Topic: Pursue equality
Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel；they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex. (page 82)
Author： Charlotte Bronte
It expresses the Jane's feeling of imprisonment. She longed for freedom and equality between male and female. It's the voice of the author, a woman, to speak out for proposal changes for Victorian women. It obviously indicates her passion to utter her own field. Jane, who represents the author, would like to learn more and do more than what traditions that regulate what women could do. She sought her own values as she grew up. This paragraph also satisfied the feminist criticism which women want to be equal as men.
Topic: Pursue freedom, independence
I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing (page 64).
Author： Charlotte Bronte
Jane pointed out that she desired liberty. She wanted to be an independent woman in that era. It is the most obvious quotation that expressed her passion of seeking freedom.
Topic: Not obey man's power
Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? - a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread...it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal, - as we are! (page 184)
Author： Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre directly told Mr. Rochester her feelings. She would rather run away from Mr. Rochester than staying as below him. She could not bear to not be treated equally. She was the woman who dare speak out for herself. She showed her independence as a woman- not rely on a man to survive. She created equality by moving the relationship out of the material world.
Topic: Speak for herself
The story starts in the Jane's first home, the Reed's in which she firstly learned to stand up for herself when she was bullied by her cousin John.
Author: Arnold A. Markley
As a ten-year-old young lady, Jane realized that she could not bare how people treated her in the Reed's. She knew that if she did not do anything wrong, she was not supposed to be treated like that. She had to fight for herself. She needed to stand up and to speak for herself. We can see that she was a brave, independent woman since she was young.
Topic: Not obey man's power. Pursue her own value.
Jane refused St. John's proposal to the marriage and decided to go back to Mr. Rochester.
Author: Arnold A. Markley
Jane made her own choice which indicates that she was an independent woman and had the courage to control her life. She decided who she wanted to be with. During the Victorian era, women's marriages usually depended on many reasons, but none of them because of love. However, Jane did not care about social classes or other reasons. She thought everyone was equal. She deserved the true love.
Topic: Pursue freedom, independence
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you (page 184).
Author: Charlotte Bronte
As an independent woman, Jane desired freedom. She would rather to leave Mr. Rochester than staying as a mistress. She held different value with traditioal victorian women who thought marriage was important for them because they needed to rely on male. Jane did not want to trap in love or the man's power. She desired to be her own.
Topic: Pursue her own value. Not rely on others.
I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss (page 146).
Author: Charlotte Bronte
Marriage was not that important for Jane. She did not lose her self-respect from marriage. She referred marriage because she did not want to control by man. She desired equality in a marriage. If it was not going to happen, she would rather not to get married. She was so independent that she wish not to rely on others.
Topic： Pursue her own value
"I longed to go where there was life and movement." Jane is formed not for religion, but for love. Her repressed nature now reasserts itself as she prepares to embark on a new adventure in life.
Author: Maria Yuen
She held her own values. She desired true love in her life. As a woman, she did not want to be the same as other women who were quiet, wish to change their life by getting married.
Topic: Not obey man's power
‘I’ll be preparing myself to go out as a missionary to preach liberty to them that are enslaved—your harem inmates amongst the rest (page 297).
Author: Azim, Firdous
Jane protests against this ‘Eastern’allusion and the comparison with women who are bought and sold as commodities in an ‘Eastern’ bazaar. Jane places herself in the role of educator and reformer.
Topic: Desire equality
I care for myself (page 344).
Author: Azim, Firdous
Jane expressed the desired position of strength. She held self-respective. Not letting the society assimilate her as other women.