Throughout Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre, there are many components that would lead her readers to believe that it is an autobiography type book. While Bronte's life was not filled with all the Gothic elements that are present in her novel, there are many other notable resemblances between the lives of Bronte and her main character, Jane. First of all there is the death of someone close to them that they love by consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis). For Bronte, it is two of her sisters and for Jane it was her friend Helen. This connection shows the loss both these women faced and can be seen as Charlotte Bronte using the hardship of her sisters' deaths as motivation for her writing. Another similarity between Bronte and Eyre's life is that they both took a job as a governess. However, in this case, that is all the similarity between the two. During Bronte's time as a governess she was cruelly mistreated by her master family. Jane, on the other hand, was treated rather nicely-which was an oddity during this time period. The connection between this example, while smaller, can be assumed as Bronte's way of showing how she believed governesses should be treated while they stayed with a family. Finally, Bronte and Eyre both fell in love with someone who was well above them in station. Charlotte Bronte fell in love with one of her professors and Jane Eyre fell for her master at Thornfield Hall. Jane's relationship was more successful than Bronte's, but I doubt that there was any less affection present in Bronte's mind. This component could possibly be a wish wrote into the lines of another story by Bronte after her failure of a relationship with her professor. Whether or not these connections were placed here on purpose, they are still there, which allows the readers ponder Bronte's intent behind leaving them there. And while the whole story isn't all about Charlotte Bronte's life, there are just enough components to leave many literary scholars believing that its intent was to be an autobiography.
Lamonica, Drew. 'We Are Three Sisters': Self and Family int he Writing of the Bronte's. University of Missouri Press, 2003. EBSCOhost, thor.nebrwesleyan.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=113968&site=ehost-live.
Mettinger-Schartmann, Elke and Margarete Rubik. A Breath of Fresh Eyre : Intertextual and Intermedial Reworkings of Jane Eyre. Brill Academic Publishers, 2007. Internationale Forschungen Zur Allgemeinen Und Vergleichenden Literarurwissenschaft. EBSCOhost, thor.nebrwesleyan.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=211878&site=ehost-live.
I also used the "We Are Three Sisters" source and found out about the deaths that happened in Bronte's life. Using the deaths in both Bronte's and Jane's life is a good connection that links them together. I didn't know that Bronte was a governess like Jane was. You did a good job of explaining a few of the differences between them along with the similarities.
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