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Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre - The Governess Who Changed Everything

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Episode 6: Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre - The Governess Who Changed Everything

Discover why Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was more than just a Gothic romance—it was a revolutionary manifesto for women's equality disguised as a love story.

In this episode of The Brit Lit Book Club, we explore how Charlotte Brontë created one of literature's most groundbreaking heroines: a plain, poor governess who demanded to be treated as an equal in Victorian England. Learn about the shocking publishing history of Jane Eyre, the scandal it caused when it appeared in 1847, and why critics were horrified by a heroine who refused to accept her subordinate position.

In This Episode You'll Discover:

  • The fascinating story behind the pseudonym "Currer Bell" and why Charlotte Brontë hid her identity
  • How Jane Eyre shattered every convention for Victorian female characters
  • The real lives of governesses in Victorian England and why their position was impossible
  • What Bertha Mason, the "madwoman in the attic," really represents
  • Why the novel's Gothic elements are psychological rather than supernatural
  • How Jane Eyre's themes of workplace equality and economic independence remain relevant today

Recommended Books Referenced:

Experience the Brontës' World Firsthand: Walk through the Yorkshire parsonage where Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre on our British Book Club Tour! Visit Haworth, explore the moors that inspired the novel, and see the very rooms where literary history was made.

Perfect for book clubs, literature lovers, Anglophiles, and anyone interested in Victorian literature, feminist classics, and the Brontë sisters. Whether you're reading Jane Eyre for the first time or the tenth, this episode will transform how you understand Charlotte Brontë's masterpiece.

Grab a cup of tea and join host Vanessa for 25 minutes of passionate literary discussion!

Love this podcast? Imagine walking the Yorkshire moors where the Brontës found inspiration, visiting Jane Austen's writing desk at Chawton, and exploring Shakespeare's birthplace with fellow book lovers. We do all this and more on The Book Club Tour!

