Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre as Adele Varens’ Governess—Feminism, Gender Roles, & the Victorian Era

Analysis of two passages of Charlotte Brontë’s brilliant novel Jane Eyre (1847), one which is celebrated as an example of overt Victorian era feminism & rejection of traditional gender roles, and the other which describes Jane Eyre’s role as Adèle Varens’ governess. The lecture considers two main questions. Is there a contradiction in the way that the narrative voice describes Jane Eyre as a governess to Adèle Varens & Jane Eyre’s (or Charlotte Bronte’s?) cry against custom for herself? If so, what should we take from this contradiction of feminism on the one hand, & conforming to Victorian era gender roles & expectations on the other? The video closes with reference to Bertha Mason/Mrs Rochester (the madwoman in the attic).

OUTLINE OF LECTURE of the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte:
- Analysis of Jane Eyre as a governess to Adele Varens
- Analysis of Jane Eyre’s own feminism & rebellion against Victorian era gender roles
- Reference to Bertha Mason/Mrs Rochester, & what her laugh might symbolise

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[DrOctaviaCox]

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[InThisEssayIWill...]

From the first paragraph there are some super important things I notice as a parent. Adelle's tendencies seemed to derive from neglect and then bouts of overindulgence. No one pays attention to her unless she was acting out for attention. Once Jane comes in
1. All of her attention needs are now met therefore the need to act out dissipates naturally
2. No one is going behind Jane's back to undermine her parenting/teaching therefore Jane's structure is never given a reason to be doubted and children do well in structured environments.

[baruskocica]

I've always understood Adele's becoming obedient, calm and teachable as a result of kind, loving care from her governess. For me, the message here was that children can really flourish and reach their true potential if they are truly loved and accepted for who they are. Jane Eyre stood up to Mr Rochester when he belittled Adele and expected Jane to leave her when she found out about her background.

[archervine]

I think there is a thread that explains this. Jane Eyre is feminist/proto-feminist, but also very aware of the society she lives in and the fact that she enters it at least with many disadvantages. She’s a woman, comparatively poor, and without anyone really to advocate for her. Her survival is based on pleasing, and she has learned to do it even if she resents it. She is not going to get away with things a higher status person would, and she knows it. I think she is giving Adele similar survival skills,

[darleehart]

As a teacher, I’m not sure if I agree fully with the assessment on how Jane “ironed out” Adele. In the section that talks about curbing and controlling her freaks and whims, to me that sounds like one of the first things you have to teach children which is self control. That doesn’t mean that they are oppressed, just that, for their own safety (physical, mental, and emotional), they can’t give in to every whim they have. How many times have children wanted to touch the glowing hot stove and their parent has had to instruct them on self control because it would be harmful for them. Controlling freaks and whims isn’t just a social thing. It’s how we become self controlled enough to keep ourselves safe and able to work towards our goals and dreams. Teenagers are notorious for having poor self control. And how many times have teens died in car crashes because they couldn’t resist driving faster than they should? What about children with tempers who pushed away friends by being too greedy or two demanding and end up alone and unhappy? Having self-control is essential to obtaining what you want in life. You have to work for what you want and can’t keep getting distracted by momentary pleasures. If one were to follow their momentary whims every day they would end up very unhappy in life.
As for the part about Jane encouraging Adele‘s prattle being evidence of conforming to ideals of women’s chitchat… I feel like that’s Jane’s way of teaching Adele self control, but still encouraging her to be herself and express her own opinions. She doesn’t seem to be conforming to the idea that children should be seen and not heard. And yes, women were known to prattle and gossip, but they were also taught to be meek and to not have strong opinions. They should be left pliable so they could be molded into what their fathers and eventual husbands wanted. Jane seems to be encouraging Adele to maintain her personality and express her self in ways that Jane was denied as a child. One of the hardest balances to strike as a teacher is keeping your class quiet enough so that they can concentrate and learn what you need to teach them while also allowing them to develop their personalities and be expressive. It would be way easier to teach a class that was meek and silent the whole time. Lecturing without interruption is easier than group discussions and involving the students in constructive criticism and questioning. Jane not only is encouraging this in Adele, but she actively enjoys this about her student. She gives this is evidence of why they are able to get along well together.
I’m not saying all this because I think Jane is a perfect character without faults. She’s obviously not. And I do think that she probably does teach Adele things that she may not agree with so that her student can find tolerable happiness in society. But I don’t think she was oppressing Adele and molding her into something meek and soft. She was equipping her with the tools to both succeed in life and to be true to herself at the same time.

