165 years after its first publication in England, Charlotte Brontë’s “female Bildungsroman” (Gilbert and Gubar 339) "Jane Eyre" still prompts questions for both its readership and the literary scholars of today. Depicting the protagonist’s development from a poor orphan girl to a young governess who “yearns for true liberty” (Gilbert and Gubar 347), Brontë evokes a utopian ideal of a strong-minded heroine who defies social customs by marrying her master, Edward Fairfax Rochester. When pondering over Brontë’s comment to her publisher in 1848, “[t]he standard hero[e]s and heroines of novels are personages in whom I could never . . . take an interest, believe to be natural or wish to imitate: were I obliged to copy these characters, I would simply not write at all” (qtd. in Brennan 16), one can draw conclusions about Brontë’s intention to reward her heroine with Rochester, who is widely accepted as the epitome of a Byronic hero (cf. Wootton 231, Gilbert and Gubar 337) – a “unique” (Thorslev 12) hero whose name re-fers to its real-life impersonator, the English Romantic poet George Gordon “Lord” Byron.
As this paper is concerned with the question whether the Byronic hero embo-dies the desirable husband for a governess in nineteenth-century England, a brief overview of the reception of Byron and his works as a “cultural phenomenon” (Elfenbein 47) during Brontë’s time seems necessary and will be dealt with in the first part of this pa-per. Andrew Elfenbein’s study Byron and the Victorians from 1995 serves as a valuable source which particularly considers Byron’s female readership and offers reasons for his popularity among them.
Since most scholars view Rochester as a Byronic hero while merely focussing on his physiognomy (cf. Wootton 231), the second part of this paper draws comparisons between Rochester’s character and the main features of a Byronic hero, as Peter L. Thorslev Jr. framed him in depth in his study The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes from 1962. In the third and last part of this paper, the social context of women in ge-neral and governesses in particular with due regard to love, marriage and legal rights will be taken into account. It will be argued that a marriage despite gender and social borders is enabled between the governess Jane and her master Rochester by making the latter Byronic, whereby Rochester becomes the epitome of a desirable husband for a governess in nineteenth-century England.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. The Reception of Byron’s Works in Nineteenth-Century England
III. Rochester as a Byronic Hero and his Relevance for Jane Eyre
IV. Unfulfilled Desires of Governesses in Nineteenth-Century England
V. Conclusion: Why Brontë Chose Byron
Research Objectives and Thematic Focus
This paper examines whether the Byronic hero serves as the ideal husband for a governess in nineteenth-century England by analyzing the character of Edward Fairfax Rochester in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. It explores how Brontë utilizes Byronic characteristics to subvert restrictive gender roles and social hierarchies, ultimately facilitating an egalitarian relationship between the protagonist and her master, while contrasting this fictional outcome with the historical reality faced by real-life governesses.
- The cultural reception and "Byronism" in nineteenth-century England.
- The classification of Rochester as a Byronic hero (Child of Nature, Hero of Sensibility, Gothic Villain, Noble Outlaw).
- The social and legal status of governesses during the Victorian era.
- The intersection of Jane Eyre's personal development and the pursuit of female liberty.
- The contrast between Brontë’s romanticized fictional narrative and historical social constraints.
Excerpt from the Work
Rochester as a Byronic Hero and his Relevance for Jane Eyre
With reference to Jane’s first encounter with Rochester, Zoe Brennan remarked in her monograph Brontë’s Jane Eyre: Reader’s Guides: “[u]ndercutting the reader’s expectations of Rochester as a knight on a white charger, his horse slips on the ice, a decidedly ordinary and unheroic event, and he requires Jane’s assistance to right himself rather than vice versa” (53). And indeed, when examining both protagonists more closely, Brontë achieves to reverse gender roles. Depicting Rochester as such a “knight on a white charger” (Brennan 53) would have served as an embodiment of a chivalrous hero in tales in which women are treated as inferior, helpless maidens. But Jane, although her “class and sex define her as victim” (Moglen 109), becomes an “emblem of a passionate, barely disguised rebelliousness” (Gilbert and Gubar 337). Therewith, the only possible love interest for the strong-minded heroine can be found in a Byronic hero.
