Jane Eyre can be considered a feminist novel, or perhaps more accurately, a protofeminist novel. Works that were written before the twentieth century with strong female protagonists fall into this philosophical and literary tradition. Though Jane does not campaign for equal rights for women, the way she lives her life offers a model for independent women. 

Jane's ambition is unlike the traditional social mores of her time and place. She is not eager to marry, calling the institution a "catastrophe." Though an orphan, Jane rejects a dependent stance and is unafraid to self-advocate when she believes she is being mistreated. She is also resentful of being treated like an object when Rochester begins to court her. Only when she is financially independent from her inheritance is she able to accept Rochester's proposal.

So while Jane does not advocate for women's rights generally, she chooses to live on her own terms in a way that anticipates the rhetoric of the Seneca Falls convention that occurred just a year after the novel was published. 

If "feminist" means liberation from men and insistence on equal treatment in all things, I say no.  This is, though, a novel of Jane's independence.  She is perfectly willing to do and be many things, as long as they don't interfere with her personal morals and standards.  She is not willing to marry a man whom she does not love.  She is not willing to carry on a clandestine affair with a man she loves but who is married.  She is willing to forgive those who have wronged her but will not be a party to their bad behavior.  This is a novel of a woman's independence, not a feminist treatise. 

This is one of those questions that can be debated either way. If we compare it to today's literature, obviously the women characters are not at all liberated. However, literature needs to be read in context. During the Victorian era, women did take a back seat to men. They were expected to marry the right man, for example. In this respect, Jane Eyre would be considered a feminist novel because she turned down marriage proposals that many at the time would be considered respectable proposals. She turned them down because she did not want to settle. She never took the easy road and ventured onto her own to find her own way. This was a bold statement for this time period, though many women writers at this time were showing stronger women characters.

Yes, it most certainly is! Even though we meet Jane under the control of different men during her life, first at the Reed's, with John, then Brocklehurst at Lowood, Rochester, her love, and St. John, a man "not likely to be refused," Jane still triumphs. She succeeds in making decisions that are morally right though they break her heart; she must travel through her life alone for all her early years, and when she is reunited with Rochester, it is her decision. Jane does not depend on her beauty or feminine charm to trick men and is never afraid to speak truthfully about matters whether they be painful or not. Jane can be viewed as one of the first 'career' women to make it in a man's world; when she marries, it is by choice. Jane Eyre becomes the strongest character in the novel.

Is Jane Eyre a feminist novel?

Yes, Jane Eyre is a feminist novel. From its first reception, when Jane's passionate nature was criticized, up until today, people have understood Jane as a heroine fighting for her freedom within a social system that oppressed women. 

As a governess, Jane has ideas that sound as if they come from an early feminist manifesto. Victorian readers condemned the passionate thoughts Jane expressed as unfeminine:

Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

In the late 1970s, English professors Gilbert and Gubar wrote a famous book called Madwoman in the Attic arguing that Eyre should be pronounced "ire," meaning anger, and noting that the angelic Helen had the last name "burns," also representing the anger women felt at being forced into an unnatural docility. The novel, they argued, is about women's anger at their repression.

Beyond her anger, Jane reveals herself to be a strong woman who thinks and acts for herself, determining her own fate. As a child, she shows her strength when she rebels against the abuse she suffers at the hands of a bullying male cousin. As an adult, she refuses to marry Rochester after she finds out he has a wife, for as much as she loves him, such an act would violate her conscience. She would rather run away and take her chances alone than live in a demeaning relationship. Later, she refuses marriage to St. John because she does not love him and does not want her needs subordinated to his desire to be a missionary.  

Jane's courage in making her decisions, in being self-supporting as a governess, in desiring more than the narrow life expected of a woman, in living with integrity and in refusing to sacrifice herself to men adds up to a feminist heroine at the heart of a novel that calls into question how women are treated by the larger society.

Is Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre a feminist novel?

Feminism advocates that social, political, and all other rights should be equal between men and women. Bronte's Jane Eyre discusses many of the struggles and prejudices that nineteenth century middle-class women faced. All rights were not equal between men and women at that time, and Jane's greatest desire is to have a family and to feel accepted and loved. This does not necessarily mean that the novel is not feminist, but the main character's goal is not to change the legal and political world in order to gain equal rights for women. However, by the end of the story, she does not settle for anything less than the most equal relationship and living circumstances possible for the time period. And at the time, it must have seemed pure fantasy for a governess to acquire her own money and marry higher than her social class. 

Erica Jong's introduction in the Signet Classic edition provides great insight into how Jane Eyre could be considered a feminist novel by saying the following: 

"And indeed she cannot marry Rochester until he knows he is as dependent on her as she is on him. Their odysseys have equalized them: Jane has become an independent woman and Rochester has been cured of entitlement. Only thus can a woman and man become equals in a patriarchal society" (ix).

Bronte portrays Jane as a traditional woman who wants a husband and family while also maintaining her value as an individual in her own right. Many women today want the same things--to have a family and career. However, even though Jane isn't seeking social or political equality, she does find equality in marriage. This could be a big part of the message that Bronte wanted to convey, which would mean that her desired results would have, in fact, been one of the first feminist novels.