Jane Eyre Question 8

Jane Eyre was written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847. The time period in the novel would probably be said to be in the 1800s. The United States in the 1800s was made up of pioneers and did not have social classes. Now in Europe it was totally different. People were separated into three social classes but mainly were either at the top or at the bottom. The upper class consisted of rich, intelligent people who had mansions and owned a lot of land. The middle class was just normal people, which is what most people are today in the world. Lastly, the lower class was made of poor people who were mainly servants. If you were born into an upper class, you stayed there and could not move into a lower class. In the story of Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester was in the upper class because he was a master and Jane was in the lower class. Jane was an orphan as a kid and sent to a poor school, which would explain why she was in the lowest class. When Mr. Rochester fell in love with Jane and finally proposed to her, that was frowned upon in the 1800s. People were supposed to marry someone in their class. But you cannot stop two people from falling and staying in love.

Brontë, Charlotte, Susan Ostrov. Weisser, and George Stade. Jane Eyre. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003. Print.