Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags (Chapter 12).
Quotation above taken from chapter 12 of Jane Eyre, shows the reader Jane's beliefs on female independence through her thoughts. Jane desires to see more of the world and have more interaction with its people. While she appreciates her simple life at Thornfield, she regrets that she does not have the means to travel, and she expresses her thought by addressing lower and upper class women. Through this novel we see that Jane posses the desire to gain independence and freedom from the suppressing society that she lives in. In the quote she says "women feel just as men feel" in this part we get the sense that Jane beliefs that men and women should posses equal rights, "making puddings and knitting stockings", this part shows that Jane beliefs that women should not just stay confined to household chores. We as a reader see her proving her statement when she works as a teacher and learns to survive on her on. From reading Jane Eyre, I gained an understanding of women's point of view in England during that time, I believe that Jane has powerful characteristics that allowed her to survive in the male-dominated society and rise above others to achieve her true love.
- Semarn K
