Jane Eyre (and a bit of Karl Marx)

Today in class, Dr. H. stated that many students were giving "English major responses." I am not an English major, so it is not easy for me to analyze the text in that way. Don't get me wrong, I am not criticizing. I love hearing all points of view, especially because they help me open my mind to the various ways of looking at this novel. As a sociology major, I find myself focusing on the social structure of the novel, especially with the hierarchy of power. While the majority of the class is able to focus on character and plot development, I'm fitting everything into various sociological theories. In all honesty, I wish I could pay more attention to character development, and whatnot. I think that will be my goal this semester- to step out of my sociological comfort zone and gain the ability to view these novels differently.
While I'm still here in sociology land, I shall ramble for a bit about how I have personally analyzed this novel. Marx's theory of social stratification has been drilled into my head for the past four years. He separates people into two classes which are basically those who own the means of production and the laborers. In Jane Eyre, this is apparent in the society of that time. There was a lot of distinction between members of the upper and lower classes. Characters like the Reeds, the Brocklehursts, Rochester, and the little girls with beautiful curly hair are part of the upper class. They own the means of production which gives them power over the lower class. Jane and her fellow students and teachers at the school seem to be part of the lower class. They are under the authority those above them. At this point in the novel, Jane is mingling with people in a higher social class than her own. I am very interested to see how this plays out.