Student Response: Jane Eyre Versus Mary Prince

Bree Auger

Mary Prince and Jane Eyre both speak volumes about the oppression and adversity that the characters, Mary and Jane, faced throughout their lives. In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte describes the oppression of white, middle class women in Britain as “slavish.” In Mary Prince, Moira Ferguson tells the story of Mary’s life as a slave. Both women in these two novels express themselves as being enslaved, however there is a significant distinction between the first of these two women. In Jane Eyre, Bronte portrays Jane as a oppressed, white, middle-class woman who is threatened by feeling imprisoned and confined compared to her male counterparts, whereas in Mary Prince, Ferguson presents Mary, a black slave, who is allowed no true identity, warranted no right to her beliefs, and is in all possible ways (physically, mentally, emotionally) a real slave.

Without question, in both stories the two women suffer. On the other hand, the pertinent difference is the level and kind of their suffering. Throughout her life, Jane struggles to achieve social fairness and to overcome the adversity in her society. In regards to Rochester, Jane is his intellectual equal but is not satisfied with this and yearns to be his social equal. In comparison to Prince’s life, Jane’s life seems like paradise. However, Jane definitely lived a troubled life and had to overcome years of physical and mental abuse in order to find happiness in herself and with Rochester and to prove to her and to society that she could be considered equal to a man.

Yet, while Jane suffered from a bad upbringing and from basically trying to find herself, Prince was simply focusing on trying to live. The main difference is that while Jane felt as though she was “enslaved,” Prince was a slave. Prince illustrates this concept best in her novel when she says, “I have been a slave - I have felt what a slave feels, and I know what a slave knows...” No matter how much we research slavery or how many novels about slavery we read, we will never be able to comprehend exactly what it was like to be a slave, as Prince or any other slave would be able to.

In my opinion, Bronte wrongly uses the adjective “slavish” to describe the oppression of women in Britain, in an attempt to give the reader a visual picture of what woman in Britain went through. Yes, woman, like Jane, were without a doubt abused and seen as unequal in society compared to men, and in some degree are still portrayed like that today. In contrast, Prince portrays the life of an actual slave. Prince was not looking to be equal to men, she was yearning to be free, to acquire her own personal identity, to be her own master, to have her own opinions, and to think for herself. The oppression that Jane suffered from was class prejudice, because she was middle class and because she was a woman. Jane was not a slave in the least bit.

I believe that the lives of slave women and white women differ so greatly that they cannot be compared. Jane did suffer throughout her life, however she had one thing Prince did not have. Jane was white. Such a small detail as this is what makes the two incomparable. The mere fact that Jane was white, entitled her to more in life. For instance, although Jane’s parents died she did technically have a family, she was educated, she frequently spoke her mind, she earned a satisfactory income and ended up inheriting a lot as well, she lived in very comfortable settings and she had the ability to make her own decisions, which is evident in leaving Lowood, Thornfield and Rochester. Prince was black. Prince had a family and was forced to leave them. Prince was not allowed to be educated, she had to follow all orders, she was beaten whenever her master deemed fit, she survived in some of the worse possible environments and she had no right to make her own decisions or to even think of that as a possibility.

The only characteristic that is common between Jane and Prince is that both were women who suffered from oppression in their specific society and time period. Jane suffered from social inequality, while Prince suffered from complete inequality in all regards. However, the degree and the type of oppression they faced were completely different and overall incomparable.

In closing, this assignment truly made me think in a completely different manner. Before reading Mary Prince, I considered the character of Jane to have suffered immensely and to have gone through unbelievable obstacles to succeed. I still believe that Jane had a hard life and that she was treated unfairly in a lot of ways and suffered because she was a woman. On the other hand, after reading Mary Prince, I realized that although Jane had it rough because she was a woman, it was incomparable to the torment that was inflicted in Prince’s life. The moment Prince was born, society saw her as two things: a black and a slave. Unlike Jane’s ability to be able to change the way society saw her, Prince would never be able to change the inevitable; she was black; therefore she was and always would be a real slave.