JE critics

Lord David Cecil

The novel is all about Bronte; all characters thoughts and feelings are actually hers

Lina Larsson

Jane refuses to be a typical woman and ‘stands up against a society that tries to limit her’

Barbara Bleiman

The novel is about an equal relationship and one that many women would wish for.

Annette Change

A Victorian woman’s sense of Christian duty also restricts the heroine. Jane has only known a life of serving others.

Gilbert and Gubar

Bertha represents Jane’s alter-ego and enacts her deepest desires

Elizabeth Rigby

Anti-Christian

Elaine Showalter

Bertha is the incarnation of the flesh, of female sexuality in its more irredeemably bestial and terrifying form.

Anderson

Rigid self-control is the only way women can survive in the Victorian sexual hierarchy

Gilber

Red room is a patriarchal death chamber

Martel

Rochester is often the only character who consistently encourages Jane’s repressed self

Eagleton

The crippled Rochester is the novel’s sacrificial offering to social convention

Wells

Bronte successfully breaks down the barriers and proves what people from the lower classes can possibly achieve.

Rich

Coming to her husband in economic independence and by her free choice, Jane can become a wife without sacrificing who she truly is

Zhuo

Bertha and Rochester married for ‘status, for money, anything but love’