Feminism & Postcolonialism in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre Essay

As a representative subject of a female author who was well ahead of her times, Jane Eyre can safely be regarded as the magnum opus of Charlotte Bronte. A literary career that spanned for a meager six years, it was really incredible as to how Charlotte Bronte could excel so much as a wiseist so as to be fitted to pen down the account of a lonely and principled cleaning woman who has since been looked up as the very epitome of adult female, let alone the insipid of womens lib. Moreover, elements of post colonialism and their influence on individual behavior can also be traced in the polarized character sketching of Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason.In contemporary literature, sex activity and postcolonial discourses do non seem to rest solely on any stereotypical approach pattern of characterization. Instead, such approaches tend to de-categorize women harmonize to their individual identity. In other words, a female character in todays literature would rather have patchy disposi tions, as opposed to having lofty and focused ideals. What makes Jane Eyre a true critique of postcolonial and feminist literature is its assimilation of the contradictory traits of womanhood good and bad, elegance and vileness, civility and impudence within a bingle narrative framework.In the light of this observation, this paper attempts to justify Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre as a fictional illustration of feminism and postcolonialism. To substantiate the thesis, the paper result look into chapters 26 and 27 a transitory phase in the storyline of Jane Eyre. Most of Charlotte Brontes novels, including Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853), deal with a vivid scene of colonial Europe and document how social conventions are shaped and redressed by colonial aggressions. At the end of chapter 26 of Jane Eyre, Mr.Rochester asks Jane to accompany him to France a regularise not colonized by Great Britain. This shows how the images of meta-colonization were imbued in the authors mind temporary hookup writing the novel. What it also brings out is how the male protagonists of Bronte, while most of whom have a sardonic and bipolar attitude to amative relationships, invariably prefer women having a perspicuous colonial background in order to rule out the possibility of a foreign infringement into their hardnosed nice veils.Meyer points out that there is a fusion of postcolonial societal doctrines and racial synthesis in the way Bronte treats her women characters in Emma (1853) and Jane Eyre. This hints at a wave-particle duality of social prejudices regarding how a common European would respond to the color of homosexual skin on one hand, and how it would be treated as a benchmark for social permissibility. The paradigm of postcolonialism is embedded at the heart of the novel when Mrs.Reed grows an aversion to little Jane on the ground of her ethnic background, outsider to the formers own (249). Meyer further discusses the literary tropes Bronte uses in Jane Eyre to refer race relations prevalent in contemporary English societies. Bronte, according to Meyer, uses the concept of blackness in a figurative way to concern the actual history of British colonization with racial otherness. This psychological practice of attributing otherness to was a result of a colonizers preoccupation with Whiteness.There is a paradigmatic shift from literature to life, however, in the way Bronte pinpoints the presence of both class and race discrimination in the British society. She does this to unmask the patriarchal impositions that were central to the overall aura of restraint practiced by the British over their colonies. The politics of feminism in Jane Eyre is quite complex in nature, simply because a number of link factors are interwoven in the plot. Quoting Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Meyer argues that Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason represent deuce distinct leagues of feminism.While Jane is a sober and progressive woman capable of bettering her inci dent on her own accord, Bertha Mason is a compulsive character, almost an prohibition character, lying beyond the scope of self-improvement or redemption. Bertha Mason is a representative of the aboriginal race, precariously positioned between human and bestial instincts. In dealing with the development of a meaningful character, Bertha Mason is deliberately bare of the very qualities that are bestowed to Jane Eyre. Consequently, Jane grows to be the epitome of womanhood with all her female virtues (250).But Meyer does not take Spivaks argument at portray value. She further questions the validity of the claim that Spivak makes about the correlation between feminism and imperialism in Jane Eyre. If imperialism can be cited as a tentative appendage of postcolonialism, it would be easier to substantiate the thesis. From imperialistic perspectives, Bertha Mason qualifies as a colonial woman who is supposed to have an individualistic entity of her own. But then once more she is also portrayed as a native woman, which seems to obfuscate the front attribution to imperialism.Going by Meyers argument, it is clear that traits of both imperialism and postcolonialism cannot coexist within a single character, and if it does, one must remain hibernating(a) for the other to thrive (250-1). Hence, it is logically better to link patriarchy with colonial dominance, as both have their origins rooted in the nineteenth vitamin C British high-bloodedness that had historically been proved to be discriminating on sex issues. Rositsa Kronast examines Brontes introduction of the female colonial Other in the mise en scene of a male dominated regime.Citing Jane Eyre as her principle reference, along with dungaree Rhys Wide Sargasso ocean, Kronast shows how the tables can turn with changes in power and hierarchy. It whitethorn be honourd, however, that this change may or may not diminish from internal agents. As is the case with Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason, the change is impose d by the Victorian norms that were outright puritanical. Consequently, Jane, despite being a woman of substance, is pitted against manifestly insolvable situations especially when her love affair with Mr.Rochester comes under serious panic from Bertha Mason. While Jane is drained of her power, Bertha Mason steps in as an empowered woman, capable of inflicting great damage at a public level. The reverse gear of fortune is only possible because the Victorian times in colonial England allowed for total submission of women before male whims. The Victorian concept of womanhood that Jane embodies is found on relative compatibility with men. Women were seen to be playing second fiddles to their gender counterparts in a number of utilisations from mother to wife (3).What is interesting to note from Kronasts argument is that if Jane is the Other woman, she is at once powerless and empowered. This brings us to the same logical fallacy that has been mentioned earlier in the paper two c ontradictory traits cannot control a characters life in any way. So to put matters in the right context, it is reasonable to estimate that the Creole woman portrayed by Bertha Mason must maintain in to the authors intention of representing the colonized face of womanhood, in order to accommodate for a lofty and ideal feminine character reference for the individualistic Jane (Staines 42).In essence, reading into the feministic and postcolonial components in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre brings out the struggle between what is intrinsically feminine and what is not. It is basically a novel based on modern concepts of feminism. Janes personality exudes a rich devotion of feminine grace and beauty. Postcolonialism, on the other hand, is only introduced for putting the concept of feminism into perspective. Therefore, Jane and Bertha continue to hold their respective positions of significance, with the latter playing the role of a borderline character.Works Cited Kronast, Rositsa. The Creole Woman and the Problem of operation in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre and Jean Rhyss Wide Sargasso Sea. Munich GRIN Verlag, 2010. Meyer, Susan L. Colonialism and the Figurative Strategy of Jane Eyre. Victorian Studies. Bloomington, Indiana Indiana University Press, 1990. Staines, David. Margaret Laurence circumstantial reflections. Ottawa, Ontario University of Ottawa Press, 2001.