Forerunner of feminism

She’s one of the most celebrated but most subversive heroines in literature. By today’s standards among conservatives, she would be considered a pariah, an outcast.

Certainly, in her own day, when this famous book about her was written, she so outraged society that the author could not at first reveal herself by her actual name.

The heroine of this great novel, a work of fiction that was so autobiographical,  gave rise — and hope — to women in any era who, as the book put it, were “small, plain and poor.”  She was not a born rebel, and she didn’t seek trouble; but trouble found her with a vengeance.  Yet she held her head high through all her travails and sorrows, never once compromising her principles, and those ideals were lofty and noble, too.

The book starts out with the heroine as a child, recently orphaned, at the mercy of a cruel and avaricious aunt, of despicable and nasty cousins.  She is regularly cuffed and beaten; she is constantly derided and abused by her cousins.  What was her fault? Mostly, she didn’t know her place — not in society, not among her relatives, most assuredly not with her sensitivity, intelligence and fiery soul.

Our heroine finds one escape from her family only to end up in another situation that comes very close to destroying her, emotionally and almost literally.  At the age of 10 this heroine is sent away to a charity school, where the operators of the school shame her and provide her and her fellow students with cold rooms, inedible meals and thin clothing to wear.  Remember, the setting for the book takes place in the Yorkshire area of England during Victorian times.

The heroine is able to make friends with one of the students, only to have this young girl die in her arms.  Eventually, she finds a worthy ally with one of the teachers, and in due time the operators of the school are dismissed for neglect and dishonesty.  Conditions finally and dramatically improve at the school.

In time, the heroine grows up and finds work as a governess to a wealthy man.  Governess positions, essentially teaching and companion work, considered one of the few acceptable careers for women of that era, led her to, briefly, a chance for happiness and love.  But the path of true love is never paved smoothly, and on the eve of their marriage she finds her great love has been deceiving her.  She balks at his suggestion she become his mistress so that he can still maintain his married state and have our heroine, too.

She leaves him and then for a period of time travels through England.  She has little money to her name and at one-point sleeps on the cold English moors.  She is near starvation.  It is only when she faints on the doorstep of a small clergyman’s family that they take her in.

She is treated with kindness and is able to find a teaching position at the clergyman’s school.  She may not be thriving but she does recover her health and develops friendships with the clergyman’s sisters.  Eventually the clergyman asks her to marry him and become a missionary wife.

Along the way it is revealed that our heroine is an heiress.  It turns out the kindly family that took her in during her exhaustion and despair also are related to her.  In the end, she rejects the clergyman /cousin’s marriage proposal but does welcome them into the family and helps support them.

Still, she longs for her one great love.  At long last they are reunited in one of the most passionate, romantic and dramatic reunions in literature.  As she says in the final chapter of the book, “Reader, I married him.”

What makes the heroine of this novel so radical, so revolutionary, so appealing in her directness, her honesty, her nobility, is that she is incapable of dismissing her principles.  She demands respect from others, not because she has title, money or beauty, but for the person she is.  How unusual then, when the book was written, and the same holds true today when conservative minds have declared “war on women.”

This heroine was based on many aspects of the author’s life, and although her life was often tragic, it was a highly principled life as well.  The book, which was first published under the name Currer Bell, so it would not reveal the author’s gender, quickly caught the public’s attention.  It stunned the literary world, and the author became the Victorian era’s toast of society. Not too shabby for a small, plain and poor clergyman’s daughter.

What’s the name of this magnificent book that became one of the most outstanding and inspirational novels that still influences women and girls around the world?  That was the forerunner of feminism and led the way to the fight for women’s rights? That every generation since its publication in 1847 has given women heart and hope?

The novel is “Jane Eyre,” written by Charlotte Bronte.

Jodeane Albright is the community editor of the Idaho State Journal.  She first read   “Jane Eyre” at the age of 11 and has remained a loyal fan of the book since.