[LusiaEyre]

I think Jane didn't even notice that she was acting contradictory to Adele. Despite her childhood freaks, Jane did comform in the end. She became all the quiet, polite and steady things the world wanted her to be. She kept her true self to herself. And she valued peace and quiet in her environment so it makes sense she tried to fix a french wild child singing rude songs to what best suited her. And because she wasn't cruel in her attempts, it didn't bear an outward resemblance to her own treatment.

[InThisEssayIWill...]

I think it's also important to note that the adults in Jane's life as a child were cruel and unloving to her. And Jane's "dis-obedience" stemmed from being treated unfairly and disbelieved.
I think it's unlikely that she used the same methods of coercion to gain Adele's obedience. And we have to remember that she was employed to do a job, you can't teach a child that doesn't want to learn, therefore we can surmise that Adele changed her behavior because she found Jane's company and instruction engaging.

[annstillwell]

All the Bronte's were ahead of their time. Anne's Tenant of Wildfell Hall about a woman leaving her abusive husband and taking her child away and earning her own living was certainly way ahead of it's time and Jane's independent nature refusing to bow down her tormentors and naysayers is also way ahead of the game. That's why people loved it. I love when Jane later tells the reader that while she loved Rochester and longed to be with her her upbring and her self worth demanded that she make the choice the to leave. It wasn't so much because of society itself. No one cared for her as even Rochester pointed out so she had no one to offend by living with him but she loudly screamed to her but I have to live with myself and according to her own moral code right or wrong she could feel herself right about staying with him as he was married. Powerful.

[brianmcdevitt]

Anyone who has taught young children successfully knows it is necessary to encourage a degree of compliance in the pupil. This applies regardless of the genders of teacher and taught. The important distinction between the relationships between Jane and Adele and between Mrs Reed and Jane is the motivation of the adult. Mrs Reed is deliberately cruel, Jane simply seeks to get the best out of Adele.

[writerious]

I think it's important to remember, in the context of an English novel written by a woman of the English countryside, that Adele is French. At the time, the word "race" was often attached to nationality. Adele was of the French "race, " thought to be flighty, emotional, and even morally and intellectually inferior to the rational, stoic, and thoroughly superior English. Handed this "lively" child with her whims -- "freaks" -- Jane Eyre describes her almost as one would describe a puppy, and embarks immediately on behavior training as one would with a puppy -- and with almost as much expectation of intellectual progress. Besides, Adele is a child, and obedience was expected of children. As for Bertha Mason Rochester, she is from Jamaica and not purely white -- and here again, her "race" being other than English, equates to irrational and emotional, and her "freaks" have devolved into literal madness. While Jane Eyre cries out for women's freedom, by "women" she seems to mean white English women, and even then, white English women of the superior social classes.

[ColeyTrejo]

Or perhaps she’s just trying to help her student become capable of learning. There is truth that an unruly child who cannot settle will find tasks insurmountable. It did not say Jane suppressed Adele. She calmed her. I think most teachers will understand why Adele had to learn a bit of discipline.

[debshaw]

Maybe I’m just simple minded but I always took Jane’s attitude toward her pupil to mean that she was so spoiled that she was unpleasant and wouldn’t listen. After getting someone who didn’t tolerate that nonsense, she settled down to being less self centered, more pleasing in that she was not throwing tantrums, and more directed. We all have to learn to manage our little freaks when we’re expected to be learning. I never took her instruction to be suppressing or crushing her spirit. I think she just taught her to marshal them so that she could use her intellect. I felt like they both said Adele wasn’t very bright so it was important that she could learn how to behave appropriately given her situation. Jane’s situation is entirely different in that she has no resources whereas Adele will always be provided for. Whether we want to be meek ladies who only care about being pleasing, or we want to be strong mentally strong and intellectual women, we need to learn to control our whims and learn to behave in polite society or you get women like Lady Catherine.

