Jane Eyre: Pursuit of Happiness Though Victorian Morality

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The Pursuit of Happiness through Victorian Morality In Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, a reoccurring theme is portrayed throughout the novel through the thoughts and interactions between characters. Bronte writes about the pursuit of happiness using her characters as her models. However, they are often conflicted with the ideals of the Victorian Era that Bronte lived in, such as the morality that people followed. During that era, the people’s views contrasted greatly with the morality of the Georgian period, which meant that people had a low tolerance of crime and lived by a strict social code of conduct. In addition, many had a strong sense of religious morality and lived by the elite or middle class values. St. John is an example of someone that lived solely for his religious morals while Mr. Rochester lived by the elite class value and by passion. However, Jane lives neither for her religious morals nor by her passion or social class, but by her own standards as a woman who is fighting for equality and independence. Although each character is striving to achieve happiness through their own means, they are often lead astray by their religion, passion, or by their responsibility and independence. Bronte uses Jane to portray how gender relations and a strong sense of independence can affect how one can change their own happiness. A few days after arriving at Thornfield, Jane begins to wonder why women are restrained from being treated like men when she says, “Women feel just as men feel…they suffer from too rigid a restrain, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is too narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves…” (Bronte, Ch.12). In addition to Jane’s feelings of inequality, she also feels imprisoned, to which she extends to her fellow women who also

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