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Hello, and welcome back to the Brit Lit Book Club. I'm your host, Vanessa, and I'm absolutely thrilled you've joined me for what might be our most revolutionary episode yet. Before we dive in, grab yourself a cup of tea if you can. I'm sipping a spiced pumpkin pie from my favorite tea shop in England, bird and Blend. Now that it feels properly autumn, this week, I'm pulling out all the pumpkin spice flavors. This is not an ad. I just really love Bird and Blend teas, and I stock up every time I go to England for the British Book Club tour, and there's something about this spicy tea that feels perfect for discussing one of literature's most unflinching heroines. Last week we explored how the Brontë sisters grew up wild and isolated on the Yorkshire Moors. Transforming family tragedy and geographical isolation into extraordinary genius. Today we're focusing on Charlotte Brontë's Masterpiece, a novel that scandalized Victorian society and created one of literature's most compelling and revolutionary heroines: Jane Eyre. You've probably heard the story. A plain poor governess falls in love with her brooding employer, Mr. Rochester. There are dark secrets, mysterious fires, a mad woman in the attic, and eventually true love triumphs. It sounds like a typical gothic romance, doesn't it? But here's what I want you to understand. Jane Eyre wasn't just another romance novel. It was a revolutionary manifesto disguised as a love story. Charlotte Brontë created a heroine who was poor, plain and powerless. Everything Victorian society said women shouldn't be if they wanted to matter, and made her the moral center of the entire story. Here's a brief history of the publication of Jane Eyre. When Jane Eyre was published in October, 1847, it appeared under the mysterious pseudonym Currer Bell. And London's literary world was immediately captivated. The novel was an instant sensation flying off the shelves and earning rave reviews. Critics praised its originality, its passionate voice, and its unconventional heroine who dared to speak her mind. But everyone wanted to know"who was this Currer Bell?" The publisher, Smith,Elder and Co. Had taken a chance on the unknown author after Charlotte Brontë sent them the manuscript. They'd actually rejected her first novel, The Professor, but were so impressed by her writing that they asked if she had anything else. She did, and Jane Air was published just six weeks after they accepted it. The pseudonym wasn't just a quirky choice, it was a necessity. Charlotte and her sisters, Emily and Anne, had previously published a collection of poetry under the gender neutral names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. They chose names with their initials, but avoided obvious female names because, as Charlotte later wrote, they suspected that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice." And they were right to be cautious. When Charlotte's identity was eventually revealed. Some critics actually went back and reevaluated the novel, more harshly shocked that a clergy man's daughter had written about such passionate feelings and unconventional ideas. The novel's success was so immediate and so overwhelming that it went through multiple editions in its first year. Charlotte Brontë finally revealed her true identity in 1849. After both her sisters had tragically died. By then, Jane Eyre had secured its place in one of the most important novels of the Victorian era, proving that a woman's voice speaking truthfully about a woman's experience could captivate readers just as powerfully as a male author of the time. When Jane Eyre was published in 1847, it shocked readers not because of its gothic elements. Those were familiar enough, but because of its radical ideas about women's equality, individual worth, and the right to dignity regardless of social position. Jane Eyre doesn't just want to be loved, she demands to be respected as an equal human being. This was dangerous territory in 1847, and it still resonates today in ways that might surprise you. So let's enter the world of Thornfield Hall and meet the governess who changed everything. Let me start by telling you exactly how revolutionary Jane Eyre was as a literary character. In 1847, the typical heroine of an English novel was beautiful, well born and accomplished. She might face difficulties, but she was fundamentally passive. Things happened to her, and her main job was to respond to them with appropriate feminine virtue. Jane Eyre smashes this template completely. She's plain. Charlotte makes this clear from the first pages. She's poor. Her only inheritance is moral principles. She's small and physically unremarkable. She has no powerful family connections, no inheritance, no social advantages whatsoever. And yet Charlotte makes this unprepossessing woman the moral authority of the entire novel. Jane doesn't just react to events. She judges them, challenges them, and ultimately reshapes them according to her own ethical standards. Let's look at how this works. From the very beginning. The novel opens with a 10-year-old Jane living with her cruel aunt, Mrs. Reed and her spoiled cousins. When her cousin John bullies her. Jane doesn't submit meekly as a proper Victorian child should. She fights back both physically and verbally. Telling him exactly what she thinks of his behavior. For this rebellion, she's locked in the red room where her uncle died. A punishment that would typically teach a child to accept their subordinate position, but instead of breaking Jane's spirit, the experience strengthens her resolve. She emerges more determined than ever to maintain her dignity and self-respect. This pattern continues throughout Jane's childhood. At Lowood School, she faces harsh conditions and hypocritical authority figures like Mr. Brockel Hurst, who preaches Christian humility while