Jane Eyre I Care For Myself Analysis

Written task 2

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” This is a quote by Jane, the main character of the 19th century novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. This quote indicates that Jane valued her independency more than anything else, which is not very common for 19th century women. Jane thinks, unlike other women from her time, that her self-respect is more important than finding a husband and that she therefore does not need one. In the 19th century women were very obedient to men and had little rights. Women relied on marriage for a decent place in society. In other words, the position of a woman depended on her husband and therefore women without a husband

Jane becomes economically independent at a certain point in the book because she is a teacher at a school for poor children. Along with this job she gets shelter, food and all other necessities to live a decent life. Most 19th century women would view her as an exceptionally independent woman because of this. At the same time, 21st century women would take this economic independence for granted and refuse to imagine it any other way. As 21st century women, we are used to having the opportunity to be independent, and our standards for independency are therefore much higher. We might not think of Jane as an independent woman at all because Jane is not able to do as she wishes and she needs to rely on other people in order to survive and this makes her not fully autonomous despite her desire to be. Nevertheless, Jane does not have this opportunity as a 19th century woman and rather than doing what is expected of her and follow the lead of a husband, she tries to be as autonomous as possible and does everything in her power to be the independent woman she desires to be. Given these points 19th century women are very likely to think of Jane Eyre as an independent woman whereas 21st century women are actually likely to think she is not such an independent woman after