Jane Eyre

This thesis hopes to give special significance to the emotion of hatred in Jane Eyre by exploring the significance of hatred in the novel. It will be arguing that hatred is essential to Jane’s subjectivity, thus shifting the focus of previous criticism from Bertha Mason back to Jane Eyre. The reading of hatred will take mainly a psychoanalytical stance, using Kristeva’s theory of abjection to suggest that Jane experiences hatred because of abjection. The significance of this reading will then be explored by using the concept of abjection together with biographical evidence to read hatred in Brontë’s other works, showing that Jane can be read as representing Brontë’s woman subject. As this argument implies that abjection is gendered, the thesis will also compare the experiences of abjection in Brontë’s male characters with her female ones, fleshing out the gendered dimension of hatred and showing that an implicit critique of Victorian gender ideology can be read through this account of gender difference.

In the novel, Bronte expresses numerous issues of the Victorian Era, when Jane Eyre was set. One of these include the strong belief and culture around religion. Despite Jane's simple life, Bronte mostly presents Jane various characters that offer very different views on religious beliefs, and by doing that, Bronte show Jane's disapproval of the Evangelical Movement. In the book we are introduced to three main religious characters. Mr Brocklehurst mainly demonstrates the danger and sanctimony of the 19th century movement. He is a devoted Christian who adopts the articulate of Evangelicalism by preaching puritanical morality to the students at Lowood. Things like, his warnings that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of god. "oh madam, when you put bread and cheese, instead of burnt porridge, into these children's mouths, you may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls!" (Chapt 7, 63) Mr Brocklehurst takes this to the extreme by emphasizing the enrichment of the soul by the starving body. Although this shows contrast as his method of subjecting his students to follow such principles is evidently un-christian like. On the other hand, Helen Burns' forbearing mode of christianity is too passive for Jane to adopt as her own, although she admires Helen for it. Helen takes on a forbearing mode of christianity. In chapter 8 when Helen comforts Jane, Jane feels an "inexpressible sadness" from her words. Helen tries to tell Jane that "death is the ultimate entrance to happiness". However, Jane is more concerned about life on earth other than th e life afterwards, she is overwhelmed by Helen's blind faith blind faith; she crav es love and happiness in the world rather than the life that Helen seeks. As a consequence, at Helen's deathbed, Jane constantly questions Helen's deep faith and affinity in God. -"By dying young, I shall escape great sufferings. I had no qualities or talents to make my way very well in the world: I should have bee n continually at fault" Although, even with Helen's reassurance that there really is a heaven, Jane still questions herself with thoughts such as "where is that region? Does it exist?" Although these questions may not affect Helen's faith, her death make s Bronte's point clear that one cannot rely on faith for survival but you can howe ver depend on it for quidance. The last character that presents a view of religion is St. John Rivers. Although he shares many similar beliefs to Helen, he shows a different area of religious mov ements that Bronte discourages. It is clearly shown in the novel that he devotes a "lar ge portion of his time" to his religion, however this does not make him a saint.

From vampires and werewolves to fairies, Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1847) is filled with creatures more fitting a penny dreadful than a canonical work of Victorian fiction. Monsters stalk the shadowed halls of Thornfield in the altered forms of Rochester, Jane and Bertha. Rochester emerges from the fire that claims Bertha's life deformed and symbolically castrated, resembling a beast more than a man. Jane wanders the lone moors like a fairy or imp accosting the belated traveler of Rochester and frustrating him with her otherworldly presence. Bertha, the famous madwoman in the attic, adopts the role of vampire representing a monstrous colonial parasite and sexualized anti-woman.

There are different forms of othering in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre:  one which results from Jane’s ambiguous position in terms of class hierarchies and another generated by Bertha’s presence as a colonized subject. In both cases, femininity amplifies gender-specific repercussions in these othering processes. However, while Brontë creates a female character in Jane who triumphs over the challenges posed by Victorian society’s class and gender hierarchies, i.e., the status as other of governesses and women, problematic as it is in its final solidification of the status quo, Bertha reflects the dominant, Eurocentric ideologies of nineteenth century England concerning race and the racial other. She is the colonized and racial other, a madwoman who threatens British men as embodied in Mr. Rochester, and women embodied as in Jane, and her final self-destruction for Jane’s sake are poignant plot devices to this end.  This paper offers a comparative reading of two female characters’ othered status in Victorian British society in relation to the dominant ideologies of the era concerning gender, class and race. I argue that whereas Brontë, following a feminist reading of her novel, fictively assuages the othered status of British women in the characterization of Jane, who triumphs in resisting society’s rigid class boundaries and women’s subordinate position in terms of legal and financial matters, does not grant a similarly fictive emancipatory view to Bertha as the colonized and racial other. This is an obvious and clear indication of Brontë’s limitations concerning feminist activism and inclusiveness as her implication in advancing the dominant, imperialist discourse.

