Policing Victorian Women's Desire: Retracing Mirrored Patriarchy in Jane Eyre and Villette

This essay locates avenues in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Villette for discussing the parameters of women writers' internalized patriarchy in Victorian Britain. The first segment treats the importance of the protagonists' reliance upon different mise-en-abyme books, which act as mirrors that reflect and foreshadow the forlornness of Victorian women in Charlotte Bronte's two novels. In the second segment, we discuss how Jane and Lucy acknowledge and become the delegates of Thanatos, the androcentric privilege, at the end of their narratives. Psychoanalytic concepts such as the mirror metaphor and the discussion of Eros and Thanatos are used as means to appreciate the detour of desire (which constitutes literary narrative) in the inevitable tour of death.

Automated summary

This essay discusses the internalized patriarchy of women writers in Victorian Britain through the analysis of Charlotte Bronte's novels, Jane Eyre and Villette. The importance of the protagonists' reliance on books that reflect the forlornness of Victorian women is explored in the first segment. The second segment examines how the characters acknowledge and become representatives of the androcentric privilege. Psychoanalytic concepts are used to appreciate the detour of desire in the narratives.