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This lesson covers three more themes that run through Jane Eyre: social class, religion, and love. These themes are closely interconnected — class determines who Jane can love, religion shapes her moral choices, and love is the ultimate testing ground for both class prejudice and religious principle.
Class pervades every relationship and every setting in Jane Eyre. Brontë uses Jane's liminal class position to expose the injustice and hypocrisy of the Victorian class system.
Jane is a gentlewoman by birth and education, but she has no money and no family connections. This places her in an impossible position:
| Higher than... | Lower than... |
|---|---|
| Servants (by education) | The Reeds (by wealth and status) |
| Pupils (by role) | Rochester (by class and gender) |
| Village poor (by birth) | Blanche Ingram (by beauty, wealth, rank) |
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