Why is Jane Eyre a canonical book?

In this essay, I am going to introduce Jane Eyre as a canonical book, however, first of all I am
going to analyse why I think this book is canonical.

Canon is a list of books, that have something special, not only a literary work can be part of a
literary canon.

A book is done canonical by teachers, academics and literary critics. These people choose
which book their students have to read in class. But in the past, canon came from Greek and
was first applied to the concept of religion. The church decided which book was considered
canonical to have a good religion, this is due to the first time that appears the Word canon was
in the bible, in the biblical exegesis which is the study of books in order to determine the most
reliable version of the book.

This situation has changed with the years, the Word canon represents the spirit of the mind of
the author, the genreetc. Canon are a selections of texts and it always have an ideological
principle.

For this reason, I think that Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bront is a canonic book. That book
was created in the Victorian Period, which was the period in which were created the best
novels, known as The three decanovels because of their volumes.

Jane Eyre shows the influence of duality, women are describe and idealised as angels in house,
belonged to domestic sphere. The public sphere belongs to men. In Jane Eyre the domesticity is
gothic, is a reflection of women. Another type of fallen woman is a prostitute. The angel cannot
be touch or corrupted.

The first indication is that the book is not signed by the author, it is signed by Currel Bell, this is
a pseudonym, resembling a male name, which the author used. This introduced the gender
connected with the Victorian period because women are not supposed to be writers at that
time, she needs to use a pseudonym in order to be taken seriously.

The whole book can be read as an autobiography in which Jane Eyre shows her progress in life
without a man. At the end, her position is gained, but ton equal terms, she goes back as an
empowered woman because of money and money gave her the Independence.

The genre of the novel is bildungsroman, in which we can distinguish the progression and also
the journey motif. She spends the whole novel travelling. This novel is about finding balance in
every aspect of her life.

I am going to divide the essay in several parts, first of all I am going to talk about the setting,
later the female characters,

The setting is connected with the genre, there are several stages and she moves from
one to the other.
Gatheshead: connected with childhood. At that stage the key event takes place in the
red room because metaphorically she is going to be locked in the red room mall
throughout the book. Red is a symbol of maturity.
Lowood: the keyword is cold. There are images of passion(red) facing
coldness(starvation). This is the more realistic part of the book. The atmosphere
conveys coldness. That is how the life of victorian children was like. Idea of the rich and
the poor.
 As opposed to coldness, another stage is Thornfield, which means passion. This is the
entrance to the first stage of adulthood. Here she is going to find love, although her
path is going to be thorny. Apparently, here we have a romance, but it is going to
become his mistress, a fallen woman. Rochester insists that she is strong enough and
that is why at the end they do not meet at Thornfield.
At mash end ( Moor House) the atmosphere conveys coldness. She is given a house to
live in, but the images convey coldness. For her, it would have been a good idea to
marry to St John. At that time marriages out of convenience were very frequent,
however she rejects coldness and defends love.
Finally, at ferdean she marries with Rochester on equal terms. After all the journey she
manages to find balance, which was her main purpose.

The female characters:

She finds several female role models all throughout the book. Jane Eyre learns from experience
and picks up the positive things.

The first model is Mrs Reed, which is a negative character because she is a hypocritical woman
who is all the time bulling and punishing her.

The second female character is Helen Burns. Helen introduces the idea of intimate friendship.
Jane Eyre learns from Helen to control herself (her reactions, emotions). This character
epitomizes the Christian ideal, piety and benevolence that Jane did not have.

Miss Temple is showing another kind of religion. Her name is symbolic. Instead of being strict
and cruel, this kind of religion shows piety within a patriarchal world, epitomized by Mr
Brocklehurst. Miss Temple becomes a refuge for all the girls, especially for Jane. Jane fails
having a parental role, but she has several surrogate mothers, being Miss Temple one of them.

Bessie, is another negative female role model because she emphasizes that she is a servant and
Jane could be a servant as well.

Miss Blanche represents the way middle-upper class women were at that time. Her name could
be attributed to a Petrarchan woman, but she is only after the money. She is also a negative
model because she introduces the idea of arranged marriages. Jane prefers to be alone rather
than getting married out of convenience.

Grace Poole, is a negative model also because she is an oppressing woman who helps Mr
Rochester to keep a mad woman locked. Therefore, she supports the patriarchal role.

Bertha Mason, is described as the mad woman in the attic. At that time, when women do not
behave as there were expected to, they were sent to nunneries and nuns were in charge of
keeping them locked. The attitude towards Bertha is hate and rejection, Bertha acts as Janes
double, in the sense that she is an exemplum for Jane.

Now, I am going to show some examples of the book in which we can see the different stages
and the different roles of women.

Chapter 1: You have no business to take out books, you are a dependent, mamma says, you
have no money, your father left your none, you ought to beg, and not to live here with
gentlemens children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at out mamma
expense. Right now, she is dependent, she has no money. However, later on she becomes
independent because she has money. This emphasizes the barriers of class and gender, money
and education.

Chapter 3: Besides, school would be a complete change: it implied a long journey This is the
idea of the journey motif. At this moment, the separation from Gateshead takes place and
Lowood becomes an entrance to a new life for Jane Eyre because she is going to learn things
there. At Lowood, she is punished and tamed.

Chapter 10: This is not a regularly autobiography. This means she has not included every
single detail in this book. There is a contrast between the moment when she has been naive
and reality.

Chapter 11: About ten minutes after, the driver got down and opened a pair of gates. She is
leaving behind her childhood. What is significant here is the clashing of the doors because it
emphasizes the idea that although she has left Gateshead, she is still locked. This idea is
connected whit her education because it has been neglected.

Chapter 11: After breakfast, Adele and I withdrew to the library. Again we have the idea of
being locked up. What is also important is the idea of women nearly touching education, but
without real Access to it. As a woman, Mr Rochester considers that she does not need to have
Access to all literature, but to a limited number of book like romances. Women who worked as
governesses received the same education that was given to children because they were in
charge of taking care of them. Here we can see that everything is locked, so the idea of
freedom is nowhere to be seen.

Chapter 23: Before I left my bed in the mornings, Little Adle come running in to tell me that
the great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been stuck by lightening in the
night, and half of it Split away. The moment of proposal of marriage, a romantic moment but
after that the tree is been broken, as a warning, as foreshadowing a disaster.

Chapter 24: I am not an angel, and I will not be one till I die. Women at that time were
perceived either as angels or fallen women. She is saying that she is not an ideal, but a human
that can make the same mistakes that the rest of humans made. She is defending the idea of
emancipation.

Chapter 25: Fearful and ghastly to me. Bertha is described by Jane Eyre as if she were a
monster. At the moment, Rochester is not telling her the truth and he is getting Jane in sane.

Chapter 27: I was transported in thought to the scenes of childhood: I dreamt I lay in the red-
room at Gateshead, that the night was dark, and my mind impressed with strange fears. I lifted
up my head to look: the rood resolved to clouds, high and dime, the gleam was such as the
moon imparts to caporous she is about to server. We find the presence of the moon. Her
refers to the moon, which is transformed in a female presence. Moon as a mother protecting
her daughter, the issue of temptation, She escapes temptation. The moon is the emblem of
Diana the huntress, the virgin queen. The moon is not only a female presence but also
represent the idea of virginity.

Chapter 37: I told you I am independent, sir, as well as rich: I am my own mistress. She is her
own mistress, she became her own master, she has money and she is independent. With
Rochester she is on equal terms.
In conclusion, at the end of the book Jane feels as an equal with Mr Rochester, she has money
and is independent, she has also moral Independence and she has matured.