In her story, “Jane Eyre: An Autobiography”, Charlotte Brontë tells a story of a female human Victorian woman passing through a series of internal character struggles that progress as Jane Eyre moves away from a life of being undifferentiated from mere furniture or pasture animal in a man’s home to, instead, becoming an extension of his own body in what’s today commonly, but not exclusively, called a “ride or die relationship”. Virginia Woolf describes her reaction to this metamorphic process of personal growth from farm to table in her essay, “Professions for Women”, as she describes the continuous depreciation and rejection of these reins. Between Brontë and Woolf, the concept of what a woman is to “be” or not is discussed in varying degrees of certainty that invite much room for discussion that shows similarities and differences in opinion between the two authors that reveal substantial complications in the notion of shared personality traits that had been so ingrained into traditional female identity.
Woolf opens with saying, “The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions.” (Woolf 235-236). What she means here is that prior to this success, the level of access to professions, for women, was prohibitive in relation to cost demanded by the application. It’s a callout to past society that featured women predominantly as adornments of a home, such as the one Brontë describes in “Jane Eyre”, where women were depicted as being left with relatively little access to money and generally found themselves in subordinate positions under the “guidance” of a “master” of a home, often a firstborn son or their husband. This was a remnant practice of Christian religious tradition so prevalent in European culture following the conquests of the Holy Roman Empire that left the societies bereft of their original traditions and instilled a unified practice that came to dominate all aspects of Western society. Woolf perceives professions “outside the home” to’ve required sums of money that were beyond the reach of women, in order to obtain access to them. That she discusses other professions in which success would be had indicates her reasonable opinion that there are certainly other professions that she feels women would excel at.
This mentality parallels Brontë’s ideals as in the first and second parts of “Jane Eyre”, in which Brontë writes of a woman that definitionally must live in a confining way due predominantly to limited access to money, and by extension of this the agency and autonomy that money could afford. Brontë doesn’t explicitly write this, but it’s implied by the third part of the book where Jane’s bestowed inheritance money and then her personality changes. Had Jane been given money from an early age, she wouldn’t have had to be raised by her aunt that hated her, nor would she’ve had to attend the cheapest and most dangerous boarding school, nor would she have set out on a life that lead her to such conditions that lead her to meeting Mr. Rochester. It was because these three things were so “cheap” that Jane was so successful at doing them, for her clear level of aptitude and talent would’ve enabled her to excel at any opportunity. This was apparent on various character descriptions such as the one from Bessie who says of Jane, “I dare say you are clever, though.” (Brontë 113). Jane was also called an early riser, quite a lady, not so unsophisticated, not naturally austere, along with many other similar character descriptions of her pre-inheritance self. These descriptions of Jane in Brontë’s story form a narrative of a woman that’s not lacking in capability or talent, and was one who excelled in these positions not because they’re cheap to her but because they were those which were accessible to her.
Woolf and Brontë indicate that this homebound lifestyle and type of work indicated a level of naivety in women that impacted their perceived ability to meaningfully participate in society and it was only upon internalizing and accepting falsehood, and by extension accepting the corruption of ones psyche (particularly women’s) at a societal level, that enabled the continuation of such a practice in society. Woolf revealed that a woman to is be fierce, someone that would eviscerate these types notions at every opportunity (she writes of killing a personified “The Angel of the House”), whereas Brontë depicts Eyre as a fiercely independent woman, at the end of her story, whose existence will revolve around her monogamous partner. Woolf describes this by using the metaphor of “The Angel of the House” and the external perceptions of men being impediments to this profession despite its accessibility when she writes, “The consciousness of what men will say of a woman who speaks the truth about her passions had roused her from her artists state of unconsciousness. She could write no more.” (Woolf 240). This was to indicate the stifling effects of men simply being perceived to exist as holding opinions from the state which she writes as to surmount a metaphoric assault on through her writing were sufficient to impede her professional ability to write. She further explains later in saying that it’s a personal struggle and there are many more “ghosts to fight” in exactly the same way that contemporary results are often the opposite of her possible expectations, of these resulting impressions of men on women who speak their truth.
Brontë indicates a redoubling of these effects of subordination and sacrifice after persisting through the dispensing of falseness, instead asserting that it’s Jane’s priority to do exactly this. In “Jane Eyre”, Brontë writes, ““To be your wife is for me to be as happy as I can be on Earth … Sacrifice? What do I sacrifice? Famine for food, expectation for content, to be privileged to put my arms around what I value, to press my lips to what I love, to repose on what I trust, is that to make a sacrifice? If so, then certainly I delight in sacrifice … I love you better now when I can really be useful to you” (Brontë 23:11:00 – 23:12:11). In saying this, Jane was alluding to her recent acquisition of autonomy and agency through the inheritance and Rochester’s subsequent and commensurate loss in it through his “house” burning down. In Brontë’s story, Jane has more closely embraced the notion of “The Angel of the House” that Woolf writes so vehemently of and in doing so it becomes apparent that their individual opinions vary based on the individual circumstances and a blanket statement of what a woman ought to be wouldn’t suffice to explain either authors thoughts on the matter alone despite both of their discussions being valid and pertinent to the discussion.
Neither one of them claims what a woman is to be, exactly, although their opinions do overlap as they discuss individual aspects. Both seem to agree on what a woman was, previously. Their current versions of what a woman is vary, and each could be imagined to say that there would be no individually appropriate profession for exclusively women, any more than previously that role was supposed to be in the home in a past society. Woolf closes in discussing time as the barrier to defining this, time to reflect and continue, to explore. She indicates this when she wrote, “Those are the questions that I should like, had I time, to ask you.” (Woolf 241). She is saying that a review of all extant literature is necessary to find aspects of womanhood and identify them, and encounter those ghosts, in order to further define what that would be.
This essay’s discussed two writings, one from Charlotte Brontë and one from Virginia Woolf that explore what the role of women are in this modern world. Between Brontë and Woolf, the concept of what a woman’s to “be” or not is discussed in varying degrees of certainty that has room for discussion that shows similarities and differences in opinion between them. Neither one of them claims what a woman is to be, exactly, although their opinions do overlap. Both seem to agree on what a woman was, previously, but their current understanding of what a woman is to be varies necessarily so based on individual circumstances that rely on equity and equality regarding level of access to professional society in order to retain autonomy sufficient to justify continued participation in reasonable society.
Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Narrated by Olivia Lane. Gates of Imagination, 2024, Audible, Accessed 5 Aug. 2024.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Amazon, 2023, Amazon Kindle, Accessed 6 Aug. 2023.
Woolf, Virginia. “Professions for Women.” The Death of the Moth: And Other Essays, Hogarth Press, London, 1942, pp. 235–242. Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.