The character Jane Eyre, created by Charlotte Brontë, displays an intellectual commitment that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in the form of class order. Brontë challenges classism through not only a variety of particular moral and social claims, but ways of asking and answering questions, constructive and critical dialogue that counters mainstream methods, and new ideas for inquiry. For example, Jane recognizes her feminist spirit even as a child when her dominating male cousin abuses her. She develops increased independence at her all girls’ school where the condescending and cruel male headmaster ostracizes her, which leads to Jane advocating the equality of women towards her relatives and young pupil. However, nowhere in…show more content… As Jane confronts Rochester with passion and strength she says, “…it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal- as we are” (Brontë 281). This scene works in the text to highlight the theme of social class and criticizes Victorian England’s strict social hierarchy. The ideal middle class wife was expected to be subservient to her husband. Jane’s prompting and reaction to Rochester’s proposal challenged the idea of women’s inferiority to men. Jane rebukes Rochester for prioritizing social concerns over love. She creates equality by addressing Rochester’s spirit, and she transforms their relationship by moving it past the material world. The symbolism of scorched and splintered chestnut tree represents Rochester and how he can never fully be recovered and whole without his equal. This reveals that despite her own personal struggle with liberation, Jane submits to a higher calling to exist apart from and as a part of the larger struggle to eradicate domination in all its forms. As witnessed in Jane’s case, classism shares an ideological foundation with other groups of oppression, and there is no hope for the end of its dominance without this knowledge consistently informing the direction of feminist theory and