Can't bury these tales: Canterbury Tales & Jane Eyre

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5. In the passage, Mr. Brocklehurst is mercilessly chastising little Julia Severn for having naturally curly hair while his wife and children are wearing false add-on curls to their own hair. The blatant irony somehow surpasses the “pious prick” (literally just came up with that) when he says that no girl should conform to nature, but rather to Mr. Brocklehurst’s own liking. He even goes as far as to say she must have her entire head shaved off. Yet a bald head will not allow poor Julia to have her hair “arranged closely, modestly, plainly.” The sheer hypocrisy of the notion iterates how society treats the upper class and lower class so differently.

Author Charlotte Brontë conveys that women of the upper class are allowed to express themselves with far more distinction than women of the lower class. Apparently, wearing curls is a sign of distinction, which is solely reserved for the wealthy folk. Mr. Brocklehurst, being a staunch follower of societal norms, tries using the Bible and Christianity as a means of justifying why curly haired Julia must be punished. The man even acknowledges the social status of the orphans by informing Miss Temple his “plan in bringing up these girls is, not to accustom them to habits of luxury and indulgence” (Brontë). He is saying that the girls were into poverty and must learn to live such a life, as if they are stuck in that class forever. Although Brocklehurst elaborates on the necessity to suffer through life just as Jesus and his disciples did, he doesn’t even notice the fallacy when his glamorously clad, curl toting girls walk through the door. The author makes light of the ironic situation when she says, “They ought to have come a little sooner to have heard his lecture on dress” (Brontë).

 During this time period, there was a wide disparity between social classes, especially since a large middle class had yet to be formed. Quite possibly, the orphanage owner could be afraid of some of the orphan girls competing in beauty with his own upper class family members. Not only would that be a huge embarrassment, but the parentless girls would have subtly been given the confidence and power needed to rebel and stir trouble in the establishment. In this sense, the orphans represent the lower class being pushed down and normalized by the jealous, fearful upperclassmen, represented by Mr. Bocklehurst and his family.