Curly Girl

5.) Analyze the author’s use of irony in describing Mr. Brocklehurst’s family in the second passage. How does the author contrast this description with Mr. Brocklehurst’s lecture to Miss Temple to provide social commentary on perceptions of class during this time? 

I have always had a head full of curls that protrude every which way. Despite being unruly, I get many complements on my curls. When I was young many people would joke with me and ask if we could switch hair, because they liked mine so much. I, however, felt differently. I wished to be like the other girls with straight hair instead of being the one that stuck out. Now, I embrace the curls and the uniqueness that it brings me. As I read Jane Eyre I immediately became intrigued because Mr. Brocklehurst ridiculed Jane for having curly hair, a style that showed she had assimilated into society. This view is opposite of our society today.

Conforming to society is always an interesting topic especially when the one providing ridicule, in this case Mr. Brocklehurst, is directly linked to a differing view. As Mr. Brocklehurst is lecturing to Miss Temple, and the rest of the girls, his family walks in dressed to the nines in fur, velvet, and fake curls. How interesting! I feel as though it is difficult to try and persuade others to act in a different way if the people you are closest to don't follow these rules. Mr. Brocklehurst and his family suggests hypocrisy and how the higher class has a pompous air of authority. In his explanation of how girls should dress he uses words like modestly and plainly which contrasts his family's description of splendidly attired, profusion, and elaborately to describe their dress. How ironic! This situational irony suggests the corruption of the upper class during this time. Many people preached one thing but practiced another. It was assumed that lower classes had to follow ideas of either the church or society, whichever they identified with, while upper classes had more freedom.