living in luxury. But Jane learns to distinguish between true Christianity, represented by her friend Helen Burns. And the kind teacher, Ms. Temple, and the false Christianity used to justify oppression. When Jane becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, Charlotte shows us something unprecedented. A working woman who refuses to accept that her employment makes her socially invisible. Jane acknowledges her position, but she doesn't internalize the shame that society wants her to feel about earning her living. This is crucial to understand how revolutionary Jane is. In Victorian society, a governess occupied an impossible social position. Too educated and genteel to associate with the servants, but too dependent and poor to be accepted as an equal by her employers. Most governances in literature were figures of pathos, grateful for any kindness and resigned to their marginal status. But Jane refuses this marginalization. When Rochester tries to treat her as a subordinate. She challenges him when he attempts to shower her with gifts after their engagement, she resists. Insisting that she won't be transformed into a decorative object.Most remarkably, when she discovers Rochester's secret, that he's already married to the mad Bertha Mason, she leaves him despite loving him desperately. This decision is the most revolutionary moment in the novel. Jane doesn't leave because she doesn't love Rochester or because she's shocked by his deception. She leaves because accepting his proposal to become his mistress would compromise her self, respect and moral integrity. Think about how extraordinary this is. Here's a woman with no money. No family, no prospects giving up the love of her life and condemning herself to poverty and isolation, all to maintain her principles. Victorian society told women that marriage was their only path to security and respectability, and that they should be grateful for any offer, however, morally compromised. Jane rejects this entirely. She would rather be alone and poor than compromise her dignity. She tells Rochester,"I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities nor of mortal flesh. It is my spirit that addresses your spirit, just as if both had passed through the grave and we stood at God's feet, equal as we are." This speech encapsulates everything revolutionary about Jane's character. She's claiming spiritual equality with a man who is her social superior in every way Victorian society measures worth. She's asserting that her inner life, her moral nature, her capacity for love are just as valuable as his, regardless of their different social positions. But Charlotte doesn't make Jane perfect or impossible to relate to. Jane is passionate, sometimes judgmental. And capable of real anger. She's jealous of the beautiful blanche Ingram. She can be self-righteous and stubborn. She makes mistakes and learns from them. This psychological complexity makes Jane revolutionary in another way. She's a fully realized human being rather than a symbol or an ideal. Charlotte shows us that ordinary women, plain poor, powerless, women have rich inner lives, complex emotions, and strong moral convictions that deserve respect. The novel's ending is carefully constructed to maintain Jane's revolutionary character. When she finally reunites with Rochester, it's not because she's forgotten her principles or because he swept her away with romantic passion. She returns because circumstances have changed in ways that allow them to meet as equals. Rochester has lost his sight and his left hand in the fire that destroyed Thornfield. His wife, Bertha, is dead. His physical limitations and his dependence on Jane's help create a new dynamic in their relationship. Meanwhile, Jane has inherited money from her uncle, making her financially independent for the first time in her life. Charlotte structures this reunion very deliberately. Jane doesn't return as a dependent seeking protection. She returns as an equal offering partnership. She has money, he needs care, she has sight, he has experience. They meet as two damaged but complete people who can offer each other complimentary strengths. To understand just how radical Jane Eyre was, we need to understand what life was actually like for women in Victorian England, particularly for women in Jane's position, educated but poor, genteel, but dependent. The legal position was stark. Women had virtually no rights. When a woman married, she experienced what was called"civil death", which we've talked about in our episode on Jane Austen. Her legal identity was absorbed into her husband's. She couldn't own property, couldn't sign contracts, couldn't even have legal custody of her own children. An unmarried woman remained under her father's authority throughout his lifetime. But the social reality was often even more restrictive than the legal framework. Victorian society was obsessed with the ideal of separate spheres, the belief that men belonged in the public world of work, politics, and commerce, while women belonged in the private world of home, family, and moral influence. This ideology created impossible contradictions for women like Jane. She's educated and intelligent enough to work as a governess, but she's supposed to be grateful for the opportunity and never expect to be treated as an intellectual equal. She's responsible for educating children, but she's not supposed to have opinions about politics, religion, or social issues. This is starting to sound like America Ferreras speech from Barbie, isn't it? The Governes s position was particularly problematic because it highlighted all these contradictions. A governess needed to be educated enough to teach languages, literature, history, and accomplishments like music and drawing. She needed to be well-mannered enough to move in polite society, but she also needed to be humble enough to accept her