In the preface to Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (writing as Currer Bell) explains her reasons for dedicating her book to W. M. Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair. Apparently, the main reason for this was: "because I regard him as the first social regenerator of the day, as the master of the working corps who would restore to rectitude the warped system of things."
We thus see that Charlotte saw the value of a novel as being in its capacity to influence opinion and effect social change. In reading Jane Eyre we can see that she aimed to do this in her own novel as well.…
