Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte chronicles the growth of its main character from childhood to maturity, focusing on her journey from dependence on authority figures negative to monetary and psychological independence, from confusion to clear understanding. of oneself, and from inequality to equality with those to whom she was once subject. Originally dependent on her Aunt Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Mr. Rochester, she gains independence through her inheritance and teaching positions. Over the course of the novel, she awakens to self-understanding, which results in contentment and ultimately happiness. She also achieves equality with the important male figures in her life, such as St. John Rivers and Mr. Rochester, flourishing as an independent and fully developed equal. Throughout the novel, Jane Eyre depends first on her Aunt Reed, then Mr. Brocklehurst and, subsequently, Mr. Rochester. As John Reed, her cousin, taunts her, she is "a dependent... [has] no money" (Bronte 4), emphasizing the total control her Aunt Reed has over her life at this point. Her aunt Reed chose to send her to the dreadful Lowood School and led her uncle John Eyre to believe she "died of typhus at Lowood". (Brontë 217). In Lowood, she depends on the terrible Mr. Brocklehurst, a “personification of the Victorian superego” (Gilbert and Gubar 343) who is the “absolute ruler of this little world.” (Rich 466) He uses “religion, charity, and morality to keep the poor in their place” (Rich 466), making the students psychologically dependent on him. Finally, as governess at Thornfield Hall, Jane Eyre depends on Mr. Rochester as an employee, forced to acquiesce to his whims and ask his middle of paper ......itedBarker, Juliet. The Brontës. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. Print.—. The Brontës: a life in letters. Woodstock: The Overlook Press, 1998. Print. Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. London: Prospero Books, 1847. Print. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. Print. Moglen, Helen. “The Creation of a Feminist Myth.” Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: WW Norton, 1987. 484-491. Print.Rich, Adrienne. “Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman.” Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: WW Norton, 1987. 462-475. Print.Sellers, Jane. Charlotte Brontë. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print. Woolf, Virginia. “The Continuing Call of Jane Eyre.” Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: WW Norton, 1987. 455-457. Print.