Jane Eyre Intertextual Analysis

Jane Eyre, while a noteworthy Victorian Novel in itself, shares many similarities with another novel of the same era: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Both novels focus on a strong female character. In Jane Eyre, our main character is in fact Jane Eyre herself. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is our protagonist. Both Jane and Elizabeth share a strong personality, which sets them apart from other women of their time. Jane does not hesitate to speak her mind, and Elizabeth is strong-willed and proud woman who does not back down: traits that would be unheard of in women of this time period. Our leading ladies are also both of a relatively low class in their respective novels. Jane is an orphan with barely anything to her name, but Elizabeth comes from a family not exactly poor, but not wealthy either. Both characters struggle to rise above their classes through the course of their story. Jane tries to advertise her services, hoping to get away from the Lowood Institution she grew up in. Elizabeth defies the class system all together, disregarding such labels in her interactions with others.

Not only are the female characters the same, but the male protagonists of each story resemble each other profoundly. In Jane Eyre, Mr. Edward Rochester is a wealthy man and owner of Thornfield Hall. In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy is a wealthy man in charge of Pemberly estate. Both men meet the female protagonists and feel a kinship to them: for Mr. Darcy, it is love at first meeting, and for Mr. Rochester, it is a curious interest that seems to be growing at the end of Volume I. Also, both leading men are in charge of a younger girl, which acts as a means of interacting with the main females. Mr. Rochester is the suspected father of young Adele, of whom Jane is governess, and Mr. Darcy is the guardian of his younger sister Georgiana, whom Elizabeth strikes up a friendship with. In both novels as well, the male protagonists are enigmatic towards the female ones. Mr. Rochester is very blunt and forthcoming, whereas Mr. Darcy is stoic and distant. Both traits baffle the main characters of each novel.

Another interesting connection between the novels lies in the nature of the relationship between the two main characters. Both novels sport a pairing of two vastly different individuals: one silent and resigned, the other bold and strong-willed. In each novel, though, the role of each is flipped. In Jane Eyre, Jane is quiet and tame, following orders without question. She does not understand why Mr. Rochester acts the way he does because it is beyond her. Rochester in turn does not waste time in getting to his point and always spices up conversation with his own brand of wit. In Pride and Prejudice, however, Mr. Darcy is the stoic and silent character. He's always there, but he rarely talks much. Elizabeth is the proud and bold character, always indirectly taking a stab at Darcy.

After reading two different Victorian Novels, I have found that both resemble a particular Disney movie, perhaps because the storyline at their core transcends time itself. In Jane Eyre, Jane is at first exactly like Cinderella. Her relative, whom she was forced to live with, mistreats her, and always takes the side of the relative's bratty children. Once shipped off to Lowood, Miss Temple, Jane's fairy godmother swoops in to save her, weaving her a beautiful gown of etiquette and education. With this, she is able to attend the ball, in this story held at Thornfield, and meet her unlikely prince, Mr. Rochester. Pride and Prejudice also bears a strong resemblance to a Disney classic. Elizabeth, the beauty of the story, meets the beastly Darcy, and throughout the novel, their characters clash. Both fight the other, each one having to change for the other. In the end, it turns out that the beast is actually the prince, and the beauty regrets ever having acted the way she did towards him. Both novels are so iconic because they are examples of a stereotypical Victorian novel, but also because their base stories are ones that transcend time--Jane Eyre's "rags-to-riches" tale and Pride and Prejudice's unlikely romance of first impressions gone wrong.