Brontë, Charlotte - Women Feel Just as Men Feel - Jane Eyre

"Women feel just as men feel" is an excerpt from the twelfth chapter of "Jane Eyre", a novel by Charlotte Brönte published in 1847, under the pseudonym "Currer Bell", because in the Victorian Age, women had to publish their works using male names or anonymity in order to reach a wide audience.

This excerpt is set in Thornfield Hall, an old, isolated villa, surrounded by gates and walls, where she works as a governess, after being a teacher in Lowood School, the place where she also spent her traumatic childhood.

Work and Independence

In the first part, from line 1 to line 21, Jane gives a description of her first weeks at Thornfield Hall and shows how much she likes her job.

In fact, the main theme that emerges from this first selection is work as a form of independence, although Jane has also a natural instinct to submission.

When she leaves Lowood to find new experiences, she says she’s seeking a "new servitude" and she finds it in the job as a governess at Thornfield Hall.

She gets along very well with Mrs Fairfax, the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall, and describes her as a kind, polite woman of average intelligence.

Social Class and Relationships

Then Jane also talks about the little girl to whom she is a private teacher, Adele. She initially describes her as a spoiled and sometimes capricious child, but thanks to her teachings she managed to make Adele obedient.

In reality the little girl has nothing special compared to the other children, but despite this Jane feels a certain affection towards her.

Another important theme that we can find in this selection is the social class, because Charlotte Brönte explores the complicated social position of the governesses in the Victorian Age: Jane’s manners, sophistication, and education are those of an aristocrat, because Victorian governesses, who tutored children in etiquette as well as academics, were expected to possess the “culture” of the aristocracy.

Yet, as paid employees, they were more or less treated as servants.

The more time passes, the more Jane becomes interested in Adele's welfare and is pleased by Mrs Fairfax's company.

Desire for Freedom

At the same time she doesn't feel satisfied with her life in a country house where she is confined to the limited world of female occupations.

So, in the second part, from line 22 to line 32, Jane talks about what she does in her free time, when Adele plays with her nurse and Mrs Fairfax makes jellies: she goes up to the third floor and reaches the roof through the trap door in the attic. From there, she looks at the horizon and tries to imagine what is beyond it.

She desires new experiences, she would like to travel to different places, meet people and establish new relationships. She imagines a life where she’s free to do whatever she wants.

Imagination and Escape

In the third part from line 33 to line 41, we can notice Jane’s feeling of imprisonment (in the quote in line 34: “the restlessness was my nature, it agitates me to pain sometimes”) and the only thing that gives her relief is walking back and forth through the corridors like a caged creature, because here she can find the solitude necessary to allow her mind to escape through imagination: Jane's imagination plays a crucial role in her emotional escape. She creates vivid and continuous tales in her mind, filled with incidents, life, passion, and feeling. These imaginative stories provide her with a sense of fulfillment that she does not experience in her actual life.

Social Critique and Equality

The last part, from line 42 to line 52, in my opinion is the most significant one of this excerpt, because Jane openly criticizes the common conception of the role of the women inside the society, so the theme we can find here is the

Jane struggles continually to achieve equality and to overcome oppression.

In addition to class hierarchy, she must fight against patriarchal domination, against those who believe women to be inferior to men and try to treat them as such.

She expresses the idea that human beings, both men and women, have a natural desire for action and purpose in their lives.

She argues that it is futile to expect people to be content with tranquility and that they will seek out and create opportunities for action,if they cannot find them.

Jane highlights the fact that many individuals, particularly women, are often confined by societal expectations and traditional gender roles. She challenges the idea that women should be passive and limited to domestic tasks like cooking, knitting, and playing musical instruments.

Instead, she argues that women, like men, have the same need for intellectual and physical stimulation, and they suffer when there's a barrier that stops them from being able to express themselves. So, she says that it makes no sense that women must be condemned if they want to be more than what society imposes them to.