Is Jane Eyre a subversive novel?

Is Jane Eyre a subversive novel? One contemporary critic, Mrs Oliphant, was quick to argue that it
was. In May of !"", eight years after the book was publishe#, she wrote in $lackwoo#s% &'hat woul#
happen if social an# se(ual inferiors asserte# that they were the equals of their superiors?....here is
your true revolution.) Mrs Oliphant, along with numerous feminist critics, were convince# that Jane
Eyre)s #eman# to be treate# as Mr *ochester)s equal, #espite her lowly social circumstances an# her
gen#er, ma#e the novel truly ra#ical.
+uring the ,ictorian age, women were consi#ere# to be inferior to men% they weren)t entitle# to vote
or stu#y at university an# there were very
few occupations that they were allowe# to work in. Once marrie# all their wealth became their
husban#)s an# they ha# no rights over their chil#ren or property. 'ithin this conte(t, Jane)s comment,
&but women feel as men feel- ... they suffer from too rigi# a restraint), is a very ra#ical one% most
people consi#ere# that women #i# not have the sensibilities of men. .ikewise *ochester)s insistence
that Jane was his equal was #efinitely shocking for contemporary rea#ers% very few &respectable)
husban#s of the time ever seriously entertaine# the notion that their wives were as intelligent as they
were.
$ut there are aspects to the novel which are #eeply conservative an# seem to en#orse an inequality
between the se(es an# classes. Most troubling is the #epiction of $ertha Mason. *ochester informs
Jane that it is $ertha)s se(ual appetites, together with a ma#ness which runs in her family, that have
#estroye# her sanity. /n# yet *ochester himself has confesse# to a promiscuous past. 'hereas
Jane)s final marriage to *ochester in#icates that he is forgiven his past sins, $ertha)s imprisonment
shows that she is punishe# for hers.
0he psycho1analytic feminist critics 2.M 3ilbert an# 2. 3ubar feel that $ertha represents the truly
subversive element in the novel. In their famous
book 0he Ma#woman in the /ttic 4.on#on, 5657 they argue that $ertha breaks all the conventions
which women were e(pecte# to conform
to% she is strong, violent, promiscuous an# from a totally #ifferent culture from everyone else in the
book. 0he ultimate conservativism of the book is un#erline# by the way in which both $ertha)s spirit
an# culture is either crushe# or ignore#.
Other critics, such as 8ermione .ee, have argue# 9 in counter balance to this theory 9 that Jane is
constantly rebelling against the male1#ominate# culture of the time an# carving her own &feminist)
path. 8er initial outcry against John *ee#)s bullying, her rebuke to Mr $rocklehurst, her aban#onment
of *ochester an# her re:ection of 2t John *ivers are all in#ications that she won)t be bullie#, ca:ole#
or persua#e# into accepting a status quo which she is not content with.
$ut, as ;elicia 3or#on points out in her e(cellent book / <reface to the $rontes 4.ongman 5!57, for
all her rebellious spirit, Jane #oes yearn for a benevolent man to take her un#er her wing. /t the
beginning of the novel, Jane wishes that her uncle, Mr *ee#, were alive so that she woul#n)t be
sub:ecte# to the tyranny of /unt *ee#)s rule. /t the en#, once *ochester is relieve# of his ma# wife
an# the question of breaking one of the .or#)s comman#ments has been #ismisse#, Jane finally #oes
submit to the authority of her husban#.
=harlotte $ronte was herself a #eeply conservative, 3o#1fearing woman who, although she argue#
that women shoul# en:oy more rights, #i# not want to question the fun#amental tenets of the
patriarchal society she live# in. 8owever, her genius as a writer force# her to subvert many of the
literary conventions of the time% no romantic novels of the perio# contain such a strong, wilful heroine
as Jane, while no 3othic novels #epict a character as #isturbing as $ertha Mason or a protagonist as
comple( as *ochester. Even to#ay, very few romantic novels woul# have the heroine rescuing the
hero not once, but twice.
0he brilliance an# comple(ity of Jane Eyre #erives from it being simultaneously a very subversive
novel an# a #eeply conservative one, a novel which ra#ically questions the patriarchal status quo of
society an# yet ultimately argues for a benevolent male authority.
This article first appeared in emagazine, Issue 2, November 1998