[Mrrr.P]

I like the idea, but I think there are some explanations that may account for Jane's appreciation of Adele being "docile".
In chapter 34, St. John says that "Jane, you are docile, diligent, disinterested, faithful, constant, and courageous". In chapter 31, the narrator, Jane, says "Some of them are unmannered, rough, intractable, as well as ignorant; but others are docile, have a wish to learn, and evince a disposition that pleases me. "
In both examples, the word "docile" is placed alongside the positive ones, and in the second example, it associates with the "wish to learn", education and disposition. In this sense, what Jane appreciates is that Adele is ready to be educated, and to learn something other than what is expected for women to do. And it is her good-mannered behavior that makes Jane enjoy her company.
The word "docile", being both easily controlled and taught, may be an example of Charlotte's play on words, showing both women's yearning for education and women's inferiority of that time.

[fleurdebee]

I always took away the impression that there were other “foreign” elements that were trying to be quashed and suppressed in Adele. With the implication that Adele’s mother was of some loose morals, French (gasp), and eventually the impression that she may have ended up as a sex worker of some sort, I thought theater it was part of Jane’s “job” to suppress any flirtatiousness, foreign-ness and capricious behaviors that would remind Mr. Rochester and polite society of her origins. Even when I was a child, the offspring of women who were considered morally lax, were looked upon as already tainted and destined to follow in the mother’s footsteps. I also always picked up on negative opinions of the French by the English, but this may well be projection, all of it.

[bethanyperry]

Another thoughtful analysis thank you. Jane was somehow able to emerge from a childhood and an education that was filled with punitive adults and arbitrary rules and punishments ... her ability to not repeat how she’d been treated is remarkable. Adele lived an unstructured world devoid of loving role models. I see Jane’s approach as one that would have been appropriate to either a young boy or girl - to set expectations for listening to adults in a manner that is conducive for learning not just “lessons” but role within society albeit the stereotypical female role for females. Miss Temple’s gentle example lives on.

[eliseleonard]

I always read Jane’s approach to Adele somewhat differently. I think Jane understood Adele as having a very different character to hers and proceeded responsibly to work on refining Adele’s natural strengths (eagerness to please, lightness). Jane was very aware of the realities of her world and would have wanted her charge to be prepared to succeed in it.
The book really seems to be a triptych. One one wing is Bertha, an extreme case of a woman without any prattle or eagerness to please, who violates the serenity of her home just by existing. On the other wing is Adele, utterly disenfranchised and powerless, an actual child, only notable for sweetness and malleability. The center panel is Jane, a whole newly adult person who wants to please and displease, who exercises judgment and has a full inner life.
Rochester does his damnedest to ignore Bertha and Adele, and this drives his life and is nearly his ruination. When he finally engages with Jane, a real person in he central panel of the triptych, everyone in the picture finds repose (even Bertha).

[robinrubendunst]

Jane is simply teaching Adele to be able to self-regulate and to be a critical thinker, not necessarily to be “pleasing” to society. Self-disciple is a good thing. I don’t see the inconsistency. Jane’s two greatest influences in her life at this point in the story were Helen Burns and Miss Temple. They would sit in Miss Temple’s chambers and Jane would listen to Helen and Miss Temple converse about books and ideas.

Jane said after the horrors of the typhus epidemic, once Brocklehurst was relieved of his position, the school improved, and she and the other pupils got a first rate education.

Jane values education and critical thinking. She values creativity (her paintings and drawings), she values self-discipline (her cousins teaching themselves German and Hindustani, improving themselves to make themselves more employable).

Jane values self-control and self-discipline. She wants to impart those qualities to Adele. You can’t accomplish much in life without them.

