Essay on Social Conventions in Jane Eyre and Hedda Gabler

Social Conventions in Jane Eyre and Hedda Gabler Charlotte Brontes novel Jane Eyre and Henrik Ibsens turn Hedda Gabler were written within fifty years of each other in the late 1800s. Both Jane and Hedda exist within the same brotherly contexts. They argon women of the middle class in European cultures. The fact Jane is penniless by dint of much of the novel does not exclude her from the middle class. Jane and Heddas experiences, education and value all belong to the middle class. Therefore it should be no surprisal their words echo. In detail and outcome their stories are different. However, it is the constraints of the same social conventions which drive their different destinies. It is the same wateriness of social convention with worship and spirituality that pains both their existences. Confusing social convention with legal, moral, and phantasmal codes of conduct is a phenomena not confined to the 19th century. It is this same confusion that created Jim Crow Laws, anti-g ay legislation and fuels the fire of the abortion rights debate. Social conventions of the 1800s did not go forth women of the middle class to live independently. With few exceptions women moved from fathers household to husbands household. It was the fathers right to arrange a suitable marriage. In truth there capacity be a carefully selected few to choose from, but every unauthorized selection would hold severe consequences for both men and women. Jane Eyres puzzle was disowned because she chose to marry an unapproved man. Jane would suffer because of this transgression, which occurred before she was even born. After being orphaned, Jane lives with her aunt Reed. She is continually reminded she is a dependent and is unloved by her r... ...ton Prentice Hall, 1992. Ellis, Kate and Kaplan, Ann. 19th Century Women at the Movies Adapting Classic Womens Fiction to Film. Bowling Green, OH Popular, 1999 Jane Eyre. Dir. Christy Cabanne. Perf. Virginia Bruce, Colin Clive, and Bery l Mercer. 1934. Jane Eyre. Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Perf. William Hurt, Charlotte Gainsborough, and Anna Paquin. 1996 Jane Eyre. Dir. Julian Aymes. Perf. Timothy Dalton, Zelah Clarke. 1983 Jane Eyre. Dir. Robert Stevenson. Perf. Joan Fontaine, Orson Welles, and Margaret OBrien. 1944 Peters, Joan D. Finding a Voice Towards a chars Discourse in Dialogue in the Narration of Jane Eyre. Studies in the Novel. 23 no 2. (1991) 217-36. Zonana, Joyce. The Sultan and the Slave Feminist Orientalism and the Structure of Jane Eyre. Signs. 18 no 3. (1993) 592-617