ABSTRACT
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, like Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse and, in a different sense, Anne Elliot, is a single woman who, for one reason or other, thinks herself exempt from the marriage market. Austen's Emma thinks herself exempt because she is economically independent, and considers (mistakenly) that she does not need marriage to fulfill herself. Jane Eyre, on the other hand, considers herself exempt because she has no financial resources except her own labor as a governess—we may remember that Austen's Jane Fairfax, in a similar situation refers to the governess-trade as the "slave-trade." implying white slavery or prostitution. Because Jane Eyre has no family, no economic independence, no striking good looks, she sees herself (again mistakenly) as having no attractions in the marriage market. Both heroines attract considerably older, powerful men who reject the idea of the marital marketplace. 1
