Social Status in Jane Eyre Essay

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' "You should hear mama on the chapter of governesses: Mary and I have had, I should think, a dozen at least in our day; half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous, and all incubi -- were they not, mama?" says the beautiful Blanche Ingram, with whom Mr. Rochester is rumored to be in love (Bronte 179). Instead, Rochester says chooses Jane for her character. However, there is always the social barrier between them, which makes Jane uncomfortable: "I ask only this: don't send for the jewels, and don't crown me with roses: you might as well put a border of gold lace round that plain pocket handkerchief you have there" (Bronte 265). And Jane soon discovers that Rochester is already married. She refuses to be his mistress, which would have lowered her social status even more, and deprived her of the one thing she does own -- her respectability. "Sir, your wife is living: that is a fact acknowledged this morning by yourself. If I lived with you as you desire, I should then be your mistress: to say otherwise is sophistical -- is false" (Bronte 309). Even in this exchange, Jane calls Mr. Rochester 'Sir,' acknowledging the social gap that still separates them. Their true wedding, after the death of his wife, is far more subdued: "A quiet wedding we had: he and I, the parson and clerk, were alone present" (Bronte 457). This wedding, Bronte implies, befits Jane's true character and does not flaunt Rochester's social status.

Only after an unexpected (and somewhat clumsy plot twist) that reveals Jane to be an heiress can Jane marry Rochester as an equal.

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Character is important, but it is not enough: a woman must also have money. If she does not have both, she is liable to be locked in the 'red room' like the orphaned Jane by the Reeds, or like mad, undisciplined but wealthy Bertha by Rochester. Jane, mindful of the social discrimination she felt, splits her fortune with her relatives who helped her when she was destitute, so she is comfortable rather than dazzlingly wealthy. Jane spoke of justice in her subjugation at the Reeds as poor orphan; she uses her unexpected legacy to create social justice: "Twenty thousand pounds shared equally would be five thousand each, justice -- enough and to spare: justice would be done, -- mutual happiness secured. Now the wealth did not weigh on me: now it was not a mere bequest of coin, -- it was a legacy of life, hope, enjoyment" (Bronte 392). The book does not advocate total social equality: yet Jane alone is always able to appreciate intelligence in unexpected places, even in the presence of the lower-class girls: "wholly untaught, with faculties quite torpid, they seemed to me hopelessly dull; and, at first sight, all dull alike: but I soon found I was mistaken. There was a difference amongst them as amongst the educated; and when I got to know them, and they me, this difference rapidly developed itself" (Bronte 372). Jane wins her husband and a just social position through her character -- she achieves financial and social equality, where before she only had moral equality.

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