Jane Eyre: An Orphan’s Success Story Essay -- Charlotte Bronte Jane Ey

Jane Eyre An Orphans Success Story In Victorian literature, the orphan can be read as an unknown and strange figure outside the dominant narrative of domesticity (Peters 18). They were often portrayed as poor children without a means of creating a victoryful life for themselves. Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre, however, is a portrayal of a female orphan who triumphs over almost every environment she enters. Therefore, Janes ability to overcome the hardships that she encounters is a fictional success story. By discussing Janes early life as an orphan at Gateshead and Lowood, and also her relationships with Helen Burns and Adele Varens, one can see how Brontes novel is an flow from the familiar predestined fate of at least one orphan in the novelJane. Jane becomes an orphan after her father, a poor clergyman, is infected with typhus fever while visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town. Janes mother becomes infected from him, and both die within a month of from each one other (37 ch. 3). Because Jane is still a young child when this occurs, she knows no other life but of that as an orphan. Mr. Reed, her uncle who informally adopts her, wants Jane to be brought up in a positive familial environment. After his death, however, Mrs. Reed makes certain that this is not possible. Through her character, Bronte draws on the archetypical literary figure of the wicked stepmother (Nestor 35). Although Jane now lives with the Reeds, a financially well-off family, she is still treated like a poor, working-class orphan. While at Gateshead, Jane is constantly reminded of her lower-class, orphaned status. Janes position in the Reed phratry is inferior and intolerable. Even the Reeds servant, Miss Abbot, tells her,... ...ops. Along with these experiences, she is involved in relationships with other children of orphaned status. Both Helen Burns and Adele Varens play a significant role in helping Jane become a successful governess and the eventual wife of her true love. Because of these experiences and relationships, Janes past as a passionate, oppressed, insignificant, orphaned child is buried by her ability to overcome it. Her ability to overcome this sentence for failure is, indeed, like a fairy-tale. Works Cited Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Beth in the altogetherman. Boston St. Martins, 1996. Hochman, Baruch, and Ilja Wachs. Dickens The Orphan Condition. London Associated UP, 1999. Nestor, Pauline. Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre. New York St. Martins, 1992. Peters, Laura. Orphan Texts Victorian Orphans, Culture and Empire. Manchester Manchester UP, 2000.