“How does social class prevent Jane Eyre from living a life of equality and freedom, and how is this related to feminism?” Jane Eyre lived in the Victorian era, which Queen Victoria reigned. The lifestyle of women in Victorian England has a great impact on the way Jane was raised. This is due to their system that “defined a woman's role” and each woman had a customary routine for their respective class. If one were to assume the standards of another, this would be considered a serious crime. Jane was born to a lower middle class family where her family was not in a state of poverty but not upper middle class either. A few years after birth, Jane's parents died of typhus and she was left in the care of her aunt Reed. Her aunt Reed neglected her and thought of her as if she were of her own blood because she was poor and ugly. Jane was treated illegitimately against her will and was constantly groomed by Mrs. Reed's family, allowing her to suffer emotional and physical abuse. After an argument with one of her cousins, Mrs. Reed places the blame on Jane and is locked in a red room where past events have painted the room with a "spooky" and frightening appearance. In this room she longs to be freed and as it is, there are some events in the novel where the memory of being locked in that room reminds her of her life and her still "unfreed" situation. family, she knew there was a great contrast between her and her two cousins, Georgiana and Eliza. They were beautiful, they had the opportunity to go to school and Jane didn't. Jane always hoped for these privileges, to possess beauty, to attend school, and even to be included in the group of Mrs. Reed and her children when they gathered and talked. When Jane finally gets to go to school, she receives another cruel treatment. At the time of Jane's first meeting with Mr. Brocklehurst, he already had in mind placing Jane in the lowest of four distinct groups in Victorian society: aristocrats, middle, upper, and lower working class. He does this because of Jane's frank and quick answers when asked, for example: "What do you have to do to avoid it?"?