“‘There, then, – Off, ye lendings!’ And Mr. Rochester stepped out of his disguise…… In short, I believe you have been trying to draw me out- or in; you have been talking nonsense to make me talk nonsense” (Bronte, 204). In this quotation, Jane has figured out that the gypsy is really Rochester disguising himself to find out information that benefitted him. This is shown through the phrase “trying to draw me [Jane] out.” This proves that Rochester was trying to get something out of Jane by using a disguise as a type of trickery. Rochester used his disguise which changed his gender and class rank, to have an advantage over Jane. This shows that Rochester does not fully value Jane because he was unable to confront her without trying to manipulate her.
Jane Eyre and The Moonstone are both connected through their usage of disguises because they are both used to deceive women. The following quote is from The Moonstone and contains evidence of the jugglers using disguises. “There is a mystery about their conduct that I can’t explain. They have doubly sacrificed their caste- first, in crossing the sea; secondly, in disguising themselves as jugglers……There must be some very serious motive at the bottom of it, and some justification of no ordinary kind to plead for them, in recovery of their caste, when they return to their own country.” (Collins, 83).
In this quote, Mr. Murthwaite could tell that the jugglers were not actually jugglers. He recognized that they were using class to disguise who they were. Mr. Murthwaite could tell that the mission of the Brahmin’s was important since it was not acceptable for the upper class to dress like the lower class. Once again, we see men using class and disguises as a type of trickery and manipulation.
Through the lens of Jane Eyre, The Moonstone is very similar because it has men (jugglers) dressing up as something else to manipulate a woman. To be more explicit, the men of Indian descent dressed up as jugglers to trick Rachel to get the moonstone which was around her neck. The idea of a man manipulating a woman is important because it shows the lack of respect that a man has for a woman. The men are degrading the women by going out of their way to be deceitful for their own personal benefit. There are not any positive reasons for the trickery other than bettering themselves. This correlates with the idea that the men do not believe that women are as intellectual them. If Rochester and the Indians really saw women as their equal, then their first attempt to receive the information they wanted would have been to be confront the women directly. Neither book illustrates a man confronting his feelings or real intentions for a woman. Jane Eyre and The Moonstone show that their a pattern of men tricking women to get what they want. These novels also show that men do not consider women to be their equal which play a big role in the gender differences throughout each of the novels.
I think this is incredibly interesting, and I took note of this too! I find it interesting that in both Jane Eyre and The Moonstone the men who are disguising themselves, are using disguises which is below their own class. It is as if those that hold the most power have the least amount of information, whereas those that have the least amount of power hold the most information. Honestly how these two class differences portray themselves in the two novels implies just how interdependent the classes are amongst each other.
Nice going Aliya! I really like how you connected the Indians and Mr. Rochester in terms of their disguises (I didn’t catch that!). However, could this be interpreted in another way instead of manipulation? I agree that’s one way to think of it, but perhaps they put on these disguises out of fear of women. Mr. Rochester desperately depends on Jane for his own well-being as we later find out, and maybe thought Jane would reject him and not be vulnerable toward him if she knew his identity, which he couldn’t withstand. The Indians would likely have been spurned away from the household and/or captured and sent to the police for trespassing. In both of these instances, the men may be “tricking” the women, but that is because they aren’t comfortable with themselves. They want something from these women and the women are thus in a position of power over them. Could this lend insight on the motives of these characters, or perhaps the importance of female favor in 19th-century England?