For this week’s blog post, I decided to focus on a passage in the novel Jane Eyre that was provided by Sam. The passage is:
I rose; I dressed myself with care: obliged to be plain—
for I had no article of attire that was not made with extreme
simplicity—I was still by nature solicitous to be neat. It was
not my habit to be disregardful of appearance or careless
of the impression I made: on the contrary, I ever wished to
look as well as I could, and to please as much as my want
of beauty would permit. I sometimes regretted that I was
not handsomer; I sometimes wished to have rosy cheeks, a
straight nose, and small cherry mouth; I desired to be tall,
stately, and finely developed in figure; I felt it a misfortune
that I was so little, so pale, and had features so irregular and so marked. And why had I these aspirations and these regrets? It would be difficult to say: I could not then distinctly say it to myself; yet I had a reason, and a logical, natural reason too (150).
This except shows how societal expectations of women and girl’s bodily appearance has been pushed on Jane, causing her to be self conscious in the aspects of her body that she has no control over/cannot change. Jane dresses with the help that Mrs. Fairfax sees her as being an obedient student. She explains that it is in her nature to act neat but because she was ridiculed by the headmaster of the school, she wanted to try extra hard to outwardly look respectable. However, she feels that her body makes her look disrespectful and careless. Jane feels the pressure to look a certain way because society has framed her features as not fitting the perfect image. Jane’s desire to look more beautiful and to have rosy cheeks, a small mouth, and a straight nose, shows how Jane is deeply affected by the beauty standards that are being pushed down on her. She sees herself as being misfortune that she has marked irregular features, conveying how beauty standards create deep insecurities in women.
This passage also shows how women and girls are often viewed based on their appearance, rather than their actions. Jane is less concerned about how the way she acts will change Mrs. Fairfax’s impression of her. Rather, Jane is more concerned that if she does not look put together, she will be perceived as rude and not obedient. Her uniform for the school also shows how society works to control the image of girls, in this case the uniform aims to strip the students of their beauty in a way, and mold them into the obedient image of a godly pupil according to the school’s desires. It is also interesting here, that the headmaster, and the leaders of the school in general, desire to mold their students into images of God when those leaders of the school act in rude ways against the will of God. This passage shows how society works to control the bodily image of women and girls to create an outward message about who they are as a person, however outward appearance does not necessarily equate to who a person is on the inside.
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