Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte’s prize winning novel “Jane Eyre,” is a story about a young girl growing up in strict Victorian times. During this age, the way a lady presented herself was based on economic class, lineage, and most importantly, beauty. But how does such a lady come to be? Many would propose the idea of basing oneself on surroundings. Which, in this case Jane proves to show us that Mrs. Reed, Miss. Temple, and Lady Ingram take a part in shaping Jane physically and mentally. These female roles in the novel have taken part in transforming the main character to whom she will eventually become in the future.
In the beginning, Jane isn’t exposed to a true mother role figure, the most important female role of all. Instead, she is shown to be living with Mrs. Reed, her cruel aunt, who isn’t even blood-related. Mrs. Reed isn’t affectionate towards Jane and only cares and cherishes the ones she actually birthed. Already, she has been put with the burden of finding her womanhood alone, which could scar her mentally. This whole idea of a mother figure never came about. This encapsulates the idea of how Jane strayed herself to someone who was a female and loving, willing to act as a “mother role” for Jane, even if she was a teacher.
Miss. Temple, Jane’s prior school teacher loved Jane to the utmost slew. Finally during her years at Lolwood, a boarding school monitored by an intimidating man in black, Jane found something to believe in. A teacher’s mother influence on her finally gave her the idea and the motivation to become a teacher. She wanted to changed the spine-chilling image she got when she thought of Lolwood, into a relaxing state of mind.
That relaxing ideal didn’t last very long since Jane decided to become a governess for a young girl named Adele. Jane is well-educated and proper enough to handle this task with the skills she has taken from Miss. Temple and her time learning at Lolwood. But while Jane ends up falling madly in love with the owner of the hotel, who is expected to marry Blanche Ingram. It seems to show that Jane is intrigued with Lady Ingram’s beauty, which she is assumed to lack, but yet knows and understand that she isn’t a well women. Meeting Ingram showed Jane what not to do when you are in love. She was put in this story and part of Jane’s daily life to show her that economic status doesn’t have much to do with who you really have feelings for. It’s a matter of pretending and expecting to love someone because of who they are and what they wear. Jane gets a bit of confidence and hopes to sweep Mr. Rochester off his feet.
All of these characters have guided Jane into becoming a independent, different type of women. The usual women you would see during these times that convinces us that she has to be reliant towards men and a stronger social class. Jane is peculiar compared to the rest, I suppose that is what makes her intriguing to most, including Mr. Rochester. Because of the female influences, Jane is what women wish they were, brave and rare.