Drawing on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, I first show how the Victorian novel processes translation out of the narrative in order to espouse the metonymic imperative of realism. While this may be how the relation of realism and translation is decided in the Victorian novel, I argue that the subsequent history of translation of Brontë's novel remains inflected in this relation. Taking Croatian translations of Jane Eyre as a case study, I analyze the ways in which they remain predicated on the metonymic imperative of realism, first in Austria-Hungary, when metonymy on these terms was adopted by Austro-Hungarian minorities as a vehicle of modern self-definition, and then in a process that survives the historical Austria-Hungary well into the twentieth century, in Yugoslav modernity for instance. What these translations ultimately sustain, and reveal, is radical realism: not a poetics so much as an apparatus instrumental to negotiating the modern condition in the past two centuries.
[[email protected]]

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel published under the masculine nom de plume Currer Bell, chronicles the coming-of-age story of a poor early 19th-century girl turned governess. Charlotte Bronte uses stylistic devices such as analogy, imagery, and synecdoche to portray the book’s central theme: Jane is like a caged bird who wants to find her wings within the oppressive, patriarchal culture of her time period. The novel was written when Bronte was still young enough to remember the passions of her own youth and shares many similar occurrences with the author’s own life, such as the loss of her mother, attending boarding school where she lost loved ones to illness and falling in love (or what some might call unhealthy infatuation) with an older man she could not have. It is this pain of her doomed affection for married writing instructor, Constantin Heger, which can be seen within the emotional opaqueness of Jane as she reflects on her journey to becoming Rochester’s wife. Coming from a poor background and family hardship to be a writer at a time when females were no more than accessories, the author’s frustration at her limiting time period can also be seen throughout the novel. Across the story, Jane finds her own identity and happiness through her interactions with her school, her father’s family, and Mr. Rochester.

Scores of authors, directors and digital producers have adapted, revised and modernised Charlotte Brontë's most famous novel, Jane Eyre: An Autobiography (1847). As Antonija Primorac notes, neo-Victorianism is "a powerful trend in contemporary Anglophone media" pointing to the "continuous production of adaptations and appropriations of Victorian literature and culture" (2017, 452). These ubiquitous transformations of Jane Eyre reveal transtexual 1 parallels between nineteenth-and twentyfirst-century life, including the ways in which women with substance use disorders are understood to be mad-so mad, in fact, that the community's future happiness depends on the addicted female character's death. 2 In Sean and Sinead Persaud's web series Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party, the character "Charlotte Brontë" colludes in a scheme to murder a slew of authors in order to cover up that her sister killed Jane Austen for threatening to expose their brother Branwell's misdeeds. At first glance, this version of Brontë seems absurdly inaccurate for the sake of comedy. She is too sardonic, too vindictive and

It is well-known that the Victorian period in British history was also the marker of the high point of British imperialism, among other things. Therefore, it comes to be that colonialism and the ideology that accompanies it is well-embedded in the common unconsciousness of the British individual. As Edward Said says in his work 'Orientalism', "fields of learning, as much as the works of even the most eccentric artist, are constrained and acted upon by society, by cultural traditions, by worldly circumstance, and by stabilizing influences like schools, libraries and governments…both learned and imaginative writing are never free, but are limited in their imagery, assumptions, and intentions." Imperialism, therefore, as a history and a phenomenon predominantly seen in the Victorian era, has a great influence on much of popular culture, including the novels written at the time. This influence is most overtly present in the "colonial novels" of several writers such as H. Rider Haggard, Joseph Conrad, and Rudyard Kipling. It is also noticed in the works of writers for children by Robert Louis Stevenson, for instance. However, colonialism and the drive towards imperialism is implicit not just in the overtly "colonial" novels of the aforementioned writers, but in several novels of the time that seem to revolve around the domestic sphere in England, such as those written by women; for instance, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. This essay will therefore look at the works of Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson and Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' in order to explore the complicated British attitude towards imperialism as seen in these novels.

