The Presentation of Entrapped Protagonists in Jane Eyre and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Claudia Mason 12th Grade

In both the 19th century fictional autobiography of Jane Eyre, and the 21st century memoir by Jeanette Winterson, protagonists are presented as being trapped within the oppressive worlds that they inhabit. Winterson and Eyre fight many battles, struggling to overcome the oppressive attitudes of two societies - which whilst over 100 years apart seek to control the women through patriarchy and strong religion. Also clear within the two texts, is a struggle to escape from oppressors within their home, seen in Bronte’s proto-feminist novel in the dominating figure of Mr Rochester and in Winterson’s bildungsroman in the looming figure of Mrs Winterson. The protagonists additionally fight to escape from their own oppressive psyches - a lifelong war, which, along with the eternal presence of society and the fates the narrators secure at the end of the texts, suggest that the female protagonists are unable to entirely escape from the oppressive worlds in which they live. Jeanette however without doubt manages to obtain a far greater degree of freedom than Jane, illustrating an improvement in the liberation of women throughout time.

In both texts, passion felt by the women is suppressed by the constraints of society - be it by the...