subordinate position and invisible enough not to threaten the Lady of the house. Charlotte knew this world intimately. She had worked as a governess herself and hated every minute of it. She understood the psychological damage inflicted by a system that required intelligent, educated women to efface themselves and pretend their thoughts and feelings didn't matter. Jane Eyre is Charlotte's response to this impossible situation. Instead of creating a governed character who accepts her marginalization gracefully, she creates one who refuses to be marginalized at all. Look how Jane handles her relationship with Rochester's ward Adele. Instead of simply following Rochester's instruction about the child's education, Jane observes Adele carefully and develops her own theories about what the girl needs. She treats Adele as an individual rather than just following a prescribed curriculum. When Rochester questions her methods, Jane doesn't defer to his authority as Adele's guardian. She explains her reasoning and defends her approach. She acts like a professional educator rather than a grateful dependent. This professionalism extends to Jane's relationship with Rochester himself. When he tries to probe into her thoughts and feelings, she maintains appropriate boundaries. When he attempts to treat her as a confidant or entertainment, she resists. She's willing to engage with him intellectually, but she won't allow him to treat her as either a subordinate or a play thing. The famous scene where Jane saves Rochester from the fire in his bedroom is emblematic of this dynamic. Jane doesn't just rescue him, then retreat to her proper place. She stays to make sure he's safe, helps him investigate what happened, and expects to be told the truth about the circumstances. She acts like an equal partner in solving the mystery rather than a servant following orders. But Charlotte also shows the real cost of Jane's independence. Her refusal to accept conventional limitations makes her life much more difficult. She could have had an easier time if she'd been willing to be more deferential, more grateful, more conventionally feminine. When Jane leaves Rochester after discovering his marriage to Bertha, she faces genuine destitution. She has no money, no references, no family to help her. She nearly starves before St. John Rivers and his sisters take her in. Charlotte doesn't romanticize the practical difficulties of a woman trying to maintain her independence in a society that offers no support systems for such choices. The St. John Rivers episode is crucial to understanding Charlotte's vision of women's independence. St. John offers Jane marriage and a mission. He wants her to come with him into India as the missionary's wife. This would solve all her practical problems and give her a socially acceptable role. But Jane recognizes that St. John's proposal is just another form of subordination. He doesn't love her as an individual. He sees her as useful for his purposes. He expects her to submerge her own personality and desires in service to his mission. Marriage to St. John would be" civil death" just as Shirley as becoming Rochester's mistress would be moral death. Jane's rejection of St. John is as revolutionary as her earlier rejection of Rochester. She's refusing the conventional path to security and respectability because it would require her to deny her own nature and desires. She would rather face uncertainty and struggle than accept a role that would diminish her as a person. The inheritance that eventually makes Jane financially independent isn't a fEyretale resolution. It's Charlotte's recognition that women's independence requires economic foundations. Jane can only return to Rochester as an equal because she has finally had that financial resources to support herself if the relationship doesn't work out. But even more importantly, Charlotte shows that Jane's true independence comes from her unwavering sense of her own worth. Throughout all her struggles, Jane never doubts that she deserves dignity, respect and love. This psychological independence is what allows her to wait for circumstances that will permit her to have both love and self-respect. Let's talk about the gothic elements and their meanings in Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is famous for its gothic atmosphere, the mysterious fires, the eerie laughter in the attic, the dark secrets, and of course, the mad woman locked away in Thornfield's third story. But these aren't just spooky decorations designed to thrill readers. Charlotte uses gothic elements as a psychological language to explore themes that Victorian society prefer not to discuss directly. Let's start with Thornfield Hall itself. Gothic novels traditionally feature imposing mysterious buildings with hidden rooms and dark secrets. Thornfield fits this pattern perfectly. It's ancient, isolated, full of unused rooms and unexplored passages. But Charlotte transforms the gothic castle from a place of supernatural terror into a psychological landscape. Thornfield represents the hidden aspects of Victorian domestic life, the secrets repressions and contradictions that polite society kept locked away. The mysterious laughter that Jane hears from the attic isn't supernatural.. It's the sound of everything Victorian marriage tried to suppress: female anger, sexuality, and madness. Bertha Mason, Rochester's mad wife hidden in the attic is perhaps the most complex gothic element in the novel. On the surface, she seems like a traditional gothic villain, violent, animalistic, dangerous. But Charlotte uses Bertha to represent all the aspects of female experience that Victorian society couldn't acknowledge. Bertha is everything Jane is not physically imposing, aggressive, emotionally uncontrolled, radically other. She's Creole from Jamaica. She's also everything Victorian wives weren't supposed to