Gender Roles in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

Expectations are a part of daily life. One's age, race, religion, physical appearance, speech, dress, hair color-all are factors by which, welcomed or not, people are labeled with certain expectations by other members of society. With nothing more than a glance, a young person might be labeled abrasive, an old person unkind, a person with a thick Southern accent uneducated, and so on. These expectations, however, are miniscule when compared to the expectations society places on one's gender. Society likes to think of males as dominant, aggressive, educated, dispassionate, and ambitious; it thinks of women as submissive, passive, less-educated, emotional, and pleased to serve their male spouses. Any truly educated person knows these stereotypes are simply not representative of truth, but nevertheless, these expectations-these gender roles-exist to this very day and have dominated Western thought for centuries. Looking back at the Victorian period, even the works of famous female artists present the familiar male-dominated, patriarchal view of proper society. The characters in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre portray clearly the gender roles expected of males and females in Victorian society; the characters of Jane and Mr. Rochester demonstrate the expected characteristics and personalities expected of males and females, respectively, while Bertha, the antithesis of Jane, represents a disruption of the gender balance and must be detached from normal society.