Jane Eyre

5.

An image of Mrs.Reed dressing pompously, picture of actress Sally Hawkins

When comparing Mr.Brocklehurst's lecture to Miss Temple and the attire of Mrs. and Misses Brocklehurst, it is most obvious that the author used situational irony, since the content of his speech ,which was concerned with dressing modestly and showing humility, was contradicted and downplayed by the way the two women dressed. Brocklehurst states: "I have again and again intimated that I desire the hair to be arranged closely, modestly, plainly.....I have a Master to serve whose kingdom is not of this world: my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh; to teach them to clothe themselves with shame-facedness and sobriety, not with braided hair and costly apparel" ( Bronte 64), and this discussion portrays his view that women should dress in a certain manner and claims that he has divine support to carry out this mission, however this is all contradicted and downplayed to the point of being dismissed since Jane states that she observed the discussion being interrupted by a group of three women who : " ...were splendidly attired in velvet, silk, and furs. The two younger of the trio (fine girls of sixteen and seventeen) had grey beaver hats, then in fashion, shaded with ostrich plumes, and from under the brim of this graceful head-dress fell a profusion of light tresses, elaborately curled; the elder lady was enveloped in a costly velvet shawl, trimmed with ermine, and she wore a false front of French curls" (Bronte 64-65), and the description of these women directly contradicted Mr.Brocklehurst's fervent belief concerning women's attire. The fact that the women were themselves called "Mrs. and the Misses Brocklehurst"(Bronte 65) determines that not only did their attire violate Mr. Brocklehurt's ideology, but that they were also apart of his own family thus revealing that Mr.Brocklehurt's lecture is hypocratic in nature since his own family doesn't even follow such rules!

Mr.Brocklehurst's statement ,"Naturally! Yes, but we are not to conform to nature"( Bronte 64), also portrays situational irony since the girls in this institution are subject to harsh conditions that include starvation and poor living standards, in order to feed and not starve their immortal souls, and this most certainly seems to be not conforming with nature, that is in the sense that nature extends to human needs, yet Mr. Brocklehurst's relatives seem to indulge and conform to nature by trying to imitate it, this is evident in this portion of the passage "the elder lady... wore a false front of French curls", in which one of the women was wearing a hairstyle that would have been explicitly forbidden to be possessed by any of the other women.

     The author portrays the perceptions of class during this time  by providing dialogue that shows the rules and regulations that the middle and lower classes must follow and by stating that women of  higher class were to some extent above the law even though those who upheld those certain rules tried to find justification withing a religious context, thus in a manner of speaking the fact that the Women disregarded the rules meant that they were above the divine law, or that that it didn't apply to them, with the only possible justification is that their immortal soul is already content and had met its needs. This portion of the passage is similar to Chaucer's criticism of the church with the only difference being the manner Chaucer portrayed the corruption of his time, however Both Bronte and Chaucer portray such situations using Irony with Chaucer's being mostly Dramatic irony since the Chaucer character in the Canterbury is portrayed as being naive and unaware of the corruption and evil nature of humans.

Works Citated:

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. London: J. M. Dent & sons Limited, 1908. Print.

"Jane Eyre." Good Reads. Good Reads, Mar. 2011. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.  

<http://www.goodreads.com/book/downloads/9715309-jane-eyre>.

Macdonald, Fiona, and Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre. Hauppauge, NY: Barrons Educational Series, 

2009. PSU.edu. Pennsylvania State University, 2009. Web. 5 Oct. 2014.  

<http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/bronte/jane-eyre.pdf>.