Introduction

54
Vanessa Mangione
and why, on the other hand, the existence of female sexuality could be denied
altogether. 33
Jane Eyre questions basic institutions and concepts of a bourgeois patriarchal
society and can thus be considered to be a “ringleader of a feminist revolt against
its stifling conventions” (Mitchell and Osland 175). It was Jane’s discontent that
drew the most fervent protestation, as she seemed unable to appreciate the “simple
duties and pure pleasures” of a “proper” woman. The very temperament of
Jane’s passions, such as falling in love with her master Mr Rochester was judged as
inappropriate, and having such passions at all was considered as indecent (Mitchell
and Osland 177).
In this regard, Jane Eyre is a highly unconventional novel, as Jane declares her
independence as an individual who will not be governed by conventions and traditional
patriarchal beliefs, but only by her own conscience. However, she only narrowly
escapes the charm of the Byronic hero who almost tempts her into living
like him, ignoring and flouting divine power and laws. Ewbank notes that “measured
against the criterion of womanliness which states that the pure feminine
mind must, even theoretically or imaginatively, know no sin, no evil, no sexual
passion [Jane Eyre and even Charlotte Brontë] could not but seem ‘unwomanly’”
(42). The very questioning of the established gender roles was thus seen as unfeminine,
improper and scandalous.
It is difficult to assign the novel to a particular genre as it unites the romance
with the woman question and various other social themes, such as class, patriarchy
and religion. Jane Eyre voices the female hunger for sexual experiences and tries to
provide a surrounding in which the expression of these sexual desires might be
made possible and in which women are not condemned as mad when experiencing
sexual urges.
Brontë gives a demonstration of the symbolic and semiotic order by placing
characters in either the one category or the other. She thus reveals the dangers and
consequences those orders hold for women if they are forced or chose to comply
with only one. Jane will be confronted with a semiotic force in form of Mr Rochester,
the Byronic hero who acts as a catalyst for Jane’s strong inner sexual desires.
She almost loses herself in both, the semiotic and symbolic, as she has difficulties
resisting male sexual power, but eventually finds a way to balance these two orders.
33 Maynard comments that Michel Foucault was one of the first critics who concluded in his
History of Sexuality that the Victorians were, contrary to popular belief, rather concerned with the
subject of sexuality. It had been believed that within the Victorian period, sexuality was a topic
which had been completely ignored. Foucault corrects this view when he discusses that on the
one hand there were those who discussed the matter of sexuality quite openly, and on the other
hand were those Victorians who vehemently ignored or even denied the matter of sexuality. Either
way, the Victorians were obviously engaged in a ubiquitous discourse of sexuality (vii). Yet,
the term Victorianism is still connected with the idea of repressed or ignored sexuality.