Imagine a girl growing up in the early 19th century. Orphan, she has no family or friends, no wealth or position. Misunderstood and mistreated by her relatives, she is sent to a school where the cycle of cruelty continues. Alone in the world, she seems destined for a life of failure. What's a girl to do? Does he passively watch and accept his fate, as the common belief of the times would have it? Or does he stand up for his rights and fight for the successful life he deserves? If the girl is Charlotte Bronte's heroine, Jane Eyre, she chooses the second path. While this may have shocked readers at the time, Jane's actions would open the door to a new interpretation of women. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Jane Eyre proved that it was possible for a woman in the nineteenth century to achieve independence and success on her own, regardless of the odds against her. The following article will examine the stereotype of the woman that Jane and her creator, Bronte, have sought to disprove, explore the obstacles Jane encounters in her struggle, and show how she is able to overcome them to achieve the life she has always dreamed of having. During the 1800s, the time in which Jane Eyre was written and the setting of the novel, women were stereotyped as "submissive, dependent, beautiful, but ignorant" (Harris 42). They were seen only as trophies, meant to cling to the arms of men, but never meant to develop a mind of their own or venture out on their own. This stereotype has proven difficult for women to be taken seriously. Dissatisfied with this interpretation of her gender, Bronte attempted to change it by creating a heroine who possessed the antithesis of these traits. Indeed, Jane may be a simple woman, but she is intelligent; she is also confident, strong-willed, and morally aware (Harris 42). He trusts not only in his ability to make decisions, but also in his freedom to do so. These traits will be necessary to guide her on her journey towards personal fulfillment. The first obstacle Jane encounters is her own background. One can usually rely on family or position to get ahead in life; Jane has neither. Since childhood, she has not only carried the label of orphan, but also that of commoner: her mother had been disinherited from the family fortune following her marriage to Jane's father, a poor priest. Jane also faces discouragement in not one, but two environments in which she grew up. In Gateshead, she is despised by her Aunt Reed and her cousins ​​John, Eliza and Georgiana. They never allowed her to forget her lack of wealth or position, or the abundance of both. They see her as nothing more than a servant and treat her as such (Eagleton 41). At Lowood School, Jane finds the final “monument to the destruction of the most basic human unit, the family” (Blom 87). Stationed with other girls like her, under the watchful and merciless eye of Rev. Brocklehurst, she is further made aware of all that she is missing. Perhaps the most important of these is love. Jane's cries of love are mistaken by both Aunt Reed and Reverend Brocklehurst as explosions of evil. A constant obstacle that appears in Jane's life is oppression. Women of the time often had to deal with oppression due to the stereotype imposed on them; it's no different with Jane. Whenever she tries to speak up for herself and her needs, she always encounters some form of resistance. She begins with Aunt Reed and Reverend Brocklehurst, who portray her as willfully disobedient. She continues with St. John Rivers, who sees her as selfish and unworthy of God. Even Edward Rochester, the love of her life, finds fault withabout Jane's need to express herself; it's the only thing that keeps her from being totally possessed by him. Ironically, it may have been Bronte's decision to tell the story from the first-person point of view which most accentuates the constancy of this obstacle in Jane's life. This technique allowed Bronte to tell her heroine's story with an intensity that brought the reader into Jane's thoughts, feelings, and passions, an opening of which Jane was often deprived in her life (McFadden-Gerber 3290). The most important obstacle Jane faces is male power. The four men Jane deals with in the book symbolize the sources of male power over women. There is John Reed, Jane's tormentor in Gateshead, who represents physical strength and the patriarchal family. There is also Rev. Brocklehurst, Jane's tormentor at Lowood; indicates the social structures of class, education and religion. Rochester represents St. John's moral and spiritual attraction and authority (Mitchell 302). The first two try to take advantage of Jane's apparent defenselessness as a child; the latter two try to take advantage of her apparent helplessness as a woman. Jane manages to overcome her background mainly through two means: distance and chance. Leaving for Lowood, he escapes Gateshead and all its disorder; leaving for Thornfield, he escapes Lowood and its disorder. Jane's subsequent return to Gateshead is a victory as it not only shows how successful she has been on her own, without the Reeds, but also reveals that just as she once needed them, now they need her (Eagleton 39). As for her state of poverty, Jane overcomes it only by chance. It is while staying with St. John and his sisters in Whitcross that he learns of his relationship with them and their uncle's great legacy that they all now share. This is Jane's first step towards gaining the wealth and family she has been denied for so long. The next obstacle to overcome is oppression. Before Jane is sent to Lowood, she tells Aunt Reed that it is she, not Jane, who willfully disobeys: "People think you are a good woman, but you are bad, bad-hearted. You are deceitful!" It is with this statement that Jane first feels her soul begin to "expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph" she has ever felt (Bronte 30). It is this feeling that guides her in the confrontations she has with Rev. Brocklehurst, Rochester, and St. John over their power over her, and it is a feeling that she resolves to never lose. Armed with this feeling, Jane takes full advantage of her privileges as a narrator. She freely comments on the "role of women in society and the major constraints placed on them," and tells how she overcomes both (McFadden-Gerber 3290). Jane's triumph over male power is her greatest of all. His first victory is to defeat his tormentors. He surpasses John Reed by succeeding in the area where he was expected to fail: life. It is Jane, who he thought was helpless and fragile, who ends up outliving him. Jane wins her fight with Rev. Brocklehurst by refusing to live the rest of her life at Lowood under his orders. His departure from Lowood is symbolic of leaving his old life behind for a new one. Leaving Lowood also brings Jane her most difficult challenge yet. Throughout her life, Jane has always sought the one thing, more than wealth or position, that has always seemed to elude her: love. As an adult, she finds it in two men: Rochester and St. John. She realizes that although both men have different opinions of her and different reasons for wanting to marry her, they share the same motive: ultimately, "to destroy her individuality" (Blom 99). Rochester's love for Jane is not only spiritual, but passionate., 1987: 5-14.