ENGL10002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: South African Class 19C 4-8-2, Tyrant, Gender Role
14 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Lit and Performance W 10
Jane Eyre Lecture 1
• CB letter to publisher – she as’t iterested i stadard heroes, does’t at to
copy former novelists, wants to be truthful rather than conventional
• Unusual characters esp. in 19C but even still – large shift – complex figures of
characters
• CB paves way for later developments – Henry James -→ modernism
• JE as marginalised figure
• JE negotionates liminal spaces
• JE – child, window seat – strategic – she is excluded from family space, so she hides –
shried i doule retireet- Jae’s aareess of atage poit she adopts oer
and over – secluded observer – Gateshead and world beyond
• proteted ut ot separated
• J reinforces her otherness – ross legged like a Turk – emphasises exclusion from
family unit – later orientalist imagery w Rochester to draw attention to his tyranny
• Physical difference from larger Reed children – described as almost separate race
• Draws parallels between class and gender position and colonisation – thinks of
herself as an other, outsider
• J thinks about herself as a dependent
• Reed’s attak – tyrant – slave driver – balance of power male/female,
benefactor/dependant in colonial terms – deliberate CB choice – identifies herself as
a slave/subordinate – women little more than slaves in world that apparently
disapproves of slavery
• ’s settig – slave trade abolished in England – still legal to o slaes till ’s
– CB rites i ’s recently after it was abolished
• Slavery as backdrop to JE
• J has few options after her education – marry, work as governess – kind of
exploitative slavery, prostitution
• Governess and prostitution – both make their living performing wife tasks – selling
femininity
• Hiring a mistress – next worst thing to buying a slave – Rochester 350
• Wife financially inferior to husband – ife’s propert trasfers to husad o
marriage
• Governess – exploitative trade – lowly position – difficult job, not servant but not
family – isolation, social outlier in house – financially insecure – could be dismissed
whenever
• Jae’s cousins – jobs in wealthy families – no higher affection, care from their
employers
• Blanche Ingram – disrupts relationship with household – pushes J to periphery – her
and her mother are disrespectful, talk about her if she weren’t there
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