[helenannedawson]

I wonder if there is a deliberate spectrum of behaviour here - Adele is being taught to behave herself, then Jane moves to her own desire for a slightly less conventional life, then it ends with Bertha, the most extreme example of a woman who refused to/was not capable of conforming to social behaviour or standards. Perhaps there is a warning in that - if behaviour becomes too atypical and 'uncalm'

[AW-uvcb]

Great clip as usual! Must say, I'm not entirely in agreement as far as Adele goes: I can absolutely see where you're coming from, but I don't think the text of the book points to this reading in any decisive way. First, we don't have any example of Jane interacting with boys so we can only guess if she'd treat them the same way as Adele or differently. Second, nowhere in the book does the narrator draw a direct connection between the values Jane instils in Adele and feminity – nowhere does it say that Adele became "feminine and docile", "calm as is becoming of a girl" etc. (we DO see this kind of language in other books of the era... mostly those written by men! :-) ) So it's open to interpretation whether Jane teaches Adele the way she does specifically because Adele is a girl (if anything, I'd say it's about the distinction between children and adults, not women and men). We can see from further passages that Jane doesn't squash Adele's personality completely: she does allow her to dress up, doesn't silence her chatter, doesn't berate her when she gets excited about Rochester or his guests (in fact, Adele's innocent excitement and openness is presented in positive contrast to the Ingram family's coldness and fakeness). She just tones them down so Adele can learn to control her initial vanity and tendency to show off (by singing age-inappropriate songs). As for keeping calm – you're right, this one's tricky seeing how Jane herself is so fiery. But I think in a way it's a reflection of Jane's own internal struggle. Jane is clearly attracted to people who, like herself, feel strongly about things. At the same time, she greatly admires the ability to control your passions (two of the people that make a great impression on her, Helen and St John, both feel strongly and are quite analytic about their feelings). I think after her traumatic childhood, when the bursts of emotions were both a reaction to abuse and led to further abuse, Jane honestly thinks that self-control and restraint will serve her better in life, especially in her social position (and she applies it to her student too: Adele can expect a better future than Jane could, but she's still an orphan of a French dancer, which will be to her social disadvantage in the future). The whole book can be read as a study of the tension between passion and restraint (Rochester has to live with the consequences of a life spent on indulging his passions, while St John denies his feelings to the point of inhuman cold. Meanwhile, Jane tries to find a balance: she doesn't sacrifice her values for her passions, but given a chance to follow her heart at the end of the book, she doesn't hesitate for the sake of fake propriety). Wow, sorry for the long essay, that got out of hand! More "Jane Eyre" clips, please! :-)

[serafilirose]

With Adele, Jane takes on a role very similar to the one Helen took with her. At Lowood, Jane felt outraged at the injustices in her past, how her aunt’s spite prejudiced strangers against her in this new place. Helen apparently suffered from benign neglect, with a disinterested father and a mother who felt threatened by her. Helen is the one who tells Jane that they have essentially been abandoned at Lowood, however unjust it may be. There will be no one to look out for them, so they had best take advantage of the opportunities they do have. Alongside Helen, Jane matures and finds more effective ways to defend herself and secure her own position. Jane plays the long game, putting aside her feelings to gain her education, then to gain a position first at Lowood, then as Adele’s governess, and later, a teacher in a village school.

Adele is indeed an orphan, like Jane…but unlike Jane, she lived with her mother for most of her time in France. (For the moment, I’ll skip over the very likelihood of Adele being used to lure in “protectors” for her mother, as evidenced by her singing and dancing.) unlike Jane, Adele has her own maid, and the bemused benevolence of the housekeeper. The servants are on her side. She is indulged by Rochester. She may not be wanted especially, but she is not suffered in the household. Jane, however, knows the reality of Adele’s situation: orphaned, illegitimate, and the daughter of a woman of “dubious character.” Adele thrives because of Rochester’s sense of responsibility—but Jane is acutely aware that responsibility it a very thin shield. Her uncle had made her his wife’s responsibility, bade her to bring her up as their own child. We all know how well her aunt carried that out.

Adele’s French background is repeatedly stressed. Accomplished ladies may *speak* French, but they’d best not *act* French. Jane’s focus is on protecting Adele, from giving her an education, to reminding her speak English, and behave in a way that will not annoy Rochester, and assuring her that whatever school she goes to, Jane will make certain she is safe. At the end of the novel, Jane reflects that Adele overcomes her “Frenchness” (paraphrasing, I haven’t the text handy) and can navigate English society without difficulty. She has succeeded in protecting and preparing her charge for the world.

Jane Eyre is one my favorite novels, and I very much enjoyed this video.