Eating in "Jane Eyre"

Paper Summary:

This essay examines the issues of eating in Victorian society through Charlotte Bronte's novel, "Jane Eyre. She uses food as an example of the extent to which Victorian society maintained control over the individual. Other areas explored are in the essay include societal rules, class, morality, sexuality, power and control.

From the Paper:

"Women did, in fact, have a source of power over men; but the nature of Victorian society ensured that this power remained hidden. Sex, and in particular, female sexuality, were concepts considered too scandalous and immoral to be recognized. Bront therefore employs imagery of eating and starvation to explore the relationship between Jane and Rochester. Jane asserts that "to taste but the crumbs he scattered was to feast genially" (p.243); she is satisfied with just a little romantic attention. Rochester, however, is desperate to possess: "we must become one flesh without delay, Jane" (p.440). The sexual power Jane holds over Rochester can be illustrated when she refuses his company at dinner: they will not eat together until they are married and she "can't help it" (p.268). In this case, the intimacy of eating together replicates the intimacy of sex, and Jane is holding back."

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