Kaitlin M. Gangl, Colby College

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Honors Thesis (Open Access)

Department

Colby College. English Dept.

Advisor(s)

(unknown)

Abstract

I have always had a love for Victorian literature. Growing up I read Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Gaskell, and many more Victorian female writers I could get my mother to recommend. Reading and writing has been a passion of mine since I was young, and female writers (Victorian in particular) were always a particular favorite of mine. Despite my interest in this genre, I found myself reading Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) for the first time just two years ago while studying in London. I was taking a Nineteenth-Century British Literature course, and while I appreciated the works of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter we read, I found myself somewhat troubled by the female characters in their works. Having heard so much about Charlotte Brontë’s novel, I was eager to see what it was all about and what it had to offer me as a reader, as a woman, and as a writer, and for me, Brontë’s novel stood out among the novels I read for my course. Jane seemed to be particularly unique to me in comparison with the other heroines I studied. In attempting to understand her story, I found myself stuck in awe of Brontë’s novel, unable to form any concrete thoughts about the novel. When it came time to write an essay for my London course, I purposely avoided Jane Eyre despite my interest in it because I found myself struggling to look at the text objectively. I found myself unable to articulate my admiration. The only thought I could formulate about Brontë’s text is that Jane seemed particularly progressive relative to the other heroines in the Nineteenth-Century literature I have studied. This project is an attempt to understand my own response to Jane Eyre by considering Jean Rhys's text I have always had a love for Victorian literature. Growing up I read Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Gaskell, and many more Victorian female writers I could get my mother to recommend. Reading and writing has been a passion of mine since I was young, and female writers (Victorian in particular) were always a particular favorite of mine. Despite my interest in this genre, I found myself reading Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) for the first time just two years ago while studying in London. I was taking a Nineteenth-Century British Literature course, and while I appreciated the works of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter we read, I found myself somewhat troubled by the female characters in their works. Having heard so much about Charlotte Brontë’s novel, I was eager to see what it was all about and what it had to offer me as a reader, as a woman, and as a writer, and for me, Brontë’s novel stood out among the novels I read for my course. Jane seemed to be particularly unique to me in comparison with the other heroines I studied. In attempting to understand her story, I found myself stuck in awe of Brontë’s novel, unable to form any concrete thoughts about the novel. When it came time to write an essay for my London course, I purposely avoided Jane Eyre despite my interest in it because I found myself struggling to look at the text objectively. I found myself unable to articulate my admiration. The only thought I could formulate about Brontë’s text is that Jane seemed particularly progressive relative to the other heroines in the Nineteenth-Century literature I have studied. This project is an attempt to understand my own response to Jane Eyre by considering Jean Rhys.

Keywords

Women in literature, Rhys Jean, Wide Sargasso Sea, Eyre Jane

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