she is locked in the Red Room as punishment This shows that women especially orphans had no social power or protection Dependence on Marriage for Status Marriage was the only way for women to gain security Women were expected to marry rich men not for love but for wealth Blanche Ingram a rich lady wants to marry Rochester But her desire is based only on his money She looks down on Jane calling her a governess Bront shows how society forced women to think of marriage as a business not love Jane rejects this idea She believes marriage must be based on equality and respect not wealth or beauty Beauty Over Character Most Victorian novels showed heroines as beautiful and charming But Bront makes Jane different Jane is described as plain small and poor Yet she is intelligent moral and independent Rochester falls in love with her not for her beauty but for her courage and truth Rochester proposes Jane will you marry me However through Jane Bront shows that true worth lies in mind and spirit not in outward beauty She says I am a free human being with an independent will This was a challenge to society s view of women Limited Career and Low Position Women had very few career options Charlotte herself even published the novel using a male pseudonym Currer Bell The only respectable job for poor but educated women was to become a governess Jane works as a governess for Ad le at Thornfield Hall Governesses lived in a painful position above servants but below the family They had low pay and little respect Jane feels this social gap when Blanche and her friends mock governesses This shows the struggles of working women in Victorian England Struggle for Independence and Self-Respect Society wanted women to be silent and obedient But Jane fights for independence When Rochester s secret marriage to Bertha Mason is revealed Jane refuses to become his mistress She says I care for myself The more solitary the more friendless the more unsustained I am the more I will respect myself This shows her moral courage She values self-respect over comfort or wealth Again when St John Rivers proposes he wants her to marry him for duty not love Jane refuses saying she can not marry without true affection She proves that women have the right to choose their lives freely The novel Jane Eyre shows the harsh conditions of women in Victorian England They were judged by beauty wealth and marriage They had little respect few choices and no freedom But Charlotte Bront gives a new message through Jane Jane proves that a woman is not weak The novel is not only a story of romance It is also a protest against the injustice faced by women It gives women a new voice of courage and equality