The position of the Governess came about because of the number of single women who, without a husband, needed an effective means of procuring money for food and house, and so the job of teaching became a tempting offer, given their free time could be used to better the generation before with the knowledge they spent their single lives acquiring. Plus, an entire family could learn for the price of sending one child to school, making the choice of a governess a frugal and useful one the helped not just the family but provided a young independent woman with an honorable job using her mind (especially considering women were more revered for the capabilities doing housework rather than intellectually.) Though these women were depended upon to teach the rising generation they were not seen at all in a better light, their superior knowledge on subjects meaning absolutely nothing in the eyes of men because the governess system was women teaching women; understandable but nothing of substance when compared to a man’s possible education.

But the life of a governess is not easy, no where near. She is forced to go through the trials of education, dealing with children and their families without the love and trust that accompanies that same weight for mothers, making it a much harder one to hold. In the “Hints on the Modern Governess System,” it is written that the young women, willing to become governesses “learn enough bitter experience in a year to give them the sorrows of maturity, without its strength and safety” (572). These poor women are forced to grow into incredibly complex, understanding and intellectual women without so much as a helping hand or understanding from any outside perspective, seen as a lowly mother without love whose sole job is to teach children until they are deemed ready for the world and then move onto another house of which she is a stranger. And they are given no respect for their incredibly tiring unending job, all the while accompanied with a lonely “independent” life without anyone for a companion. They are forced to go through the struggles of raising children with no one to relinquish their troubles upon, no like-mind to converse with, rather forced to lower their own intelligence to help the children only, forced into isolation as they are deemed unfit to speak to by the aristocrats that hire them. Bronte discusses this isolation of a governess through Jane’s reflection on her own “restlessness” that comes from staying in Thornfield and not a more “practical experience than I possessed” (pg 178). Only a chapter after arriving at Thornfield Bronte already presents Jane’s discomfort at her unadventurous and unfulfilling life, a common feeling amongst governesses. Though Jane does not experience the same isolation other governesses were forced to into, such as the adults of the family refusing to converse with them forcing their only interaction to be with the children they teach. Their gender made them seen as lesser than men, however, they were also below that of a married woman within society, though they very well may have been smarter in all intellectual aspects.

Upon first meeting Adele, Jane immediately begins assessing her prior instruction and capabilities, such as assessing Adele’s singing of the opera song she knew from her mother and then her reciting “La Ligue des Rats”. On page 170, Eyre discusses Adele’s “attention to punctuation and emphasis, a flexibility of voice and an appropriateness of gesture, very unusual indeed at her age; and which proved she had been carefully trained.” This moment shows Jane’s incredible capabilities as a governess, discerning the prior education of a little girl from merely conversing with her. Even their discussion, occurring in french, shows not only Jane’s versatility but that of a governess, having such a knowledge of multiple languages at their disposal.

I feel Bronte portrays governesses in an accurate light of their capabilities both intellectually and emotionally with the people that surround them, and she shows the isolation forced upon governesses because of the difference in social standing between themselves and their employer, no matter how much they could keep up with them. However, Bronte does not agree with society’s opinions, showing the governess life for what it was from their perspective (through Jane’s education and role as Adele’s governess) rather than what was expected of them from their employer, as society tended to focus upon. The care of a governess was not nearly as important than that of the children she was hired to teach. I think Bronte provides an excellent voice for many forgotten women forced into silence because of their servitude.