The ID, representing the subconsciousness of the human mind, is the level underneath the consciousness, defining the human-being from a biological point of view. The genetic part and the natural identity of the individual are stored in the ID. It is the dark and uncontrollable part of the human mind. • EGO The EGO, being the consciousness of the individual, embodies the social identity of the human mind. Through the EGO, the individual makes logical decisions. • SUPER EGO The SUPER EGO represents an external form of consciousness and the voice of authority, being embodied by school, church, society. In this novel, Charlotte Brontë creates a new female typology embodied in the character that gives the name of the novel: Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre grow up as an orphan girl in her aunt's home, Mrs. Reed, having the status of a servant. From an early age, one can notice that, from a psychoanalytical point of view, Jane never represses her ID and stays true to herself and her believes. Being sick of how her aunt treats her, Jane finds the opportunity and tells how she feels about her aunt's behavior towards Jane. The scenes takes place in the living room, a place only for the masters of the house, and after her aunt left, Jane stays as a winner, in the center of the system. During her stay at the Lowood Institution-the orphanage, Jane encounters harsh conditions, but this is where she gets her education from. This is the place where she meets Helen Burns, a model of Christianity, full of tolerance and acceptance. Analyzing the relationship between Jane and Helen, two girls who are best friends but very different, one can see that the SUPER EGO embodied in Helen cannot oppress Jane's ID. Jane once again does not oppress her true way of being and does not take Helen as a model, as the rest of the school does.

The Brontë Sisters 200 Years: Biographical and Fictional Universes

Volume (to commemorate Brontë 200) on the reception, translation of the Brontë  sisters's work in Portugal, and on the biographical and fictional universes of the authors.
Published by the Portuguese National Library.

Though this course delves into many different issues regarding female writer's interpretations of space, social class, morality, love, religion, etc., what I find most interesting about Jane Eyre are the themes of power in relation to gender. Often critiqued as being 'ahead of its time' due to its strong-willed female protagonist, this coming-of-age narrative follows the life of Jane Eyre, and her journey from dependence as a child to independence as an adult. There are frequent debates as to whether or not Jane has independence and power at the end of the novel, and this paper will argue that she, along with other female characters, does have power. Though women at this time were considered lesser beings in comparison to men, and though many argue that this novel fails to give women power, I will argue that the characters of Jane, Bertha, and

The story of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is very complex, and revolves around equally complex characters. Our main character, Jane, finds herself on a very difficult path to self-discovery, not wishing to accept the fact that she is meant to live a life of sorrow and woe. She comes across many people on this journey, and there are many women who can be seen as "doubles" for Jane.

Identity has been attempted to be explained and handled in a number of ways for many centuries. Since culture is a central figure for the formation of identity, Cultural Studies, as a diverse field of study encompassing a variety of perspectives; functions by borrowing freely from many disciplines and theories to figure out and explain the effect of society on individuals. Culture is a common way of life; therefore, Cultural Studies is concerned with what roles gender, language, ethnicity, economy, and biological bodies of individuals have for the construction of one’s identity. Since the society, in which people live in, has a great role on individuals, in order to analyze a literary work of art, the social circumstances of the era should also be grasped at first hand. The present study deals with the two novels Dorian Gray and Jane Eyre and the Victorian society in which they were written. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of society on the construction of individual identity in two of the famous novels- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre was written at a time when society was deeply entrenched and was still wrestling with the upshots of the workers’ revolutions that shook 1700-Europe. Marxist reading of Jane Eyre looks at the social and economic conditions of the characters at the time the book was written and investigates how class relations help the dominant group in a society to maintain its hegemonic position.

The character Jane Eyre enforces imperialist ideals of white purity and xenophobia, simultaneously identifying with and profiting off of the racial “other.” As Jane perpetuates the idea of racial “otherness” as contamination, Bronte highlights the oppressive constructs of whiteness and its consequent paranoia, as Jane’s "female empowerment" ultimately stems from her adoption and exploitation of imperialist dogma.

In her novel, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë sets an underlying theme for her entire novel from the very first page, when a young Jane is reading Bewick's History of British Birds while sitting in a window seat with "folds of scarlet drapery" enclosing her from the right and"clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating [her] from the drear November day" at Gateshead Hall (Brontë 1). The cold and wet window is juxtaposed with the fiery red of the curtains and sets up the underlying theme of fire and water, which runs all the way through the novel. According to Eric Solomon, the "two images are so pervasive that they serve as a substructure for the entire novel: fire and waterand their extremes, the flames of lust and the ice of indifference" (216). Going further than Solomon, fire and water are the two sides of the character of Jane, and they strengthen and weaken in Jane depending on location and the characters around her.

