Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë’s (1816–1855) iconic novel of 1847 is subtitled ‘An Autobiography’. It is an example of a Bildungsroman: a work that traces the education and development of its heroine, and follows her journey through life. The text combines realism with fairy tale and Gothic motifs. Jane is a bullied, but rebellious, orphan, whose suffering continues when she is sent to Lowood School. She eventually becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she is proposed to by her employer, Edward Rochester. A Byronic figure, Rochester holds a dark secret: he is already married, to an insane woman incarcerated in the attic. Some contemporary reviewers voiced concerns, accusing the author of coarseness and anti-Christian sentiments.

Fair copy manuscript of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre

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Creator:: Charlotte Brontë
Published:: 1847

Full title:: Jane Eyre: An Autobiography

Forms:: Prose
Genre:: Victorian literature
Literary period:: Victorian

This work is featured in:

Discovering Literature: Romantics & Victorians

Gender roles in the 19th century

Article by:: Kathryn Hughes
Theme:: Gender and sexuality

From marriage and sexuality to education and rights, Professor Kathryn Hughes looks at attitudes towards gender in 19th-century Britain.

The figure of Bertha Mason

Article by:: Carol Atherton
Theme:: The novel 1832–1880

Carol Atherton explores the character of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre through ideas of the ‘Other’, Charlotte Brontë’s narrative doubling and 19th-century attitudes towards madness and ethnicity.

Jane Eyre: mixing the familiar and the fantastic

Article by:: John Bowen
Theme:: The novel 1832–1880

In her writing as a child and as a young schoolteacher, Charlotte Brontë moved effortlessly between ordinary and imaginary worlds. Professor John Bowen explores how this dual existence made its way into her novel Jane Eyre.

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