Jane Eyre and a Woman's Role in Victorian England.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is a novel well ahead of it’s time, especially regarding the role of women in a society in which they were very subservient to the desires and whims of men, even more so than today. Jane Eyre is a young woman who struggles with those facts all her life and when she becomes engaged to her employer, Mr. Rochester, she finds herself in even more turmoil. Jane is being very contrary as preparations for her wedding reach a climax. There is the fact that Mrs. Fairfax treats Jane coldly because she did not realize that Jane was already engaged to Mr. Rochester when she allowed him to kiss her, and even after she learns the truth, Mrs. Fairfax maintains her disapproval of the marriage. That does nothing to put Jane at ease, and she feels as though Mrs. Fairfax will view her as a sort of loose, ridiculous woman. Jane feels unsettled, almost fearful, when   Mr. Rochester calls her by what will soon be her name, Jane Rochester. Jane tells him that everything feels impossibly ideal, like a fairy-tale or a daydream. Mr. Rochester certainly tries to turn Jane into a Cinderella-like figure: he tells her he will dress her in jewels and in finery befitting her new social station, at which point Jane becomes terrified and self-protective. She feels like if Mr. Rochester bestows her with all this wealth, he will somehow own her, and that goes against everything she has stood by her whole life.   She has a premonitory feeling that the wedding will not happen, and she decides to write her uncle, John Eyre, who is in Madeira. Jane reasons that if John were to make her his heir, her inheritance might put her on a more equal footing with Mr. Rochester, which would make her feel less uncomfortable about the marriage. Furthermore, Jane has a series of strange dreams that occur before Mr. Rochester arrives back in Thornfield. Jane dreams of holding a crying child in her arms, as she walks down a winding road towards Mr. Rochester. She tells Mr. Rochester of this...