Quote:
Originally Posted by cearbhallain
Jane Eyre isn't just a romance, like Hardy the Bronte sisters were writing about the effects that social and economic inequality had on the lives of women and children.
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Some of the differences between Austen and the Brontes also stem from the fact that the Brontes were a generation later, and experienced the effect of war and of the social changes that occurred around that time, and also from the differences in class. Even though they were all daughters of clergymen, the Austens were a cut above the Brontes, and Jane also had the benefit of being in the far more fashionable south, so the social circles in which they moved would have been quite different. Although the characters in Austen's novels are often poor, they are by and large gentlefolk, whereas the Brontes' characters are generally not.