Language functions to demonstrate complex ideas through a universally understood medium utilized by all human beings. Its power to influence, persuade, and illustrate thoughts that seem tacit in nature have been used to describe experiences that lay outside of an immediate culture. During the age of empire, authors and writers utilized this medium of communication to illustrate the world that the European populace was unable to witness physically. However, what these writers chose to depict stemmed from their culture of conquest; a culture that prioritized society through a patriarchal lens, and as a result, displaced those outside of its conventions into secondary, and even sub-human, categories. With words, metaphors, and other literary devices to express their European worldview, or biased culture, writers painted the world outside of the West as backward, savage, and deviant. More specifically, the noted European works of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Heart of Darkness by John Conrad, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson clearly demonstrate the ideals of European expansionism, or more traditionally known as imperialism, through texts that were written within a European cultural bias. Due to the culture they belonged to, Brontë, Conrad and Stevenson were only able to express their worldview of the Third World through the literary lens they identified with -European imperialism. As a result of the European culture of conquest, works written within the era of colonialism ultimately produced sentiments of imperialist thought by excluding the "native voice" within the text, positioning the Anglo-Saxon male on top of the social order within the native space, and exploring the fear of the native by investigating the effects of "the duality of man," or the acquiring of savage tendencies reminiscent of the native.

The setting for gothic fictions is very often domestic, which is a descriptor with distinctly feminine connotations, particularly given the centrality of the home and family life in the female gothic. Much critical work following Ellen Moers focused on gothic authors’ articulations of women’s dissatisfaction with patriarchal norms that trapped them within the home. Despite the association between domesticity and femininity, these home environments are very often owned by, and ruled by men.

When Jane Eyre rails against the limitations placed upon women through this alignment of domesticity and femininity, she compares her situation and herself to the masculine norms of a patriarchal society saying that women feel ‘just as men do’. But how do men feel? How are men positioned within these homes, and these texts? The proposed paper explores the representation of men’s anxieties about their domestic identities - as fathers, sons, and heads of households – in the Victorian gothic novel, concentrating particularly on the figures of Edward Rochester, Heathcliff, and Philip Pirrip. This paper traces the parallels in characterisation between Miss Havisham and Heathcliff, in their passionate responses to romantic rejection and their desire to control the next generation, and the construction of the figure of the gentleman through the experiences Rochester and Pip, to explore the intersection of class and gender in the construction of the domestic masculinity in the mid-Victorian gothic.

This dissertation joins the theoretical conversation about Jane Eyre by examining the relationship between femininity and abjection in the characters of Jane, Helen Burns and Bertha Mason. This work analyses the actions and reactions of these women to demonstrate the nature of the abject. As a whole, Kristeva and Bronte’s texts are united by feminist interpretations of women’s actions, and as a result this connection allows for an evaluation of how the abject is intertextually connected with Jane Eyre. This dissertation, therefore, incorporates a range of theoretical perspectives as well as contextually significant readings of Bronte and Kristeva. The correspondence between religion, the human body and death are assessed in this dissertation in three chapters, which examine how these Kristevian concepts can be extracted from Bronte’s text despite their historical separation. This dissertation finds that alternative versions of femininity test patriarchal order in Jane Eyre, and Kristeva’s theory of abjection offers an explanation for how the abject affects this. Consequently, the relevance of the findings in this piece contribute to the theoretical debate surrounding Jane Eyre, by offering the combination of a feminist and Kristevian reading of the text.

Word Count: 3,110 Twist of Fate: Elements of the Supernatural, Mythical, and the Fairytale, in Wide Sargasso Sea and Jean Eyre A commonly encountered motif in both Charlotte Bronte' Jane Eyre (1847) and Jean Rhy's Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) is the fairytale. Both Bronte and Rhys, by including elements of the fantastic, suggest that greater forces are at work within their narratives that ultimately determine the fate of the protagonists. In other words, circumstances of the supernatural mixed within normality seem to give the impression of the fairytale story, and creates an environment where familiar motifs, character developments, and plot twists can be identified and enjoyed. The theme of predetermined destiny, a hallmark feature of fairytale stories, is most clearly manifested within the setting, instances of the supernatural, omens, dreams, characterization, and the names of places and people. These aspects reinforce the theme of the fairytale and of the fated lives of both protagonists. The setting and environment of both Jean Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea permeate with elements straight from fantasy literature. The landscape in Jamaica and the Dominican invokes a sense of the legendary that pervades the ill-fated marriage between

