together they also make the no
REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB

Jane is also very much like her. At one place, Charlotte herself says, Jane Eyre is not herself except in bodily
http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=280
http://www.gradesaver.com/jane-eyre/
http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2977639-jane-eyre
http://www.notable-quotes.com/b/bronte_charlotte.html
https://sites.google.com/a/cheshire.k12.ct.us/victorian-era/influential-authors/the-bronte-sisters/biography/jane-
eyre-analysis/literary-anlysis-of-jane-eyre

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