be. Angry, destructive, refusing to be managed or contained. But here's what's crucial. Bertha isn't just Rochester's problem or Jane's obstacle. She's Jane's psychological double the embodiment of the rage and passion that Jane keeps carefully controlled. When Bertha tears Jane's wedding veil, she's destroying the symbol of Jane's willingness to enter a morally compromised relationship. Charlotte uses Bertha to explore what happens to women's anger when they're completely suppressed. Bertha has literally been locked away, denied any outlet of her emotions or any acknowledgement of her humanity. She's become monstrous because she's been treated as a monster. This connects to one of the novel's most radical insights that the Victorian idealization of feminine purity and passivity creates its own forms of madness and violence. By denying women's full humanity, their anger, their right to self-determination. Society creates the very problems it claims to protect against. The fires that Bertha sets through. The novel aren't just destructive, they're purifying. Fire burns away, deception and false structures, revealing truth underneath. When Bertha finally burns down Thornfield, she's destroying a house built on lies and secrecy. The new relationship between Jane and Rochester can only begin after the old corrupt structure has been completely destroyed. The Red Room episode in the novel establishes fire and confinement as crucial symbolic elements. Jane is locked in a room where her uncle died, surrounded by red, the color of blood, passion, anger. She believes she sees as ghost, but what she's really confronting is her own suppressed rage At the injustice of her treatment The experience doesn't break Jane's spirit. It teaches her that she would rather face the unknown, even death, than accept injustice passively. This lesson prepares her for all the later choices to leave situations that compromise her dignity, no matter how frightening the alternatives might be. Charlotte also uses gothic elements to explore religious and spiritual themes in unconventional ways. The novel is deeply concerned with Christian morality, but it rejects the patriarchal interpretations of Christianity that were used to justify women's subordination. Helen Burns, Jane's saintly friend at Lowood represents one approach to Christian faith. Passive acceptance of suffering is God's will. Helen dies young, believing that her earthly suffering will be rewarded in heaven. Jane loves Helen, but ultimately rejects her model of Christian resignation. St. John Rivers represents another form of Christianity. The zealous missionary who believes personal desires must be completely sacrificed to religious duty. He's not evil, but his version of faith is cold and life denying. Jane recognizes that his proposal of marriage is really a proposal of spiritual death. Jane develops her own relationship with the divine that balances moral principle with the emotional truth. When she hears Rochester calling to her across the moors, near the novel's end, it's represented as potentially supernatural, but also as a psychological breakthrough where Jane finally understands what she needs to do. The scene is gothic in its suggestion of mysterious forces beyond rational explanation, but it's also deeply psychological. Jane has reached a point of perfect balance between her moral convictions and her emotional needs, and this balance allows her to make the right choice. The gothic elements in Jane Eyre aren't escapes from realism. They're ways of making psychological and social realities visible that couldn't be discussed directly in Victorian literature. Charlotte uses the language of ghosts mysteries and supernatural events to explore the hidden injuries inflicted by social inequality, sexual repression, and the denial of women's full humanity. Let's talk about the novel's impact and controversy. When Jane Eyre was published in October, 1847, it became an immediate bestseller and an immediate scandal. Victorian readers had never encountered a heroine like Jane, and they weren't sure what to make of her. The reviews were wildly contradictory. Some critics praise the novel's passion and psychological realism. Others were horrified by what they saw as its rebellious anti-Christian message. Many suspect that Currer Bell was actually a woman because the novel seemed too knowledgeable about the female psychology to have been written by a man. But what really scandalized readers was Jane's refusal to accept her social position gracefully. Victorian society was built on the assumption that everyone should be content with their situation in life. That servants should be grateful to their masters, that the poor should accept their poverty as God's will, and that women should submit to male authority without question. Jane rejects all of these assumptions. She's a servant who expects to be treated with dignity. She's poor, but refuses to feel ashamed of her poverty. She's a woman who demands equality with men to many Victorian readers. This wasn't just unconventional, it was dangerous. They probably didn't want their governess reading this book. The religious controversy was particularly intense. Some critics accused Charlotte of promoting atheism because Jane trusts her own moral judgment rather than deferring to established religious authority. Others claimed the novel was immoral because it showed passion as natural human emotions rather than sinful temptations to be suppressed. Charlotte was hurt by these accusations because she considered herself a deeply Christian writer. But her Christianity was personal and questioning rather than institutional and orthodox. Her father was a pastor, after all. Jane Air suggests that individual conscience guided by divine love is a more reliable moral guide than human authority figures claiming to speak for God. This was a radical theology in 1847, and it