La rilettura contrappuntistica proposta da Said in Culture and Imperialism (1994) prevede una concezione dell'opera letteraria non soltanto come avente un innegabile valore estetico, ma anche come relazionata alle configurazioni di potere entro cui viene prodotta 1 . Ogni opera è esperienza non univoca, ma oppositiva, creata dall'interazione o scontro fra ciò che in essa vi è di ufficiale e ciò che invece è marginale e inespresso. Di qui l'importanza di mantenere uno sguardo ampio, con un occhio rivolto a quel che è presente o che emerge nell'opera e a quel che non è presente o che non emerge.

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is an autobiography of a woman's struggle and adventures in a fictional Victorian space. The autobiography, besides being a foil to the traditional Victorian novels in terms of style, form and approach, is also a foil to the very constructs of femininity and masculinity of its time. The 10-year-old Jane's rebellious nature, the 18-year old Jane's trials with passion and reason and the adult autobiographer's assertive "I" foreground agency, freedom and equality as her most valued principles. Through the creation of such a character, Bronte opens up the discourse of questioning the place of an independent woman in an androcentric society. The balance that Jane achieves between the person she is and the woman that the society wants to see her as is her negotiation with the established order.

1. The >Bildungsroman« (novel of formation): Towards a definition -- 2. The Bildungsroman in the High Romantic mode - 2.1 Beginnings: Goethe's »Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre« (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Years, 1795/96) - 2.2 Novalis's »Heinrich von Ofterdingen« (1802): A radical version of the »Bildungsroman« in the High Romantic mode - 2.3 The genre-type and its variants (Wordsworth, »The Prelude«; Thomas Carlyle, »Sartor Resartus«; Gérard de Nerval's »Aurélia, ou le Rêve de Ia Vie«) -- 3. From the Bildungsroman to the novel of disillusion - 3.1 » Weak« variants of the Romantic Bildungsroman: »Romance« vs. »novel« (Thomas De Quincey's »Confessions of an English Opium-Eater«, »Suspiria de Profundis«; Charlotte Bronte's »Jane Eyre«; Edgar Allan Poe's »The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket«) - 3.2 Towards the »novel of disillusion« (Stendhal's »Le Rouge et le Noir«; Balzac's »Illusions perdues«) -- 4. Conclusion: The Bildungsroman in the genre-system of Romantic fiction (with a short note on the »artist novel«)

ÖZET Kadın, geçmişten günümüze insanoğlunun dünyasında her zaman büyük değişimlere neden olmuş, toplumda farklılıklarla beraber yaşamış, erkeğin baskın rolü varoluş mücadelesi içinde yer almıştır. Her dönemde, her yüzyılda rolünü değiştirmek için mücadele vermiş evde, siyasette, çalışma hayatında kendini görünmezlikten kurtarıp erkeğin yanında yer almaya, var olmaya çalışmıştır. Erkeklere göre daha güçsüz görülmesi, ayrımcılığa yol açan geleneksel yaklaşımlar, "kadının yeri evidir" gibi söylemler, her zaman için kadınları kendi var olmak istedikleri her yerden soyutlamış ve savunulan bu görüşleri dikte ederek kabullenmeye zorlamıştır. Hem toplumsal hem de ailesel olarak desteklenmeyen kadınlar, kendi içsel isteklerini, yaşadıkları her alanda erkeklere göre daha zor gerçekleştirmektedirler. Bu çalışmamızda, kadının varoluş mücadelesini toplumsal ve psikolojik gerçekler etrafında anlatacak ve kadına ilişkin toplumsal cinsiyet rol ve kimliğinin kadının kendi yaşamındaki sınırlarına olan etkisinden bahsedeceğiz. Kadınların, erkek egemen toplumu içinde kültürel ve sosyal engellemeler olduğu gerekçesiyle değil hakları olduğu için kendi yaşamlarını diledikleri gibi çizebilmesini aktaracağız. Anahtar Kelimeler: Kadın, Toplum, Varoluş Mücadelesi Giriş Çalışmamızda, Türk yazar Reşat Nuri Güntekin'in "Çalıkuşu" ve Charlotte Bronte'nin "Jane Eyre" adlı eserlerinde "Kadının Varoluş Mücadelesi" konusu feminist ve psikanalitik eleştiri yöntemleri ile incelenecektir. Kadının varoluş mücadelesi konusu, okura feminist edebiyat alanını ve kadının eril hayattaki varoluş sürecini yansıtması açısından feminist eleştiri yöntemi ile ve kadının bu süreçteki yaşamış olduğu zorlukların onun psikolojisinde de yer edinmesi yönüyle de psikanalitik yöntem kullanılacaktır. Bu yöntemler ile kadının varoluş mücadelesinde, toplumda, özel hayatında, meslek ve diğer birçok alandaki yaşamında karşılaştığı zorluklar ve bu zorlukların kadının bir birey olarak ruhsal çözümlemesine içsel çatışmalarına olan etkiler ele alınacaktır. Ayrıca incelenen bu eserlerin yazarları hakkında da psikolojik bilgi vermek, bu çalışmayı etkili bir şekilde aktarmak açısından önemlidir. Dolayısıyla çalışmamızda incelenen eserlerin yazarlarının psikolojileri hakkında da bilgi verilecektir. Çalışmada ulaşılmak istenen sonuç ise, kadınların yaşadığı toplumda kendi hakları doğrultusunda varoluş mücadelesi verdikleri gerçeği üzerine farkındalık yaratma, erkek

