![]() ![]() Victorian novels with similar styles and goals include Charles Dickens' semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, David Copperfield (1849-50), and Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton (1848) and North and South (1855). ![]() ![]() Brontë uses Jane's marriage as a metaphor for resolving England's political issues. Victorian novels, including Jane Eyre, depict social panoramas with characters representing different economic and social classes, as well as gender differences. Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age story, in which the protagonist's aspirations are set against the pressures and expectations of society. But as Jane matures, her autobiography likewise takes on Victorian themes and characteristics. Jane Eyre is indebted to earlier Gothic novels, with its mysteries, supernatural events, and picturesque scenery. To paraphrase Virginia Woolf, modern readers often assume that Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, published in 1847 under the ridiculous pseudonym Currer Bell, will be old-fashioned and difficult to relate to, only to be astonished by a novel that largely feels as fresh and modern today as it did in the 19 th century. The most popular literary form in the Victorian period was the novel, and Jane Eyre illustrates many of its defining characteristics: social relevance, plain style, and the narrative of an individual's inner thoughts. ![]()
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