Gender Roles in Jane Eyre

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Gender roles in Jane Eyre I am going to write an essay about the gender roles, presented in the romantic novel Jane Eyre. The reason why I have chosen this theme is that I can find many parallels from the novel compared to real life, and I find it really interesting. Jane Eyre is written by Charlotte Bronte, and the plot takes place in the mid-nineteenth century, during the Victorian ages. In that time, women were said to be only ’women’, and this meant that they were only supposed to be housewives, and that was all. They had to stay at home doing nothing but bringing up children, cooking, doing the housework, serving their husbands and being perfect wives. Men placed these roles upon women, and I think nowadays most men still think that women’s roles are the ones I have just mentioned. In my essay, I am going to try to illustrate these gender roles with some examples. Jane, the protagonist of the novel, the title character, has to face many difficulties throughout her life. First of all, she is an orphan because her parents died of typhus. She lives with her uncle’s family (the Reeds), where she does not get any love. She is abused both physically and emotionally by her cruel aunt and cousins. Later, when she starts studying at Lowood School, she has really strict teachers and suffers privation. Then, she is a governess in Thornfield Hall, she experiences the pains of love. These emotions are really painful, especially as an inexperienced young girl has to face such difficulties. Usually, men are stronger than women, but such problems as losing both parents, starving and not having our beloved ones would probably indispose an emotionally strong man as too. Women can feel the same just as men, the difference between them is that men do not really show or speak about their problems and fears. Women usually do. In my opinion, this is why women are

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