r-middle classes, called for the separation of work and family life. It held that a woman's proper place was in the home and not in the workplace; a man's natural sphere was in the world of commerce--or, at any rate, at his job--and not at home.
Jane does not have to seek employment in industry because she is educated and can serve as a governess to the children of wealthier people. This sort of employment would continue to be given more respect than employment in manufacturing of commerce, and in some ways being governess could be seen as an extension of the view that women's work was in the home, just as it might be seen as a preparation for a young woman to have a home of her own.
Jane is a young woman who has led a difficult life, and her circumstances leave her with little choice but to find a suitable position. She must find a job that will use her talents, and it must be a job that is accepted by society. The job of governess is one that is open to women and that does not carry as much disapproval as would some others. The opening sequences of the novel indicate the life Jane has led. She is first seen when she is 10 years old and is living at Gateshead House with Mrs. Reed, her uncle's widow, and the three Reed children -Eliza, Georgiana, and John. John is a bully much indulged by his mother. He throws a book at Jane, and when she fights back Mrs. Reed blames her for starting the fight and claims she is lying about it. Jane is locked up in an empty bedroom, the red room, where she has a terrifying experience that she believes is a visitation from the ghost of her dead Uncle Reed. Red hereafter has an association in her mind with this terror. Jane is later turned over to the care of Mr. Brockelhurst, a clergyman obsessed with death. Her life at Lowood school is no better than what she knew at Gateshead:
My first quarter at Lowood seemed an age, and not the golden age either; it comprised an irksome struggle...