On the Threshold of Feminism: Gender, Autonomy, and the Limits of Resistance in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre

Abstract

This study examines Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847) as a proto-feminist text, analysing the ways in which the novel simultaneously advances and retreats from feminist ideals. It is argued that the novel’s treatment of female identity, economic independence, and romantic love both approaches and departs from feminist objectives. Jane’s search for identity, economic autonomy as a foundation for gender equality, and her resistance to patriarchal models or marriage constitute the novel’s feminist dimensions. At the same time, the resolution’s dependence on class re-ordering, Rochester’s loss of power, and Jane’s ultimate relocation to the domestic sphere indicate the limitations of feminist resistance. The study also examines how the Bildungsroman genre and the Cinderella narrative structure frame and constrain the novel’s feminist energies. Jane Eyre is ultimately positioned as a proto-feminist novel that makes feminism thinkable while remaining unable to follow the inner logic.