The Victorian Age marked a period of great transition in many aspects of human life. The onset of the industrial revolution changed the way people made and sold goods, which in turn changed the way people lived. Industry and agriculture flourished, creating economic prosperity. Laws were passed to improve the working conditions of the laborers in the mills and factories. Literature written during this period was changing as a result of the events that were happening. Religious beliefs were being challenged by many different viewpoints. As far as philosophy is concerned, the idea of utilitarianism was introduced which believed that people’s actions should be judged by their moral good, the greatest pleasure for the greatest number. Furthermore, he ideas of historians were also considered. They viewed the Bible as a record of historical events rather than a spiritual handbook. Lastly, in terms of science, the geologic and astronomic discoveries made by scientists introduced a new, non-spiritual belief. Along with this, the idea that the human being evolved from ominids was also introduced by Charles Darwin.
In terms of Literature, Jane Eyre is a paradigm novel. The novel shows the image that society had of women, education, and religion under the reign of Queen Victoria. There are many novels where you can see the same topics, but the one you have to study is this one.
Education
There were different types of schools for the different social classes. Boys and girls did not share the same spaces. Bad behaviour was punished severely phisically. (For more info click here!)
Women
Science: Charles Darwin
In 1859 (mid-way through the Victorian Age), Charles Darwin published a work that opposed the conventional way of thinking about religion. The Origin of Species proposed the theory that man actually evolved from a lower species rather than having been created by a higher power. The idea of this notion was devastating to many Victorians. Darwin’s work was responsible for a huge cultural debate between the old way of thinking and the new. A conflict arose because Darwin eliminated the possibility of a designing God (Landow). His work began by proposing the theory of a struggle for existence. He used this term to describe how each living creature had to compete within its own limitations to survive. If there were not any limitations on growth and reproduction then the world would have become overpopulated. The details of this theory went on to include variation and mutation as part of the battle to exist. Over time, the traits that helped an organism to survive became dominant and the less beneficial traits were eventually lost. These ideas conflicted with the teachings of the Bible. The Victorian God was ever powerful, the creator of all things and was responsible for the fate of the world. Darwin stated that he was not ruling out a God, but that he was less immanent than previously believed (Hart, paragraph 10). God is in the position of a clock-maker who starts things up, but rather than interfering periodically, he is in the background with nothing much to do (Hart, paragraph 10). The idea that organisms were able to change at all challenged the previous belief of a fixed unchanging order. The ideas of Darwin were very biological and non-selective as far as the role of humans in nature; humans are just another species on the earth. Some of the literature written during this time directly reflected the writer’s attitude toward the revolutionary ideas that were being presented. In Memoriam, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson depicted one man’s stuggle with Darwin’s ideas of existence.
Industrialization Process
The concept of EMPIRE
The Madwoman in the Attic: Angel or Monster?
In “Jane Eyre,” the character of Bertha Mason serves as an ominous representation of uncontrollable passion and madness. Her dark sensuality and violent nature contrast sharply with Jane’s calm morality, and it is no surprise that Bertha’s presence at Thornfield is a key factor in transforming Mr. Rochester into a stereotypical Byronic hero. Moreover, Bertha’s marriage to Mr. Rochester serves as the primary conflict of the novel, and it is only after her death that Jane is able to achieve personal happiness by marrying Mr. Rochester. However, Bertha’s position as the “Madwoman in the Attic” also speaks to larger social questions of femininity and authorship during the Victorian period.
In 1979, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar made a breakthrough in feminist criticism with their work “The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination.” In the 700-page text, Gilbert and Gubar use the figure of Bertha Mason as the so-called “Madwoman in the Attic” to make an argument about perceptions toward female literary characters during the time period. According to Gilbert and Gubar, all female characters in male-authored books can be categorized as either the “angel” or the “monster.”
The “angel” character was pure, dispassionate, and submissive; in other words, the ideal female figure in a male-dominated society. Interestingly, the term “angel” stems directly from Coventry Patmore’s 1854 poem “The Angel in the House,” in which he described his meek and pious wife. In sharp contrast to the “angel” figure, the “monster” female character was sensual, passionate, rebellious, and decidedly uncontrollable: all qualities that caused a great deal of anxiety among men during the Victorian period.
However, Charlotte Brontë (as well as many other contemporary female authors) did not limit her characterizations to this strict dichotomy between monster and angel. Jane Eyre possesses many of the qualities of the so-called angel: she is pure, moral, and controlled in her behavior. Yet, at the same time, she is extremely passionate, independent, and courageous. She refuses to submit to a position of inferiority to the men in her life, even when faced with a choice between love and autonomy, and ultimately triumphs over social expectations. Moreover, Jane’s childhood adventures demonstrate much of the same rebelliousness and anger that characterize the “monster.” It is clear that Jane’s appearance of control is only something that she learned during her time at Lowood School; she still maintains the same fiery spirit that defined her character as a child.
With the character of Bertha Mason, Brontë has a more difficult time when it comes to blending the distinctions between angel and monster. The readers only meet Bertha when she is in the depths of madness, having been confined in the third-story attic of Thornfield for nearly fifteen years, and there is not enough interaction between her and the other characters to demonstrate any “angelic” behavior. Yet, Bertha’s position as the obstacle to Jane’s happiness with Mr. Rochester, as well as her state of complete imprisonment, suggest that her madness may have been partially manufactured by the male-dominated society that forced her to give up her wealth in marriage to Mr. Rochester. Moreover, the similarities between Bertha’s behavior in the third-story attic and Jane’s actions as a child in the red-room suggest that neither character is full angel or full monster but rather a combination of the two.
While Brontë does not differentiate between angel and monster in her portrayal of Jane and Bertha, she does, however, argue for moderation of the passions in all of her characters. Mr. Rochester and Bertha both have too much passion in their lives, while St. John Rivers has too little. Bertha’s passion manifests as madness, while Mr. Rochester’s passion is displayed in his debaucherous behavior on the continent and his determination to make Jane his mistress. St. John, on the other hand, suppresses all of his passion and love for Rosamond Oliver, and thus becomes a cold and aloof man whose only desire is to fulfill his duty to God. Of the three characters, Mr. Rochester is the only one who eventually achieves a balance of passion; after Jane’s departure from Thornfield and the loss of his eyesight, he becomes much more spiritual and is able to achieve the same emotional moderation that Jane exhibits throughout the novel.
Although Bertha does serve as one of the seeming villains of the novel, she should be seen more as a critique of a society in which passionate woman are viewed as monsters or madwomen. Charlotte Brontë’s act of writing a novel – particularly such a Gothic one - was no doubt equally threatening to the men of her time period. In some ways, Brontë’s decision to merge the identities of the “angel” and the “monster” in the two primary female characters of her novel can be seen as a personal statement about the conflict between passion and passivity in her own life.
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