J.E. #2: Marriage Plot or Bildungsroman?

In traditional marriage plot novels such as Evelina and even in Austen's works, the story begins with a girl of marriageable age and focuses around her interactions with the hero. Brontë writes the story of a girl who grows and matures throughout the novel and becomes a woman who is stronger mentally and spiritually than when we met her in chapter one.

Though she is writing a marriage plot novel, Brontë takes the liberty of depicting Jane as a person beginning the novel with a child who has significant events, other than her marriage, in her life. The reader is made aware, as Jane herself knows, that she is much more than a young woman on the marriage market.

Even after her romantic interactions with the "hero," Jane leaves for several chapters showing Brontë's independence from the expected plot her society has given her. The very structure of this novel is so rich in rebellion that it is an ideal jumping off point.