Throughout the course of English literature there have been two issues that have plagued human kind, war and love. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte focuses primarily on love, specifically romantic love and it is the way in which Charlotte Bronte challenges 19th century socio-cultural views on gender and romance, as well as other discourses within the novel such as class and status that makes Jane Eyre successful.

The main discourse within Jane Eyre that impacts most greatly upon its feature, romantic love, is the societal classes of the time. This upper and lower class structure becomes evidently the basis of the novel Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre's relationship with Mr. Rochester, her employee and master, is deemed inappropriate by high society as it crosses class boundaries. Even without her relationship with Mr. Rochester, the members of high society boarding at Thornfield frown upon Jane's presence as a...