Esej emitiran u Kozmopolisu, Treći program Hrvatskog radija, 25. 5. 2020. Vidi također dulju verziju objavljenu na engleskom: https://www.academia.edu/39786276/Realism_and_translation_Charlotte_Bront%C3%ABs_Jane_Eyre_for_an_Austro_Hungarian_minority_and_beyond

Race and culture are two important aspects of an individual's life as well as identity. Cultural pluralism can be stated as one of the factors which cause racism, because the presence of multiple cultures leads to a sort of competition between them for supremacy over one another. Different cultures compete for dominance over another, thus leading to the birth of a dominant political culture. In some nations, different cultures co-exist, for example, the term 'melting pot' is generally used to refer to the United States, which denotes the assimilation of people of different races and cultures into one homogenous whole. But with the advent of multiculturism, its proponents rejected the metaphor 'melting pot' in favour of terms such as 'salad bowl' or 'kaleidoscope', which denotes the intermixing and coming together of people of different races and cultures, but each one retaining and maintaining its distinct racial and cultural identity. Multiculturism, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica, is the view or ideology which acknowledges the differences of the minority cultures, races or ethnicities from the dominant political culture. This paper studies the role that race plays in shaping of the fate of literary characters;two novels, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys have been taken into account (Rhys's novel is often seen as a prequel to Bronte's novel, as it is written from the viewpoint of Bertha Mason, a character in Bronte's novel, who was so highly discriminated against in the story that she wasn't even given a voice of her own).

This paper covers the very common theme of conflict between power and
passion in both mentioned novels introduced by two pairs who seek
their balance in order to achieve happiness. We are aware that there are
certain differences in the two main relationships presented in the two
novels. Power is central in both novels and a balance of power is needed
in both relationships to reach the love heaven. Jane Eyre and Rochester
reach their balance and a happy ending, whereas in Wuthering Heights
the unapproachable balance leads to destruction of both Cathy and
Heathcliff.The conflicts depicted in these novels lead to happiness and
power is often replaced by love, but the balance is different in each case.
Jane Eyre has a happy ending while Wuthering Heights ends with the
death of Heathcliff. The sisters, apparently, did not share the same reaction
to Byronism. Gender was also an important domain in the Victorian
age and in the novels of Emily and Charlotte Brontё. Their heroes and
heroines kept the conventions and norms of their time but in Jane Eyre
this adherence led to happiness, while in Wuthering Heights it resulted
in destruction. In neither novel marriage is for the sake of status and
wealth. It is described as conducive to love and happiness.
Key Word: power, passion, conflict, Victorian age, gender.

Brontё constructs her heroine, Jane, as somewhat of a social rebel, but one who is nonetheless affected by Victorian social codes.  Through her usage of dialect, Brontё reveals that Jane struggles between her own ideology of social inclusion, or equal potential between people of various classes, and the Victorian ideology that highly values formal education to the point of socially excluding those who do not conform to use Standard English or have a lot of book knowledge.  Jane believes that formal education is necessary for social mobility and attainment.  Brontё's technique is significant because she uses so little dialect to produce so much meaning.

This set of notes examines the apparently peripheral topic of foreign languages inJane Eyre by exploring some of the  major themes of the novel in a new light. These notes also show the practical value of being  able to speak foreign languages as well as the status that this could confer on women in the XIX century.