Research Task 3: Becoming a Governess

1

The men were confused about where a woman’s place in the society was; because of the fact that feminists ensured that the women and men will have the same opportunities and rights. The women question was the concern of the people, but most important because the men were struggling to accept that women can also get educated and own their own property and have equal rights to them.

These change in society confused the men of the Victorian era, because they were not the only people in society with power, it now had to be shared with the women. Men could no longer manipulate and abuse women, because women could now be in control of the situation. During this movement getting a divorce was also made legal, which made it possible for the women to find a way out of their abusing situation. The 

women were no longer trapped in their situation and this change in society confused a lot of men.

2

Governesses had to work for their money so one can say that a governess came from the working class where the there ladies that visited Mr. Rochester lived as middle-class people. In chapter 11, Jane is surprised how she is treated as a visitor in the house of Mr. Rochester. Jane is allowed to read in the library and Jane was able to talk openly with Mr. Rochester about how to understand his own daughter.

The manner in which Jane is treated at the Rochester household differs from in society, because in chapter 14 Jane is been scolded at by a man for the way in which she as a governess talks to him. In chapter 16 Jane is told to draw a self portrait without softening it and to write governess below the picture. In chapter 17 one can clearly understand the views of the middle-class ladies towards a governess. Jane is referred to of Adele’s governess and Miss Ingram talks about her memories with her governess as a young girl and Amy Eshton is talking about how she would question her governess. Both of the ladies agree that a governesses and tutors should not be involved and that they will also hire a governess someday because they do not want to raise their children on their own.

                                                             3

It is well known by this time in the novel that a governess was from the working class but society was afraid that the governesses acted like they were also middle class. The middle-class people saw this as a threat because the barrier or separation from the classes was starting to break down, meaning that the middle-class people were not seen as more important. One of the duties of a governess was to teach the children good values, meaning that so a governess also had to have good values herself.

A governess could not marry a servant because they were seen as a higher class, but a governess could also not marry into the middle-class, because they had to work for them. A governess did all the duties that normally a mother, from the middle-class should do, but they could not me named one.