Jane Eyre - Realist or Romantic free essay sample

A paper which questions whether the novel, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is truly written within the realist tradition. The paper discusses how Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre presents itself as a novel that lies well within the realist tradition. And yet, a closer reading suggests that Bronte is not quite as committed to realism as she initially appears to be, for we are presented with characters who are less individuals than they are archetypes. The paper also shows that we tend to read this novel as being necessarily a part of the realistic tradition because it so obviously rejects the romantic one. But an anti-romantic novel does not have to be a realistic one. Because each of the characters violates Romantic expectations, they have tended to be read as Realistic characters, but a more careful reading of the ways in which gender is represented in the novel suggests that Brontes strategy has all along been to create highly interpreted characters rather then particularistically limned individuals. We will write a custom essay sample on Jane Eyre Realist or Romantic? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page That the novel has a happy ending, for example, comes about directly as a result of the fact that Jane has proven herself to be an entirely angelic character. She is a chaste nurse, more the figure of a daughter than of a lover. She is unsophisticated, unknown in the ways of the world, a childlike figure. She is also dedicated entirely to Rochester; she seeks to have no identity of her own but through him. This is not, one need hardly say, a realistic portrait of an actual woman.