Society's Impact on Jane Eyre For the middle classes, the years before the publication of Jane Eyre were a time of turbulence and change from which the family provided a refuge of stability and safety. At the center of the family was the "Angel of the Hearth", a Madonna-like wife and mother from whom all morality flowed. Not everyone agreed, but the view was supported by traditional political and religious beliefs, and girls were taught that they should aspire not to self-will and self-control, but to submission and giving in to the control of others, to live for others. ; completely giving up on themselves and having no life except in affection. Despite some social reforms and widespread debate on the role of women, the idea was tenacious. Soon after the publication of Jane Eyre, while John Stuart Mill wrote of "a principle of perfect equality" for men and women, Mrs. Lynne Linton complained that the Girl of the day was excessively resourceful and independent, comparing poorly to the " simple and genuine girl". of the past." Many, but not all, middle classes agreed, and by the end of the century the Period Girl had matured into the "New Woman," a predatory figure who rejected marriage, advocated contraception, and wanted independence through paid work. For those, like Mrs Linton, who supported the status quo, this represented a state of anarchy. If society was built on the family, which in turn depended on a particular role for women, changing that role meant threaten the whole structure of society. Novels and periodicals, widely read at the time, offered a good medium in which to discuss the "women's question", since fate has reserved for the characters...... half of the paper.... ..:Linton, E Lynn, "The Girl of the Period", Saturday Review, 14 March 1868Mill, John Stuart, The Subjugation of Women, (Everyman edition, 1965) Lerner, Laurence (ed.), The Context of Literature English; the Victorians, (Methuen and Co Ltd, 1978) Miles, Rosalind, The fiction of sex, (Vision Press Ltd, 1974) Stoker, Bram, Dracula, (Pan books, 1992) Internet articles: Jackson, Mark, The position of middle classifying women as a context for Bronte's Jane Eyre, (http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/victorian/cbronte/73cbwomen.htm) Landow, George P, In what sense is Jane Eyre a feminist novel? (http://www.stg .brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/victorian/cbronte/brontel.html)Steyer, PJ, Jane Eyre, Protofeminist, against the "man in third person"(http:// www.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/victorian/cbronte/steyer7.html