connected to broader social political tensions. England was in the midst of a massive social change. Industrialization, urbanization, and the gradual expansion of political rights. The novel appeared just months before the revolutionary upheavals that swept across Europe in 1848. Jane Eyre wasn't explicitly political, but its message about individual worth and human equality resonated with readers who were questioning traditional hierarchies and demanding social change. The novel suggested that personal merit mattered more than inherited status, a deeply democratic idea, and a society still dominated by aristocracy and the established church. Women readers in particular found Jane a heroine who articulated feelings and desires they had never seen, acknowledged in literature. Here was a character who insisted that women had the same emotional and intellectual needs as men. The same right to love and be loved as equals. The same capacity for moral judgment and spiritual growth. The novel's influence on subsequent literature was enormous. Writers like George Elliot, Thomas Hardy, and even Charles Dickens, learned from Charlotte's techniques of psychological realism and social criticism The tradition of the governess novel, from Agnes Gray to Turn of the Screw, developed directly from Jane Eyre's example, but perhaps more importantly, Jane Eyre changed reader's expectations about what female characters could be and do in literature. After Jane, it became possible to write about women as complex autonomous individuals rather than just symbols of virtue or objects of desire. Let's talk about the modern relevance of Jane Eyre today. What makes Jane Eyre continue to resonate with modern readers isn't just its compelling love story, it's how relevant Jane's struggles remain to contemporary issues around women's independence, workplace equality, and personal dignity. Jane's position as a governess, educated, but economically vulnerable, professionally competent, but socially marginal, mirrors the situation of many women today who work in caring professions like teaching, social work, or healthcare. These are fields that require significant education and skill, but are often undervalued and underpaid because they're associated with"women's work." Jane's insistence on being treated as an equal by her employer resonates with modern discussions about workplace harassment, pay equity, and professional respect. Her refusal to accept patronizing treatment or to be grateful for basic dignity feels very contemporary. The novels exploration of economic independence as a foundation for personal autonomy speaks directly to ongoing debates about women's financial equality. Jane can only return to Rochester as an equal because she finally has her own money. A recognition that romantic equality requires economic parity that many couples still struggle with today. Jane's rejection of St. John River's proposal connects to modern discussions about women's right to define their own purpose and ambition. St. John wants Jane to submerge her individual identity and his mission. Just as many women today feel pressured to prioritize their partner's careers over their own goals. The psychological realism of Jane's character, her complexity, her capacity for both tenderness and anger, her refusal to be idealized or diminished, anticipates modern feminist literature's emphasis on women as full human beings rather than symbols or stereotypes, but perhaps most importantly, Jane Eyre's Central message, that individual worth doesn't depend on social status, wealth, or conventional attractiveness, remains radical and necessary. In our image- obsessed wealth, celebrating culture, Jane's insistence that moral character and intellectual equality matter more than external advantages is as counterculture as it was in 1847. If today's exploration of Jane Eyre has inspired you to delve deeper into Charlotte Brontë's revolutionary achievement, I've got some wonderful recommendations to enrich your understanding. For understanding Charlotte and Jane Eyre, Claire Harmon's,"Charlotte Brontë: a Fiery Heart" is an excellent read on Charlotte's own experiences as a governess and how they shaped the novel. For modern retellings and perspectives. Jean Rhys's"Wide Sargasso Sea" tells of Bertha Mason's story from her own perspective, offering, a post-colonial interpretation of the madwoman in the attic. Sarah Shoemakers,"Mr. Rochester" retells Jane Eyre from Rochester's point of view, exploring his character and motivations in greater depth. Thank you so much for joining me on this exploration of Jane Eyre and Charlotte Brontë's revolutionary achievement. I hope I've convinced you that this beloved novel is so much more than a gothic romance. It's a manifesto for human equality disguised as a love story. Next week, we're moving forward in time to meet Charles Dickens, the people's author who used his novels to expose the social injustices of Industrial England. We'll explore how Dickens transformed his own experiences of poverty and hardship into powerful stories that changed public opinion and inspired social reform. Where Charlotte Brontë focused on individual psychology and personal relationships, Dickens painted vast social panoramas showing how economic and political systems affected entire communities. It's a fascinating contrast in how literature can serve as a force for social change. And if you've been moved by Jane's story of finding dignity and equality against all odds, remember that you can visit the parsonage where Charlotte wrote this immortal novel, walking through the rooms where she crafted jane's Revolutionary Voice is an unforgettable experience. You can find out more about experiencing the Brontë's world firsthand at TheBookClubTour.com, or on Facebook and Instagram@TheBookClubTour. Well, my tea's getting cold, so until next time, keep reading. Stay curious.