What Class Does to the Mind : Class and social standing in Jane Eyre

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this essay is to examine the importance of class in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and its impact on how the characters perceive one another. Taking a closer look at the attitude the characters, John Reed, Jane Eyre and Mrs. Reed have towards each other and how the influence of the Victorian society came about. Through a Marxist perspective one can see the similarities between the society that Jane Eyre was written in and the society taking place within the novel. Where the accessibility of money determined what class one belonged to as well as how to behave accordingly by it. By analyzing the members of higher social standing, John and Mrs. Reed, one can see how they conform to the norms of the social class that they belong to which expresses itself in the way they both perceive and treat Jane in the novel. Jane however has an entirely different outlook. As she searches for a class to belong to, she realizes that her background is the main reason for her receiving the treatment that she does from John and Mrs. Reed.