... written in 1948 and can be said to fall under the genre of the Victorian Governess novel. These novels explore the concerns of the middle-class woman in employment in the nineteenth-century. At the onset of the novel we know that Jane is an outsider in the house of her cousins: she is socially excluded from their lives. Therefore she is of a lower social status. This theme is continued when Jane becomes a governess and through this medium Bronte is able to chart the development of Jane's development and also focus on her social position. Boumelha reinforces this when she points out that there are several references to slavery in conjunction with Jane's predicament, she states that they allude to: ...the slaveries of paid work as a governess and of dependence as a mistress.2 Jane represents the classless individuals in society; they are neither aristocrats nor paupers. The upper echelons of ...

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