The integration of a self-assertive woman: A feminist reading of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

The present thesis is a feminist analysis of Jane Eyre, a classic Victorian novel which has a female character as a protagonist. It will discuss the connection of plot and theme to ideology and the way in which the novel half challenges and half integrates into the patriarchal ideology of the above mentioned country and culture. My reading, after considering the unfolding of the plot, the Bildungsroman and the resolution of the conflict, argues for the placement of Jane Eyre within the theoritical boundaries of liberal feminisim (depicted as such in the writings of Woolstonecraft and Mill) as opposed to other interpretations which were keen on emphasizing the radical feminist tendency of the novel. Moreover, in the present interpretation, the liberal feminist debut and claims made by the protagonist are counterbalanced by a conservative ending, since the heroine final choice ascribes her to the traditional domestic roles envisaged by the Victorian period. In the view of those mentioned before, what the main character achieves during the journey into and for socialization is the final re-appropriation of the self while navigating through the realms of given discourses, and the preservation and promotion of a personal voice. I concentrated my analysis on the issues of ideology, education, surrogate families, romance, marriage and sexuality, in an attempt to demonstrate that after and because of living these crucial experiences in a personal and self-assertive manner, Jane Eyre, the protagonist of the novel, gains recognition and status in a usually restrictive and limiting society like the other one represented by the patriarchal Victorian England.