Paradoxically, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, which challenges the rigid gender constructions of femininity and the Victorian societal constraints designed to keep women enclosed, ultimately reshapes some of those conventions that the author defies. Brontë's novel examines the pervasive, repressive, and controlling ideology of the "angel in the house" through female characters who embody the construct as they destroy it. Despite the novel's subversive nature, Brontë's narrative ultimately functions as a warning against female rage which the author communicates through the racially inscribed character of Bertha Mason. In the end, Brontë demonstrates that women's anger is very political and to be an angry woman in nineteenth-century England is next-door to crazy.Brontë establishes the dichotomy of male oppression and female rage through both John Reed and Mrs Reed. From the outset of the novel, Jane demonstrates her rage and is duly imprisoned for her less than angelic behavior. Ironically, Jane's lack of restraint causes Mrs. Reed to contain Jane within the shrine of Mrs. Reed's oppressor--her former husband. Mrs. Reed's son, John, labels Jane as bestial, a "bad animal" for her display of rage; Jane, therefore, identifies John as her oppressor and tyrant who provokes her anger. Jane reacts to her "slave-driver" by becoming the "picture of passion"; before the end of the first chapter, the young rebel finds herself in a virtual prison. Brontë emphatically draws attention to the punishment for striking out against oppression--containment. The red room "perfectly represents her vision of the society in which she is trapped". The red room also functions as a motif of "enclosure and escape" Not only Jane, but also the other women in the novel search for the key to release them from their attics and red rooms.
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夏洛特·勃朗特的《简·爱》存在的一个矛盾之处在于：小说一方面抨击社会在妇道方面的严苛规定，抨击维多利亚时代妇女足不出户的清规戒律，另一方面，作者所蔑视的传统却最终在她的行文中体现。勃朗特的作品通过塑造既打破传统又内在地认同传统的女性形象，检视了女性作为“家庭中的天使”这一性别角色所普遍具有的，自我约束的，并处于支配地位的思想意识。尽管小说存在颠覆性，勃朗特的小说最终用意还是警惕女性中存在的激进狂热情绪，这一用意在对贝莎·梅森这个富于代表性角色的刻画中得以体现。总之，勃朗特要证明的是：女性的愤怒不满情绪是一个非常政治化的话题，在19世纪的英格兰，一个愤怒的女人和一个疯女人相去不过咫尺。男性的压迫和女性的愤怒情绪这二者的对立统一，在约翰·里德夫妇二人身上得以体现。在小说开篇阶段，简·爱发泄出她的怒火，这一行为看上去不大象天使，结果自然是惹得里德太太把她关在里德先生的房间里——具有讽刺意味的是，那是她的亡夫，也是她的压迫者。由于简·爱发火的行为，里德太太的儿子约翰目之为野蛮的“坏畜牲”，简·爱也把约翰视为令自己怒火中烧的压迫者和暴君，以愤怒反抗回应她的“奴隶监工”。幼小的反抗者在第一章的末尾被关进了真正的监牢，勃朗特在这里希望读者重点注意的是：奋起反抗，得到的将是遭受拘禁的惩罚。红房子恰如其分地“反映了她如何看待拘禁自己的社会”，也表达了“监禁与逃亡”的主题。除简·爱之外，小说中的其他女性也在找寻逃出阁楼或是红房子的钥匙。