Female Intertexuality In Jane Eyre

Rebecca West once said, “I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat”; feminism and other social issues are fundamental to literature, with them commonly being a driving force behind both modern and classic works of fiction. Feminism is everywhere, with women still fighting for gender equality in modern day Britain as demonstrated through Emma Watson’s United Nations speech which was broadcasted in September of 2014 where she differentiates feminism from ‘man-hating’. Feminism has developed considerably over time as general attitudes have been swayed through literature, political movements and women’s portrayal of themselves. In 1847, Charlotte Bronte released her novel ‘Jane Eyre’ which was viewed as very radical for its time as Bronte uses Jane to exhibit her resentment towards society. Jane is presented as a morally strong, determined character who, when she falls in love, embraces the notion instead of the label and profits which are associated with it; she states that she “cares for [her]self” and that “more unsustained [she is], the more [she] will respect [her]self” as she is not tempted away from her self-respect.

Jane Eyre is presented as a fiction, encompassing the romance and gothic genre. Jacob’s text, on the other hand, is a narrative non-fiction and an autobiography of Harriet Jacobs herself as Linda Brent. At first glance, everything opposes Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the life of a slave girl and Brontë’s Jane Eyre. However, if we dig a little further, we see that the two texts share some similarities. Both texts are based on the Bildungsroman genre, whereby we follow the lives of the main characters as they progress through their life.

The gothic has a close affinity to the literature of the fantastic which is about the not-yet or what is to be achieved in the future. It is defined as a ‘fantastic escapist genre’ as it enables female writers “escape from powerlessness, from meaninglessness, from lack of identity except through the performance of unstable and unsatisfying roles, and from the covert perception of the hollowness of the promises of social mythology about women’s lives,” to use the words of Kay J. Mussell (qtd. in Vokey 5) . Yet, the gothic’s engagement with the fantastic raises the question about its potential to criticize the ideological practices of the dominant discourse.

This thesis took dividing of Austen’s heroines into the two categories of wrong and right heroines into a consideration and focused on the category of the wrong (fallible) heroines Emma Woodhouse from Emma and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. Its aim was to analyse the actions of these fallible heroines with the main focus on the development of their characters and feelings. The first part of the thesis introduced Jane Austen as a significant author in literary history who contributed many novelties to literature. Jane Austen proved her great writing skills mainly in the way she described the development of her heroines’ feelings.

Sheets (1991:644) is of opinion that

This novel subtly shows the difference between the values ascribed to male and female traits in which man’s needs take precedence over women’s needs. Deshpande subverts stereotypical conventional ideals of motherhood, femininity, and masculinity. She shows both male and female sexes transcending their gender attributed traits. Female characters in this novel- Kalyani, Sumi, Aru exhibit masculine traits which are conventionally associated with males, on the other hand male characters- Shripati and Gopal, who escape their duty and responsibility towards their families, unveil feminine traits. Vinay Kirpal also is of the opinion that “Deshpande’s protagonists generally seek to come out of their tradional beliefs” (Geethamala, 196).

In the second place, it is necessary to put the record straight, because Verbitskaya has been partially misrepresented by other critics, who have, with only a few recent exceptions,

Deterioration of rural England, rapid rise of middle class and constant pressure towards unavoidable social and political reform were common themes in writing, Brontë’s included. (Abrams 1999:153) She wrote about the changing times in a darker and unconventional way using eerie and paranormal elements, depicting the struggles uniquely, and simultaneously criticising the majority of the burning questions and problems of the time. All Brontë sisters resorted to the Gothic novel genre in their writing, but they also greatly expanded the genre and went beyond it to accommodate their ideas and by doing so they reinvented and expanded the Female gothic into the New Gothic.

From its very beginning, the genre of the novel developed in literature with the intent of describing fictional human experiences built in an imaginary world, but that can be based upon a true story, as they always enclose a slight realism. In the novels, female characters are portrayed in many different ways. In the books analyzed, these females are not the protagonists of the tales, however, they are described, more or less, as influential women, who have significant roles in the evolving of the stories; in particular, their function in the narrative is crucial and it shifts from supportive and inspirational to adversary and puzzling. The actions that these women take, the words they say and the connections they make, have the power to influence the protagonist’s thoughts and shape the novel. Both Great

Yet, Radcliffe’s precocity to feminise the genre is not limited to her treatment and coverage of women’s sufferings and fears. Susan Becker further explained that her “earl[iest] twists in the feminisation of the Gothic, namely [is] in the reduction of the villain, otherwise subject of the action, to a mere function in the female subject’s transcendence of ‘her proper sphere’: the home” (“Postmodern Feminine Horror” 79-80). Striving to liberate them, Radcliffe’s narratives took the shape of suspenseful mysterious narrative of Romantic journey in which the ‘travelling’ heroine-centered narrative “who moves, who acts, who copes with vicissitude,” escaped, even temporarily, from the patriarchal confining house (qtd. in Hanson 37).

In the novel Dracula by Bram Stocker there I an abundance of evidence that suggests that the female characters are treated differently than their male counterparts. The sources that I have read have failed to address key parts of this topic. The articles that I have read are “Feminism, Sex Role Exchanges, and Other Subliminal Fantasies in Bram Stoker's Dracula” and “Desire and Loathing in Bram Stoker's Dracula”. The articles fail to include how women have their own power. In this essay, there will be an investigation into the gender roles of men and women and how men will push down and leave women behind.