3.3. Excerpts from Poovey

Poovey makes states a strong argument based on the role of Jane Eyre as a governess in a Victorian society. He clearly emphasises on the contrast between the elements of expectation and temptation that existed within the view the aristocracy had of governesses.

"The governess is also significant for [an] analysis of theideological work of gender because of the proximity she bears to two of the most important Victorian representations of women: the figure who epitomized the domestic ideal, and the figure who threatened to destroy it." (Poovey,"The Anathematized Race" 236) 

Governesses was an important part within the existence of the Victorian era, and therefore had a great influence upon the development thereof. Every privileged household made use of a governess to educate their children within their own house, this meant that governesses were accepted as part of the staff but more importantly the household itself. They had rooms within the house and permanently remained close to the family, which sometimes lead to conflict because in a way it threatened the existence of it. Often there was heard of masters and their governesses that became involved with one another and therefore it became important for governesses to prevent any display of temptation and sexuality.

"The governess was therefore expected to preside over the contradictions written into the domestic ideal - in the sense both that she was meant to police the emergence of undue assertiveness or sexuality in her maturing changes and that she was expected not to display willfulness or desires herself." (Poovey, "The Anathematized Race" 236)

Poovey makes it clear that he is of opinion that the responsibility rested with a governess to constrict herself in such a manner that she could not tease or tempt any males. Jane Eyre is proof of this as she felt like she had to constrict herself even more after Rochester proposed to her. To Jane it was important to not allow herself to show Rochester how she felt about him because it was not her place to do so, Jane definitely felt that she should not display any desires for Rochester.

"Not a mother, the governess nevertheless performed a mother's tasks; not a prostitute, she was nevertheless suspiciously close to the signalised women; not a lunatic, she was nevertheless deviant simply because she was a middle-class women who had to work because she was always in danger of losing her middle-class status and her 'natural' morality" (Poovey, Uneven Developments 14)

The role of a governess was complex and integrated as they were constantly just one of many things. The line between right and wrong were faded and sometimes not fully understood by the aristocracy. They were women that had to work in a society where it was not accepted for women to be 'respectably' employed, and they had to be a mother-figure to the children without getting personally involved within the family. This was something that Jane personally also struggled with, especially because Adele was an orphan and because Rochester seemed not to have a wife. These perceptions caused Jane Eyre to be in constant battle with herself and thereby distancing herself in fear that she would contradict the domestic ideal that would cause her to lose her morality.

Poovey has a very direct approach to this situation in which governesses put themselves in, and therefore he makes it clear as to why Jane Eyre sometimes reacted the way she did and thereby allows the reader to more fully understand the novel itself. Governesses was a difficult process and situation to be involved in and that is something that can drawn from the character of Jane Eyre.