Whereas Brontë selected attributes from Byron’s heroes (cf. Wootton 229) instead of “recycling a predictable literary ‘type’” (Wootton 231), Thorslev points out that even the credits for the typecast Byronic hero, despite his name, do not belong solely to Byron: “the Byronic hero shows the elements of every major type of Romantic hero” (4). Hence, “all the elements of the Byronic [h]ero existed before him in the literature of the age. This hero is unique . . . in the powerful fusion of these disparate elements into a single commanding image” (Thorslev 12). These elements of which Rochester is constituted are the Child of Nature, the Hero of Sensibility, the Gothic Villain and, eventually, the Noble Outlaw (cf. Thorslev 27 – 83), which will be briefly summarised due to the limited space. Consequently, this paper makes no claim to offer a complete analysis of Rochester as a Byronic hero but will cover the most important aspects.
Summary of Chapters
I. Introduction: This chapter introduces the scope of the study, defining Rochester as a Byronic hero and outlining the paper's intention to bridge literary analysis with the social context of the nineteenth century.
II. The Reception of Byron’s Works in Nineteenth-Century England: This section details how Byron’s life and work became a cultural phenomenon, particularly discussing his massive popularity among female readers who saw in his heroes an escape from restrictive gender norms.
III. Rochester as a Byronic Hero and his Relevance for Jane Eyre: This chapter dissects Rochester’s character by applying Peter L. Thorslev Jr.’s archetypes—Child of Nature, Hero of Sensibility, Gothic Villain, and Noble Outlaw—to argue how these traits facilitate his connection with Jane.
IV. Unfulfilled Desires of Governesses in Nineteenth-Century England: This part provides a historical overview of the legal and economic precariousness of governesses, highlighting the severe social barriers that made the marriage in Jane Eyre a utopian ideal rather than a reality.
V. Conclusion: Why Brontë Chose Byron: This final chapter synthesizes the previous findings, concluding that Brontë utilized the Byronic hero to create a fantasy of egalitarian marriage that served the psychological needs of her readers.
Keywords
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Lord Byron, Byronic Hero, Governess, Victorian England, Gender Roles, Romanticism, Egalitarian Marriage, Social Mobility, Cultural Reception, Literary Analysis, Hero of Sensibility, Noble Outlaw, Female Subjectivity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central focus of this research paper?
The paper investigates why Charlotte Brontë chose the Byronic hero archetype for her protagonist Rochester and explores whether he serves as a desirable husband for a governess within the socio-historical context of nineteenth-century England.
What are the primary themes discussed?
The study focuses on the literary figure of the Byronic hero, the nineteenth-century reception of Byron, the social and legal status of women, and the intersection of romance and class struggle in Victorian literature.
What is the main research question?
The core inquiry is whether the Byronic hero acts as an ideal romantic partner for a Victorian governess, and how the construction of this hero enables a subversion of traditional gender and class boundaries.
Which methodology is employed in this paper?
The author uses a literary analysis approach, drawing on established definitions of the Byronic hero by Peter L. Thorslev Jr. and sociocultural research on Victorian gender roles and the status of the governess to ground the analysis in both textual and historical reality.
What is covered in the main body of the work?
The main body moves from the cultural reception of Byron to a detailed classification of Rochester’s Byronic traits, followed by a study of the historical, legal, and economic limitations faced by actual nineteenth-century governesses.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
The work is defined by terms such as Byronic Hero, Jane Eyre, Victorian social structure, governess, female subjectivity, and egalitarian marriage.
Does the author argue that Rochester is a standard villain?
No, the author argues that while Rochester possesses traits of the Gothic Villain, he is transformed into a "Noble Outlaw" and a "Hero of Sensibility," which allows for an empathetic connection with Jane and his eventual redemption through their relationship.
How does the author characterize the situation of the real-life governess?
The author describes the governess as an educated social outcast who lacked political importance and lived in a state of professional and personal ambiguity, making her pursuit of love and marriage socially constrained.
Why does the author conclude that Brontë’s vision is utopian?
The author concludes that because the historical reality for women, especially governesses, was defined by dependency and legal subordination, the egalitarian marriage between Jane and Rochester stands as a romanticized, utopian deviation from the era's harsh social standards.
- Quote paper
- Jessica Fäcks (Author), 2012, Why Brontë Chose Byron. "Jane Eyre" and her Byronic Lover, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/229603
