Jane Eyre: Challenging Social BoundariesA woman growing up in the 21st century takes a lot of imagination to realize that not so long ago she wouldn't have had the rights that he has today. The freedom to choose a career, to marry or not, or to have children. During the Victorian age women had limited rights. They were considered to belong to the domestic sphere and stereotypically their job was to clean the house, cook dinner, raise children and be obedient to their husband. With "Jane Eyre" Charlotte Brontë questions this position of women in the social hierarchy of Victorian England. From the beginning of the novel the protagonist Jane struggles with her position in society. Ten-year-old orphan Jane lives with the Reed family at Gateshead Hall as a result of her late uncle Reed's dying wish. The problem of class consciousness quickly manifests itself in young John Reed's bullying of Jane; John, being the future head of the family, constantly reminds Jane of her inferior position. She is a dependent, has no wealth and therefore he is above her as her superior, which in his mind justifies his mistreatment of Jane. However, young Jane does not accept this treatment, nor John Reed's superiority over her person, as is evident in the following lines; The previous passage is also a clear example of Jane's strange position in society. She is not part of the elite class as she is not related to the Reeds, but Jane is also not part of the working class, like the servants, because she does nothing for her livelihood, placing her in an ambiguous place between the classes. .Charlotte Brontë uses Mr. Brockleburst to express the injustice of the way the upper-class elite treats the socially lower class...... middle of paper ......great fortune ultimately feels as if she and Mr. Rochester were truly equals, both intellectually and socially. So she feels she can return to him and marry him without fear of having to change herself, or that Mr. Rochester will degrade himself socially by marrying her. Furthermore, by making Jane a figure of ambiguous social standing and the embodiment of opposition regarding the position of women in Victorian England, Charlotte Brontë created a novel that explores the social class hierarchy for women in England during the Victorian age . With Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë shows her readers how women struggle to find their place in an age dominated by men and elites. Brontë argues that social status does not determine a woman's worth and competence but rather her virtues, values, and determination to work to establish a place for herself in society.