Social Construction In Jane Eyre

In Northanger Abbey, Henry is painted as the perfect person in Catherine’s perspective because while he understands the rules of society, he is able to manoeuvre them to act in his favour. Catherine sees him as a model of who she desires to be as she enters the upper class. By the end of the novel she is able to interpret to what extent to follow the societal expectations and understand when to keep her own values. In the end Catherine has a happy ending, as “Austen is often happy to follow the Cinderella plot, and to make a happy ending out of marrying her heroine to a man notably above her in income and social prestige.” (McMaster 117) However, Austen still keeps a certain degree of the social construct in context to the period of the time. Henry is not the eldest son and will not inherit the father’s profession. Austen makes the younger son “sympathetically treated, and becomes a suitable mate for the heroine.” (McMaster 120) Hence although Catherine is able to break through social construct, mobilize to the higher class, and marry Henry, Henry also does not have the highest status within the family; this again emphasizes the fact that “human worth is to be judged by standards better and more enduring than social status; but social status is always relevant.” (Mcmaster 129) While Catherine finds her identity in Northanger Abbey, in Jane Eyre Jane does not only search for her place in society, she also struggles to maintain it. From the beginning, the other characters