Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë:
Feminism – In what ways might Jane Eyre be considered a feminist novel? What points does the novel make about the treatment and position of women in Victorian society? With particular attention to the book’s treatment of marriage, is there any way in which it might be considered anti-feminist?
Religion – Jane Eyre, Helen Burns, St. John, and Mr. Brocklehurst represent three possible approaches to religion. (How does the novel represent each of these characters? What does Jane learn from each of them? What is the relationship between gender and religion? What is the relationship between class and religion? How do these three characters fit with the developing theme of personal freedom? What obstacles do they represent?)
Class – How does Jane Eyre challenge the class structure of British society? (How does the use of a governess as a protagonist allow the novel to criticize these structures? Why is a governess a wild card in the social structure? Where does she fit in the class structure? Consider the factors of education, background, wealth, and gender.)
The research paper must be at least 5-6 pages in length (Work Cited does not count), and it must adhere to MLA standards and guidelines. Further, you must include a minimum of six “secondary sources” in your paper (explained below), and it must include a “Works Cited” page. ALL sources MUST come from the GCSC library’s academic databases Links to an external site.. You must also include quoted material from your sources in your essay to support your argument.
Introduction
The introduction presents the relevance/importance of the work you have chosen, and may:
Offer a brief background of the work,
Author(s) (birth/death/other brief, interesting, relevant facts, only as they pertain to the story)
Name of work(s)
Year(s) of publication and historical context
Offer a brief summary of the entire work (no more than three sentences)
Offer your thesis (the claim you are focusing on/the direction you are taking/the argument you are making about what the story truly means or stands for = your topic + how it affects a person/people/humanity)
Body
The body is the heart of the analysis, and will:
Present examples from the text and discuss their meaning to illustrate and back up your thesis
Explore larger themes in the work
Examine historical/contextual meaning
Analyze the work in terms of questions it poses / arguments it makes
Incorporate ideas from six outside sources of critical analysisLinks to an external site. to back up your claims about the story
Conclusion
The conclusion is where you can examine the work from a “big picture” point of view, so you should:
Discuss what specifically makes the work powerful, in a larger context
Discuss the work’s larger place in society/culture
Discuss what others can hope to take away from the work if they read it
Of course, your interest will spark your topic choice, and the introduction of the work, the development of the paper, and the conclusion you draw will be based upon your interpretation of the work.
Remember, if you clearly show the connection between the text and your interpretation of the text, your analysis cannot be wrong! An analysis fails only when the connection between text and interpretation is not clearly made!
