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Comparing and Contrasting the Men of Jane Eyre
Love and companionship means different things to different people. Sometimes one searches for it in a person much like himself; a mate who upholds their own values and thinks the same thoughts. Other times, people yearn for someone with fresh ideas and an opposite personality to bring new emotions to his life. But in either case, the person that sometimes ends up being the mate one is attracted to is not always a choice that is conventionally upheld by society or perfect in every way. Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is a story of one such case of a love found between two people who are not necessarily the most beautiful or outstanding people, but that find a mutual attraction in their souls and create a bond that even a near perfect individual of society, like St. John, cannot break. The two men that unknowingly compete for Jane's hand in marriage are Mr. Rochester and St. John, the latter a symbol of beauty and respect, and the former a mysterious and seemingly unfriendly nobleman with a plain face and dark appearance. Both of them offer very different things to Jane. Their physical beauty and amount of community respect sharply contrast, presenting Jane with two levels of social figures. The traits in their personalities are very dissimilar and they both expect a certain behavior in return from Jane, whether it be her natural attitude, or one that she would be forced to convert to. Lastly, they both offer and ask of her two very different types of marriages and loves, leaving it to Jane to decide between one built of unconditional love or one of unending sacrifice and religious satisfaction. In the end, she is forced to weigh the life that each offers...
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...es in the novel through Jane, "The soul fortunately has an interpreter - often an unconscious, but still a truthful interpreter - in the eye."
Sources Consulted
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Penguin, 1995.
Gordon, Lyndall. Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life. New York: Norton, 1994.
Michie, Helena. The Flesh Made Word: Female Figures and Women's Bodies. New York: Oxford UP, 1987.
Poovey, Mary. "Speaking of the Body: Mid-Victorian Constructions of Female Desire." Jacobus, Keller, and Shuttleworth 24-46.
Rich, Adrienne. "Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman." Gates 142-55.
Roy, Parama. "Unaccommodated Woman and the Poetics of Property in Jane Eyre." Studies in English Literature 29 (1989): 713-27.
Sullivan, Sheila. Studying the Brontes. Longman: York, 1986.
Jane Eyre, written in 1847 by Charlotte Bronte, relates a tale of tragedy, mystery, and gothic romance. Covering the multiple issues of England in that time, Bronte writes of orphan treatment, social class, and Britain’s controversial law of prohibiting divorce in all circumstances. Orphaned at a young age and unwanted by her guardian Mrs. Reed, Jane searches for higher prospects in education at Lowood, eventually earning a position as a governess at Thornfield. Complications disrupt her life, when she becomes engaged to her employer, Mr. Rochester, and soon after discovers that he is already married to a lunatic. Leaving Thornfield, Jane finds a home with St. John and his two sisters. Eventually, she returns to her former employer, discovering Thornfield in ashes, Mrs. Rochester dead, and Mr. Rochester blind and free from wedlock. Flooded with motifs, Jane’s continual struggles between her passions and responsibility prevail as the main theme of Bronte’s entrancing narrative.
Jane Eyre’s inner struggle over leaving an already married Rochester is the epitome of the new "lovemad" woman in nineteenth-century literature. Jane Eyre is the story of a lovemad woman who has two parts to her personality (herself and Bertha Mason) to accommodate this madness. Charlotte Bronte takes the already used character of the lovemad woman and uses her to be an outlet for the confinement that comes from being in a male-dominated society. Jane has to control this madness, whereas the other part of her personality, her counterpart, Bertha Mason, is able to express her rage at being caged up. As what it means to be insane was changing during Bronte’s time, Bronte changed insanity in literature so that it is made not to be a weakness but rather a form of rebellion. Jane ultimately is able to overcome her lovemadness through sheer force of her will.
Lydon, Susan, ‘Bronte Studies’, Abandoning and Re-inhabiting Domestic Space in Jane Eyre, Villette and Wide Sargasso Sea, Volume 35 Issue 1 (01 March 2010), pp. 23-29
Rich, Adrienne. “Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman.” Jane Eyre (An Authoritative Text, Contexts, and Criticisms). Ed. Richard J. Dunn. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001. 469-83. Print.
Supernatural values and natural imagery are a major theme throughout Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre. This essay will examine the representation of natural and supernatural values that play an integral role in developing the story in Jane Eyre.
In fact, I am glad the book ended with the focus on the character of St. John instead of with Jane or Rochester, as it hints to us that the importance of the book is not about finding the right person, falling in love, and living happily ever after. The theme of this book is about following your conscience. In this regard, Jane and St. John both did the same thing in this story: They both had strong, driving consciences; they both were tempted but pursued their course; and they both found a satisfying life in the end. This book is not about developing a relationship with a romantic partner, but about developing a relationship and learning to follow and live in tune with your own moral conscience.
Rich, Adrienne. "Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman." Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987. 462-475. Print.
Brennan, Zoe. "Reader's Guide: Bronte's Jane Eyre." Ebrary. Continuum International Publishing 2 2010. Print. April 28, 2014
to find out if it has change from the past. There are two models of
Jane Eyre was an orphan left to depend on unsympathetic relatives who mistreated her. As Millicent bell explains in her article “A Tale of the Governess,” “With the Reeds she suffers not only the dependency of childhood and female hood, but the excruciating humiliation of the poor relation.” The cruel treatment she received from her family members caused her to have no sense of belonging.
Jane Eyre is a classic English novel which follows the development of a young woman in the mid 1800's. Jane grows to be a smart, self supporting, independent woman. This becomes a struggle for her as she was brought up to live in the lower-class. Throughout this novel, Jane tries to show that class and gender should not affect personality. This novel explains Jane’s struggle against societal expectations of class and of gender.
Love is an important theme in the famous novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Jane's love for Rochester is clearly noticible throughout the novel. But Jane's true love for Rochster becomes appearent in only a few of her actions and emotions. Although it may seem Rochester manipulated her heart's desire, this can be disproven in her actions towards him. Jane followed her heart in the end, by returning to Rochester.
Similar to many of the great feministic novels of its time, Jane Eyre purely emerges as a story focused on the quest for love. The novel’s protagonist, Jane, searches not only for the romantic side of love, but ultimately for a sense of self-worth and independence. Set in the overlapping times of the Victorian and Gothic periods, the novel touches upon both women’s supposed rights, and their inner struggle for liberty. Orphaned at an early age, Jane was born into a modest lifestyle, without any major parent roles to guide her through life’s obstacles. Instead, she spent much of her adolescent years locked in imaginary chains, serving those around her but never enjoying the many decadences life has to offer. It is not until Jane becomes a governess that many minute privileges become available to her and offer Jane a glance at what life could have been. It is on her quest for redemption and discovery that she truly is liberated. Throughout Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel Jane Eyre, the story’s protagonist Jane, struggles to achieve the balance of both autonomy and love, without sacrificing herself in the process.
Penner, Louise, “Domesticity and Self-Possession in The Morgensons and Jane Eyre,” Studies in American Fiction 27:2, 131-146.
Women, in all classes, were still living in a world which was misogynistic and male-dominated. Their purpose in life was to produce male heirs and maintain the home by hiring and overseeing servants. It was also taboo for one to marry significantly below one’s social class. This is one reason that Jane is not a conventional heroine for the society of her time. Although, as a governess, she is not considered to be as low as a housemaid, she is still part of the hired help in the house. This is why it is unconventional for her and Mr Rochester to be in a relationship. Yet this is not as peculiar as how Jane Eyre ends their relationship due to her sense of betrayal. It would have been considered extremely foolish for a working-woman’s sense of betrayal to end and turn down a man of great wealth.