The fate of an intelligent woman in the middle of Victorian England is mostly what Jane Eyre represents. The voice of Charlotte Bronte as a feminist narrator made makes it clear to the reader how difficult it was for women the the society of the Victorian era. The changes and developments of the status and roles of women within the aristocracy of the 18th century forms part of the plot, form and structure of this bildungroman.
'What do women want?" was the question that still needed a revised and disputed awnser. Jane Eyre identifies some of these elements, such as education, law , property, religion, service and family. The opening of the Queen's College in 1848 and Bedford College in 1849 higher education and 'respectable' employment was made available for women. There was also the first organised feminist committee that worked hard at having women's rights legally recognised and thereby allowing a more equal footing with men. Laws that allowed women to have the right to a will, a right to children and divorce and also rights to separate property.
Women also undertook various activities which removed them from the traditional domestic habitat, moving towards various employment forms. Women also started to question the conventional restrictions upon them within society and thereby made more radical improvements to their situations.
Jane Eyre clearly represents some of these women, and the changes that they wanted and required within society. Jane herself as an independent woman also refused to fall within the conventional and traditional entrapment of women and this has an enormous effect upon the plot of the novel. Women struggled throughout he Victorian era just to get what they wanted and that was merely as simple as being treated equal with men.
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