CHARLOTTE BRONTE & FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Gender Formation as a Race, Class and Education Construct
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass both reveal a great deal about the impact of race, class and education on gender formation. Yet, gender formation includes both the formation of male and female roles. What is unique and most interesting about a comparison of this phenomenon in these works is that they both demonstrate how male and female gender roles are shaped by environmental factors, i.e., race, class and education. Typically, males are considered to be a dominant social force that limits the role of the female gender. However, as we shall see, both male and female gender formation are impacted by the environment, i.e., race, class and education.
In Jane Eyre, the author’s intent is for us to identify with the struggles of the female title character to find love and meaning for herself as she comes to terms with a harsh upbringing, dominant manipulative types, and suffers from being born plain and poor (read of the lower-classes). However, through education, courage and endurance, Jane comes to find love with the dark and handsome but mysterious and brooding master of Thornfield, Rochester. Jane is limited by her social or class position and she is timid and unsure of herself around those who dominate her. However, through education and travel she comes to find the courage and wisdom to be her own woman--one who yearns for love and romance. A big component of Jane’s character that allows her to form an identity and to find true love is her stubbornness of overcoming obstacles and failing to internalize conventional norms and mores. When she tells off Mrs. Reed, she is alive with the taste of her own voice and expression afterwards, though she is reminded by its aftertaste that interacting on any level with people who are unkind and filled with hatred ...