Editing Jane Eyre (section)

== Genres ==

=== Romance ===
{{Further|Romance (literary fiction)}}
Before the [[Victorian era]], [[Jane Austen]] wrote [[literary fiction]] that influenced later [[popular fiction]], as did the work of the [[Brontë sisters]] produced in the 1840s. Brontë's love [[Romance novel|romance]] incorporates elements of both the [[gothic novel]] and [[Elizabethan drama]], and "demonstrate[s] the flexibility of the romance novel form."<ref>{{cite book|first=Pamela |last=Regis |title=A Natural History of the Romance Novel |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2003 |page=85}}</ref>

=== Gothic ===
[[File:Bertha Mason illustration - Edmund Henry Garrett.jpg|thumb|150px|Bertha Mason, illustrated by [[Edmund H. Garrett]]]]
The [[Gothic fiction|Gothic genre]] uses a combination of supernatural features, intense emotions, and a blend of reality and fantasy to create a dark, mysterious atmosphere and experience for characters and readers. Jane Eyre is a homodiegetic narrator, which allows her to exist both as a character and narrator in the story world, and her narration establishes an emotional connection and response for the reader.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hume |first=Robert D. |date=March 1969 |title=Gothic Versus Romantic: A Revaluation of The Gothic Novel |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1261285 |journal=Publications of the Modern Language Association of America |volume=84 |issue=2 |pages=282–290 |doi=10.2307/1261285 |jstor=1261285 |s2cid=163496074 |issn=0030-8129}}</ref> This intentional, narrative technique works in tandem with Gothic features and conventions. Jane and the reader are unaware of the cause behind the "demoniac laugh--low, suppressed, and deep" or "a savage, a sharp, a shrilly sound that ran from end to end of Thornfield Hall," though the reason comes from Bertha Mason. The element of the unknown works in conjunction to the possibility of the supernatural. The intensity of emotions and reactions to Gothic conventions can solely exist in the protagonist's imagination. Instances that a protagonist interprets to be their imagination turns into reality. Jane's experience in the red room represents an aspect of Gothic conventions as Jane feels fear towards being punished in the red room because she believes and imagines that her dead uncle haunts the room.

The Gothic genre uses the [[Gothic double]]: a literary motif, which is described as the protagonist having a double, alter ego, or [[doppelgänger]] interpreted between Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason, where Bertha represents the other side of Jane and vice versa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gilbert |first1=Sandra M. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvxkn74x |title=The Madwoman in the Attic |last2=Gubar |first2=Susan |date=17 March 2020 |publisher=Yale University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctvxkn74x |isbn=978-0-300-25297-2}}</ref> The commonly used Gothic literary device, [[foreshadowing]], creates an environment filled with tension, ominousity, and dread. After Jane agrees to marry Rochester, a horse-chestnut tree in an orchard is struck by lightning, splitting the tree in half. The lightning strike is ominous and foreshadows Jane and Rochester's separation.

The Gothic Genre in tandem with Murphy's the "New Woman Gothic" establishes an opportunity to go against the Romantic's concept that the antagonist is usually a villainous father.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Margree |first=Victoria |date=2016 |title=The New Woman Gothic: Reconfigurations of Distress by Patricia Murphy |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/vcr.2016.0051 |journal=Victorian Review |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=197–198 |doi=10.1353/vcr.2016.0051 |s2cid=164785994 |issn=1923-3280}}</ref> The Gothic genre allows there to be a complex consideration of who or what hinders Jane's happiness. The barriers Jane experiences, whether related to social class, societal and cultural norms, Bertha Mason, or Rochester, have antagonistic elements.

=== Bildungsroman ===
The [[Bildungsroman]] representation in ''Jane Eyre'' uses romantic elements that emphasise the journey of one pursuing the discovery of one's identity and knowledge.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Maynard |first=Lee Anna |date=2019 |title=The True Heir of Jane Eyre: Roald Dahl's Matilda Wormwood |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/721707 |journal=CEA Critic |volume=81 |issue=1 |pages=42–50 |doi=10.1353/cea.2019.0007 |issn=2327-5898|doi-access=free }}</ref> Jane Eyre desires the thrill and action that comes from being an active individual in society, and she refuses to allow the concept of gender and class to hinder her.

Bildungsroman was primarily viewed through male life progression, but feminist scholars have worked to counteract the male norm of bildungsroman by including female development.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fraimen |first=Susan |title=Unbecoming Women: British Women Writers and the Novel of Development |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1993 |isbn=9780231080019}}</ref> Experiences that deem a female narrative to be bildungsroman would be the female protagonist discovering how to manage living in a restrictive society.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Locy |first=Sharon |date=2002 |title=Travel and Space in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4142093 |journal=Pacific Coast Philology |volume=37 |pages=105–121 |doi=10.2307/4142093|jstor=4142093 }}</ref> The novel's setting is the English society of the early 19th century, and with that time setting come specific restrictions women encountered during that time, such as the law of [[coverture]], the lack of rights, and the restricted expectations placed on women. Jane Eyre does not specifically and directly deal with the restrictions of, for example coverture, but her character lives in a society where coverture exists, which inadvertently impacts social and cultural norms and expectations. Progression in the bildungsroman does not necessarily occur in a linear direction. Many narratives that employ bildungsroman do so through the protagonist's development of maturity, which is represented through the protagonist's experiences from childhood to adulthood; this progression is in conjunction with the novel's narrative technique set as an [[autobiography]]. Temporally, the beginning of the novel begins with Jane at age ten and ends with Jane at age thirty, but Jane's development of maturity goes beyond her age. For example, Jane's emotional intelligence grows through her friendship with Helen Burns as Jane experiences and processes the loss of her friendship with Helen.

Many times, the 19th-century female bildungsroman can be interpreted as the heroine's growth of self and education in the context of prospective marriage, especially when, in the context of 19th-century womanhood, a wife experiences new knowledge in the private sphere of her role. Jane develops knowledge and experience regarding a romantic journey before her almost marriage to Mr. Rochester; a physical, spiritual, and financial knowledge during her time with St. John; and lastly, with her marriage with Mr. Rochester at the end of the novel.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=8. The Feminine Bildungsroman: Education through Marriage |date=31 December 2020 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.18574/nyu/9780814723371.003.0011/html |title=Women, Love, and Power |pages=122–144 |access-date=27 November 2023 |publisher=New York University Press |doi=10.18574/nyu/9780814723371.003.0011 |isbn=978-0-8147-2337-1}}</ref> Jane's search for excitement and understanding of life goes beyond her romantic journey.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Simons |first=Louise |date=1985 |title=Authority and "Jane Eyre": A New Generic Approach |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44376970 |journal=CEA Critic |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=45–53 |jstor=44376970 |issn=0007-8069}}</ref> In the text, Jane's childhood beliefs about religion, as seen in her interactions with Mr. Brocklehurt, shift considerably in comparison to her friendship with Helen in Lowood as a child and in her marital and missionary rejection of St. John as an adult woman.