“Finances greater decide a woman’s fate than patriarchy.” Discuss this idea in relation to Jane in Jane Eyre.

Being released by Brontë in 1847 and set a few years earlier, the economic impact of the industrial revolution permeates all aspects of society in Jane Eyre. Many women of the time period, like Jane herself, had begun to generate their own income – be this as factory workers for poorer women, or governesses like Jane – and thus this new financial capital meant that women were no longer solely reliant on patriarchal institutions, such as marriage, to guarantee economic security; marriage is still significant in Jane Eyre, but Jane's focus in the novel is not to find a husband. In this, Jane Eyre shows us how the finances that underpin these patriarchal institutions are perhaps more important in deciding a woman's fate than the societal pressures patriarchy places upon them to conform. We see this throughout the novel – Jane is forced to make decisions on her own fate separate to patriarchal social confines, with these decisions instead being heavily steered by her own will and, ultimately, financial power. 
A significant moment which encapsulates this idea is when Jane decides to leave Rochester at a critical point in the novel. When she realises that Rochester is already married, Jane's religious values – what she feels are the "law[s] given by God" (365) – deter her from staying with Rochester. In this, we see that Jane does not feel pressured to stay with Rochester in order to be a wife and conform to the patriarchal values of wider society. This is, in part, facilitated by her economic independence – though Jane only has twenty shillings to her name at this point in the novel, this is enough money to grant her transport away from Thornfield Hall by coach (370). However, for the amount of money Jane could give him, the coach driver could only take her partway through the full journey to an area called "Whitcross" (371) – an area she did not know, had no connections to, wherein she was stranded with no money to her name. As a result, left with no financial power, Jane's fate is decided – she must seek out other employment in order to survive. Jane's story falls in line with the realities of poorer women in the industrial revolution – these women were primarily concerned more with their own survival than they were with the societal pressures of patriarchy (specifically the social expectation of marriage). Though she acts of her own free will when she leaves Thornfield hall, we can see that money simultaneously grants Jane her agency and later denies her of it – like many women of her time period, money ultimately steers Jane's direction and decides her fate.