Context & Introduction

Understanding the context of Jane Eyre is essential for achieving top marks at GCSE. The examiner wants to see that you can connect Charlotte Brontë's choices to the world she was writing in. This lesson covers Brontë's life, the Victorian era, and why Jane Eyre was such a revolutionary novel for its time.

Charlotte Brontë: The Basics

Fact	Detail
Born	1816, Thornton, Yorkshire
Died	1855
Family	Part of the famous Brontë literary family (Emily & Anne)
Published Jane Eyre	1847, under the pseudonym "Currer Bell"
Genre	Bildungsroman, Gothic, social novel
Narrative voice	First-person retrospective

Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre in 1847 under the male pseudonym Currer Bell, because women writers were rarely taken seriously in the Victorian period. The novel was an immediate success but also provoked controversy — critics found its heroine disturbingly passionate and independent for a woman.

The Victorian Era

The Victorian era (1837–1901) takes its name from Queen Victoria, who reigned over a period of immense social, industrial, and cultural change.

Key features of Victorian society

Rigid class hierarchy — birth determined your social position; crossing class boundaries was extremely difficult.
Patriarchal — women were legally and socially subordinate to men. A married woman's property belonged to her husband.
Deeply religious — Christianity (particularly the Church of England) shaped moral expectations and daily life.
Industrial revolution — rapid urbanisation, factory labour, and a growing gap between rich and poor.
Empire — Britain controlled a vast global empire, which shaped attitudes towards race, culture, and "civilisation."

Women in Victorian Society

One of the most important contextual ideas for Jane Eyre is the position of women:

Women were expected to be obedient, domestic, morally pure, and self-sacrificing. A woman's role was to marry, manage the household, and support her husband.

This ideal was known as the "Angel in the House" — a phrase from Coventry Patmore's poem that described the perfect Victorian wife as selfless, passive, and devoted to her family.

Women's limited options

Option	Reality
Marriage	The only truly respectable path for a middle-class woman
Governess	One of very few paid occupations; low status, lonely
Factory work	Available to working-class women; exploitative conditions
Writing / the arts	Possible but women often had to publish under male names

Jane Eyre's journey — from orphan to governess to independent woman — directly challenges these limitations. Brontë creates a heroine who insists on equality and self-respect in a world designed to deny her both.

Examiner's tip: Always link the position of women to specific moments in the novel. For example, when Jane declares "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me" (Chapter 23), she is rejecting the Victorian expectation that women should be passive and dependent.

Social Class and the Victorian Hierarchy

Brontë was acutely aware of class divisions. Jane occupies an uncomfortable liminal position — she is educated and genteel but poor, which means she belongs fully to neither the upper nor the working class.

The class structure

     Aristocracy / Landed Gentry
              |
       Upper Middle Class
              |
       Lower Middle Class
         (Governesses)
              |
       Working Class
              |
       The Poor / Destitute

As a governess, Jane is:

Above the servants in education and manners
Below the family she works for in wealth and status
Invisible to polite society — Blanche Ingram sneers at governesses as barely human

Examiner's tip: When writing about class, note how Brontë uses Jane's ambiguous social position to critique the unfairness of a system that judges people by birth rather than merit. Rochester himself challenges class expectations by falling in love with his governess.

Religion in Jane Eyre

Religion is a major theme, and Brontë presents multiple forms of Christianity — some admirable, some hypocritical:

Character	Type of religion	Brontë's view
Mr Brocklehurst	Hypocritical, punitive Evangelicalism	Condemned — he starves children while his family lives in luxury
Helen Burns	Patient, otherworldly faith	Admired but shown as unsustainable for Jane
St John Rivers	Cold, duty-driven Evangelicalism	Critiqued — his faith suppresses human emotion
Jane Eyre	Personal, moral, balanced faith	Endorsed — Jane combines conscience with feeling

Examiner's tip: The novel does not reject religion — it rejects corrupted forms of religion. Jane's moral compass is deeply spiritual, but she refuses to follow any doctrine that denies her humanity or independence.

The Gothic Tradition

Jane Eyre draws heavily on the Gothic literary tradition:

Gothic element	How it appears in Jane Eyre
Mysterious old house	Thornfield Hall — dark, labyrinthine, full of secrets
Madwoman / hidden figure	Bertha Mason, the "madwoman in the attic"
Supernatural atmosphere	Strange laughter, fire, the "vampiric" figure
Byronic hero	Rochester — dark, brooding, morally complex
Isolated, vulnerable heroine	Jane — alone, without family or wealth
Secrets and revelations	The bigamous marriage, Bertha's existence

The Gothic elements create an atmosphere of mystery and danger, but Brontë subverts the tradition: Jane is not a passive Gothic heroine — she actively makes choices, challenges authority, and ultimately controls her own destiny.

The Bildungsroman

Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman (a "coming-of-age" novel) — a genre that traces the moral and psychological development of a protagonist from childhood to maturity.

Jane's journey through the five settings

Setting	Chapters	Stage of development
Gateshead	1–4	Childhood oppression; learning to resist injustice
Lowood School	5–10	Education; endurance; the deaths of Helen and Miss Temple's influence
Thornfield Hall	11–27	Love, temptation, moral crisis
Moor House	28–35	Independence, self-discovery, spiritual testing
Ferndean	36–38	Mature, equal love; resolution

Each setting represents a stage in Jane's growth. Brontë structures the novel so that Jane must overcome a different challenge in each location before she is ready for the next.

Examiner's tip: Use the term Bildungsroman in your essays — it shows sophisticated understanding of the genre. You could write: "Brontë structures Jane Eyre as a Bildungsroman, with each of the five settings representing a stage in Jane's moral and emotional development — from the oppressed child at Gateshead to the independent, self-possessed woman who returns to Rochester at Ferndean."

The Publication and Reception

Jane Eyre was published in October 1847 and was an immediate bestseller. However, it divided critics:

Response	Detail
Positive	Praised for its powerful emotion, vivid characters, and originality
Negative	Criticised as "anti-Christian" and dangerously passionate
Gender controversy	When Brontë's gender was revealed, some critics attributed the novel's "coarseness" to a woman's improper rebellion

The Quarterly Review infamously described the novel as one that could have been written by someone who had "forfeited the society of her own sex." This backlash reveals just how radical Brontë's portrayal of an independent, outspoken woman was for the Victorian period.

Key Context Revision Checklist

Summary

Jane Eyre was written in a world where women were expected to be silent, obedient, and self-sacrificing — and Charlotte Brontë created a heroine who refused to be any of those things. Every choice Brontë makes — from the first-person narration to the Gothic setting to Jane's passionate declarations of equality — is shaped by the constraints of Victorian society and her desire to challenge them. Understanding this context is the foundation for everything that follows.