Università degli Studi di Padova
Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari
2023
Jane Eyre is one of the most celebrated female Bildungsromans in English
literature. Immediately after its first publication in 1847, Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece
became a huge success, and it still continues to be so to this day. Written in the first
person, the story revolves around the development and growth of its central female
character, Jane. Her quest for identity, personal freedom and equality, her assertion of not
only physical but also emotional and intellectual hunger, and her defiance of authority lie
at the heart of the novel.
Although the novel does not explicitly engage with nineteenth century British
imperialism, it was written during a time when the British Empire was at its zenith.
Therefore, contemporary readers of Jane Eyre might wonder to which extent Charlotte
Brontë’s novel was influenced and permeated by imperialist ideology. This thesis aims
to investigate the connection between Jane Eyre and British imperialism and attempts to
clarify the novel’s outlook on the British imperial mission. However, this work does not
claim to provide a clear-cut answer to the question it poses, that is whether Jane Eyre
could be considered a critique of imperialism. But it certainly endeavours to highlight the
ambiguities and the contradictions that emerge from a nineteenth century text that
celebrates the empowerment of a white, middle-class Englishwoman, yet relegates her
figuratively black, wealthy, West Indian counterpart in an attic.
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