1. In ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Rebecca’
External Restraints
In ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Rebecca’

2. Objectification Jane Eyre – The Red Room
The red room is symbolic of Jane’s sexual desires she has as a female.
“Crimson”
“blush”
“pink”
The colours alone are very significant. The word choice here is used to show how though she is locked up she is locked in with these sexual desires she is supposed to leave behind in the red room. The pinks represent her femininity and red shows her sexual wants.
Being locked away shows how she is pulled away from theses desires.
“a great looking-glass between them repeated the vacant majesty of the bed and room”
This quote is suggestive of the separation of body and mind. She is separated from the ‘bed’ – being her desires which have been abandoned.
The red room is an overall metaphor of Jane’s sexuality and shows how she is forced to ignore it. This is suggestive of the objectification towards women as it shows how they are primarily viewed as a sexual objects during the 19th century.

3. Jane Eyre – Lowood
At Lowood Jane and the other girls are subjected to do what older housewives do, unlike the boys.
“for we make our own clothes, our frocks, and pelisses”
“I have a Master to serve whose kingdom is not of this world: my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh; to teach them to clothe themselves with shame-facedness and sobriety, not with braided hair and costly apparel; and each of the young persons before us has a string of hair twisted in plaits which vanity itself might have woven: these, I repeat, must be cut off; think of the time wasted”
This shows how Jane and the girls were ridiculed because of their gender. Focusing of ‘lusts of the flesh’ this is suggesting the females as a whole are sexualised objects.

4. These external restraints limit Jane from being able to progress through her time at Gateshead and Lowood due to her being objectified as a woman. She cannot release herself from this place in society as women were viewed as sexual objects who were primarily just housewives.

5. Rebecca – A Sexualised Shadow
The narrator feels as though she is constantly in Rebecca’s shadow. However, Rebecca was a very alluring individual thus making it hard for the narrator to compete.
“If I had a child, Max, neither you, nor anyone in the world, would ever prove that it was not yours.”
This shows no ambiguity. Rebecca is clearly stating that she has slept with other men thus creating a larger shadow that is casted over the narrator.
“I could picture them saying to one another as they drove away, ‘My dear, what a dull girl. She scarcely opened her mouth.’, and then the sentence I had first heard upon Beatrice’s lips, haunting me ever since, a sentence I read in every eye, on every tongue – ‘she’s so different from Rebecca.’
This reflects how Rebecca formed a great shadow over the narrator. It shows the narrators insecurities and how the narrator feels as though she is expected to follow the role of the perfect wife who pleases everyone around her, just as she thought Rebecca did. She feels inferior to Rebecca, thus stepping into her shadow.

6. This shows a great extent of limitations as the narrator tries to change herself due to the restraint Rebecca has over the narrator. However, Rebecca herself also has an unconventional attitude towards sex which restrains her to be objectified for it but the narrator is put under her shadow and is objectified for this. This emphasise the injustice and restrictions upon them as it shows they cannot be either of these things.

7. Social Classes Jane Eyre – Poverty
Jane constantly reminds herself that she is poor throughout her life and other characters know this too which limits what she can do.
“You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poor-house.”
“poverty for me was synonymous with degradation”
This shows how the Reeds limited Jane’s perspective of poverty and being poor. Jane’s lack of money allows Mrs Reed to have a hold over her and this means she cannot have control. Soon she related poor people with negative connotations and limits her views and her own opinions.
Also, ‘turn you off’ suggests that Jane could be easily shut down and thrown away.

8. Rebecca – Mrs Van Hopper
The narrator is employed by Mrs Van Hopper and is treated like a maid.
“trailing in the wake of Mrs Van Hopper”
“Funny to think that the course of my existence hung like a thread upon that quality of hers.”
This highlights how the narrator is treated poorly and is objectified due to her class and money. Focusing of ‘hung like a thread’ this simile signifies how she is very limited to what she can do, one wrong move and she could lose everything whereas Mrs Van Hopper will remain safe and remain in her position in society.

9. In effect, being of a lower class forces the struggle of trying to fit in to a new higher class environment and separate themselves from poverty. This restrains the principal characters as if they were wealthier, they would not bare the burden of being ridiculed for their social class. Being a part of a lower class gives the principal characters a disadvantage, meaning they do not have the same privileges and cannot act the same as those of the upper class.

10. Marriage Jane Eyre – Rochester
Jane is proposed to by Rochester however they do not get married.
“Do you doubt me Jane?”
“Entirely.”
“You have no faith in me?”
“Not a whit”
Jane Eyre – St John
“A missionary's wife you must – shall be. You shall be mine: I claim you - not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s service”
Rejecting St Johns proposal, Jane knows that it would be a loveless marriage.

11. Two different proposals, one being passion driven and the other demanding and cold. Jane feels restrained by both as Rochester has another wife and she cannot marry because of it and cannot marry St John as she will not have the freedom she strives for in a loveless marriage. This shows how marriage puts limitations onto her desires and thus she rejects the proposals. Jane cannot bring herself to abandon her freedom unless she deems the situation as worthy of it and is completely what she wants. If Jane marries then she will ultimately be restrained to a greater extent as she will lose more rights to her husband which she does when she marries Rochester later on.

12. Rebecca – Maxim
The narrator weds maxim but is restrained by the marriage itself and what it brings.
“I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say.”
This foreshadows the ‘burdens’ that follows the relationship to Manderley. The use of word choice here reflects how love is looked upon. It is described as a sickness. This shows how the love will be troublesome and furthermore, will have its limitations.

13. Ultimately, the principal characters feel restrained to a great extent because of the time they live in. Due to the fact that they are both women in the 19th century, the have very little rights. This leads to limitations to what they can do which in effect, causes them a lot of problems that they cannot help. Both Jane and the narrator lack a large degree of autonomy which puts them in the position of choosing between their overall freedom and their roles in society.