The proposal scene deals with a lot of movement both from the characters themselves, and within the plot. Up until this point the plot of the novel has moved relatively slowly, but then suddenly takes off when Rochester proposes. Whereas with the characters, they are walking, and Rochester\u2019s proposal spurs Jane to pace back and forth in front of him. However, ever since I first read this novel, this scene has stayed with me for both the obvious reasons of it being a great literary scene, but also the way it reverses the two characters\u2019 gender roles.
\nBeginning with Jane\u2019s declaration of independence to her acceptance of his proposal, Jane asserts herself as the more dominant of the two characters\u2014usually considered the more masculine\u2014whereas Rochester is more manipulative and talkative of the two\u2014or arguably more feminine. Moreover, even past their words, their situations reverse the two also, as Jane is independent of wealth and family, and Rochester is weighed down by both. Whereas in more typical 19th Century marriage plots, there is no semblance of independence for the woman.
\nParticularly when Jane voices her independence to Rochester, \u201cI am not bird, and no net ensnares me\u2026\u201d (252), her dominance, or masculinity, radiates out of her. Indeed, this scene involves an overemotional, arguably hysteric Jane, which distorts the masculinity aspect of her character, however Rochester\u2019s character reasserts this gender reversal. Moreover, despite Jane\u2019s emotional state, she remains much more physically active than Rochester. Throughout this scene Rochester remains still, while Jane is in constant movement before him. However, though this may appear to be these characters acting within the confines of their gender, really the words of each character reverse their roles. Rochester may have been the one to propose, but Jane still has the power to deny that proposal. Moreover, post asking for her hand in marriage, Jane questions Rochester so that he must explain his motives in his past disguises and games, while also attempting to convince Jane to agree to marry him. Jane therefore maintains power over Rochester making her the more masculine of the two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The proposal scene deals with a lot of movement both from the characters themselves, and within the plot. Up until this point the plot of the novel has moved relatively slowly, but then suddenly takes off when Rochester proposes. Whereas with the characters, they are walking, and Rochester\u2019s proposal spurs Jane to pace back and … Continue reading Gender Reversal in Jane Eyre<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2837,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138876,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2017","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2837"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}