A melancolia e a ânsia feminina por liberdade em Jane Eyre : uma análise sobre as limitações da vida da mulher vitoriana

Abstract

This article analyzes the female desire for freedom and the sense of melancholy arising from the limitations imposed on women in the Victorian era, using Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) as the object of study. Theoretically, it is grounded in the use of literature as a historical source, considering the author’s social reality and the context in which the work was written to understand the imagery and tensions of the period. The study examines how Victorian patriarchal society constrained women’s lives, causing stagnation; it aims to demonstrate how this social repression led them to dissatisfaction and melancholy, using the anxieties described by the character Jane for the investigation. The methodology consists of a literary and historiographical analysis from a feminist perspective, emphasizing the role of the governess due to its low social standing. Brontë’s work represents, through the protagonist, a sense of dissatisfaction and a desire for action and autonomy, defying Victorian morals that sought to reduce women to domestic passivity. Jane Eyre remains essential for understanding female sentiments regarding the patriarchy of the second half of the 19th century, demonstrating how financial independence and freedom allowed the protagonist to experience love without relinquishing her individuality or submitting to the power hierarchy of marriage.