From Controversy to Canon: The CHanging Critical Reception of Jane Eyre
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Authors
Aidan Shapiro
Issue Date
2026
Type
Language
Keywords
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Abstract
My name is Aidan Shapiro, and I would like to submit a research paper for Honor’s Day. During the Fall semester, I was enrolled in Dr. Prathim Dora-Laskey's English 220 class. For our final project, I wrote an essay titled From Controversy to Canon: The Changing Critical Reception of Jane Eyre. In this essay, I researched Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre and how its critical reception has changed over time. When I began working on this paper, I assumed that the novel was not very popular upon its original publication because of the more rigid gender norms and constructs of the times. Fortunately, I was wrong. I found that the novel was immensely popular upon release, with many countries across the world selling out of copies. My thesis statement from my paper reads as follows: In this essay, I will discuss and analyze changing perspectives of Jane Eyre by examining reviews from the 1800s, mid-twentieth century, and today in order to demonstrate how evolving ideas about gender, religion, and class reshape Jane Eyre’s critical reputation from scandalous to canonical. While researching this paper, I realized that the strict gender norms of the mid to late 1800s were not as I thought. Many women related to Jane’s struggle for independence and journey in life. The reason I chose to research this topic and book was that I wanted to find out how a classic becomes a classic. Do they start off popular right away like Jane Eyre, or do they take a few years like some other novels? Obviously, one book becoming an instant success and classic does not speak for all books, but Jane Eyre was also a book I really enjoyed and wanted to learn more about in general. My research methods were pretty simple. I used the Alma College Library search engine to find books, news articles, and peer-reviewed journals relating to my topic. I hope this abstract will encourage the Honor’s Day committee to allow me to present my findings and essay this April.