“Hints on the Modern Governess System” describes the role as a governess as an opportunity for lower class woman, but an opportunity for loneliness. The beginning suggests that the role of a governess would suit women because women were born for a quest for knowledge. The author refers to Genesis and the fall as women’s first documented quest for knowledge. It from this quest that men have punished women for suppressing women’s natural thirst, but this issue is slowly turning when more women remain single rather than get married (568). The increase in single women ignited the governess system because “Women must have bread as well as men…They found, if they would not sink in the scale, they must work with their heads, and not with their hands” (569). The role of the governess simultaneously for a task that allowed single, poor women to leave the home, while keeping wealthier women in the home to learn and eventually become wives. The idea of middle class women being able to learn from home was admired by the author. The author seemed to appreciate the governess role for that regard, but deemed the governess as a lonely job.
Charlotte Bronte seems to be playing with this scenario at extremely exaggerated levels to stress the importance for women to leave the home in Jane Eyre. Jane is happy to be able to. She becomes the governess to Adele in the Thornfield estate. Jane feels like she has a purpose and thus does not feel lonely nor misses ‘a home’ which she reveals to Mr. Rochester when he catches her walking the grounds at night and he says to her: “I should think you ought to be at home yourself” (183). Jane likes being away from home which is contrasted to the screams she hears from the attic. As the novel goes on, and the Mrs. Rochester is still missing, the screams suggest the wife’s desperation to escape the home. This idea opposes the argument in Fraser’s Magazine. Women like to be away from home and if they are not able to, they will feel trapped and are held as prisoner. Society wants women to remain in the home, but women do not feel the same.
Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard Nemesvari. Toronto: Broadview, 1999. Print.
“Hints on the Modern Governess System.” Fraser’s Magazine November 1844: 567-577. Print
Autumn,
I agree with your comments on the lower class woman’s need for an employment opportunity. It’s interesting that you also connected the role to women’s place in home.
As a lower class woman and orphan, Jane must find a way to provide for herself. Lowood offers her some opportunity, yet she feels restless there. When she puts out the ad in the paper to become a governess, I feel that Jane is actively seeking an opportunity to provide for herself… And going against some gender stereotypes in doing so.
Bronte describes the economic side to Jane’s decision to become a governess on page 155, “I told her I had a prospect of getting a new situation where the salary would be double what I now received.”
Jane is pragmatic, thinking of (gasp) economic salary in her decision. This is something rather unexpected, it shows Jane connected with more “masculine” traits/ the “public sphere.” I found this to be aligned with your point on the need to survive, as well as the restlessness Jane or other women felt confined to the home.
-Hannah
Autumn,
I definitely agree with a lot of what you’re saying, but I think I’d add a caveat, similar to Hannah’s comment. I think one of the big reasons things work out so well for Jane, as compared to possibly a lot of women at the time, is that in comparison with her life pre-Thornfield, her life as a governess actually allows her much more freedom than she had earlier possessed. She isn’t trapped inside of Lowood anymore and once Mr. Rochester arrives she has someone who treats her with respect and at some points admiration, unlike when she was a child living with the Reeds.
In general, I still think your argument is sound, but the differences in Jane’s situation make for an interesting perspective on the governess system.
-Kyle
Autumn,
I really enjoy your comment regarding women and the household—“[being a governess] allowed single, poor women to leave the home, while keeping wealthier women in the home”. I feel like that definitely explains the opposition to the role of the governess, as women were expected to marry; this position opened up a whole new world where women could leave the house and earn wages while still being single, which was definitely a concern for their ideals back then.
I agree that Bronte’s version of this scenario was exaggerated, but I feel as though it’s not totally impossible for situations like Jane’s to arise. I partially feel like Jane doesn’t miss her “home” because it was never really a home to her—her Aunt Reed treated her with disdain, locked her in the Red-Room where Uncle Reed died, and sent her off to Lowood. Her Aunt created a bad image for her, and certainly added to the negative image and feelings she carried with her of the Reed household.
I like that you mentioned the part of the Fraser’s article about the quest for knowledge for women. It was an interesting bit. I agree that women becoming governesses is way better (in terms of rights for women) than a woman staying in the home with no opportunity at all to make money and have a life of her own.
Given Jane’s case though, she never really quite had an actual “home” for her to yearn for or be “trapped” in so I don’t know if Bronte really envisions that being a governess really means having a life outside the home. In many ways, it is still a life in a home, and there are parts in the novel where Jane feels lonely in her position. But I do agree with you that this position does grant Jane a sense of purpose, especially in that she is making her own income, which is more than what could be expected of most women at the time.
I felt that the author was against women working and rising themselves within the class system because she discusses poorer women taking the jobs that governesses once claimed. I also felt the point you made about women getting married further confirmed my belief that the author did not agree with women working because that is the cause of them remaining single for so long. I agree with your point that Bronte makes Jane a governess because she is bored and wants to leave the home, but once she spends a few weeks at Thornfield, she is becoming bored of the company. Jane doesn’t become excited again until Mr. Rochester arrives. In that respect I feel as though Bronte goes back on her point. I think her main idea is that women should be able to go out into the world to meet people and explore.
While I agree that Brontë is playing with the notion that the governess is in a constant state of loneliness in boredom insofar as Jane is very pleased with her position, with caring for and teaching Adele, and excited by her relationship with Mr. .Rochester, I am not sure about your comparison between Jane and Mr. Rochester’s imprisoned wife. I think that the juxtaposition between Jane and Mrs. Rochester reverses the contemporary notions expressed in “Hints” that mothers are better at loving children than governesses. Granted, Mrs. Rochester is not the mother of Adele, but I think Bronte is making a point that women’s roles as wife is much more complex than society ascribes it to be.