Miss Jane and Miss Eyre: From Student to Teacher in Jane Eyre

Abstract

[Abstract] Jane Eyre is considered to be one of the most significant Victorian novels within the English literary canon as well as a governess novel. However, apart from her experience as governess, it must not be forgotten that, first of all, Jane was a student. Education has shaped the protagonist’s life and the plot of the novel making it one of the main topics of Jane Eyre and other Charlotte Brontë’s literary works such as The Professor (1857) and Villette (1853). The main aim of this essay is to study how education has shaped Jane Eyre both as a student and a teacher and how it has affected the outcome of the novel. In order to do so, a close reading of the novel is carried out along with a sociocultural background of Victorian society.

[Resumen] Jane Eyre es considerada una de las novelas más significativas tanto del canon literario inglés como de la ‘novela de institutriz’. Sin embargo, aparte de su experiencia como institutriz, no se debería olvidar que, antes que todo, Jane era una alumna. La educación ha moldeado la vida de la protagonista y el argumento de la novela haciendo que sea uno de los temas principales de Jane Eyre y otras novelas de Charlotte Brontë como The Professor (1857) y Vilette (1853). El objetivo principal de este trabajo es estudiar como la educación ha moldeado a Jane Eyre tanto como alumna y profesora y como ha afectado a la resolución de la novela. Con este objetivo, se ha llevado a cabo una lectura detallada de la novela además de una contextualización sociocultural de la sociedad victoriana.