JE Critics Flashcards
Elizabeth Rigby: RELIGION
Brontë’s Religious Progressiveness
“ungodly discontent”
“a decidedly vulgar-minded woman”
Walter Allen: GENDER
Gender Reversals, Fairytales, Sexual Dominance
“the proud man is struck in his pride (blinded)…it is the woman’s turn to stoop”
Angela Carter: GENDER
Women’s Gothic
“Jane Eyre is a peculiarly unsettling blend of penetrating psychological realism [and] of violent, intuitive feminism”
Raymond Williams: IDENTITY
Direct Address, Potential Unreliability/Bias put on the Reader - Jean Rhys explores with the voiceless B/A
“compose an intimate relationship with the reader”
Haiyan Gao, “Reflection of Feminism in Jane Eyre”: GENDER
Gender Roles, Power of Jane
“in Victorian period, the society is man-controlled and man-dominated, and women are subject to the voice of men”
Haiyan Gao: FURTHER POWER over JANE
Mrs Reed
Her classic feminine appearance (her “plain looks and quiet (yet passionate) character”) is manipulated to show society Mrs Reed’s “generosity” - by taking her in, Mrs Reed uses Jane’s exterior (her femininity, which implies purity and innocence from the outside), as well as her tragic past (“Jane lost her parents when she was young… [and] her uncle died after a few years” to make her (externally) seems extremely benevolent and charitable (as Mr Brocklehurst argues). However, readers are able to see beyond this deceit, and this “generosity” is shown to be “hypocritical” and deceptive - Jane is treated as an “encumbrance inferior to a maid” and isn’t “show[n] any sympathy or care… instead they always criticise and bully her”.
Zoe Brennan: RELIGION
Brocklehurst, Fairytales
“Brocklehurst is presented as the wolf [which] reflects his duplicitous nature; just as the wolf pretended to be the benign grandmother, Brocklehurst also pretends to be the compassionate head of a Christian institution”
Gilbert and Gubar: IDENTITY + WSS
Bertha and Jane’s Id
“Bertha [functions] as Jane’s dark double…her manifestations [are] associated with an experience (or repression) of anger on Jane’s part”
!!RED ROOM!! -> Women’s Gothic?
Rochester casts B/A and JE into two significant roles; the “Angel in the House” in white and G/G’s “The Madwoman in the Attic” - passionate, lustful, dangerous and femme-fetal-like, in red (CLOTHES, IDENTITY, WSS).
