Jane Eyre - Early Soap Opera or Feminist Novel‪?‬

A wide range of labels has been attributed to Jane Eyre: gothic novel, Bildungsroman, love story, feminist novel, social novel and many more. I am going to take a closer look at the melodramatic, soap-operatic elements of the novel, analyse their function and contrast them to the feminist ideas that become apparent throughout the novel. First, I will define the terms “soap opera“ and “feminist novel“, point out several characteristics of these genres and demonstrate how they apply to Jane Eyre by testing them in the context of several text passages. Finally, I will show that Jane Eyre is neither a soap opera nor a feminist novel, but that the author uses elements of a soap opera to delude the readers and play with them, as well as to present her feminist views in a way that makes the readers ponder about them.