Belonging In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

Along with maternal love, Jane and Victoria had to find their sense of belonging and their “home” in new places because their childhoods did not provide them with that place. They learned that a home did not have to be a place; it could be a person or even a feeling. Jane had felt so unwanted and out of place for much of her life but when she met Mr. Rochester, she found somewhere she belonged. Even before they started their romantic relationship, Mr. Rochester was somebody who listened to her when she spoke, actually wanting to have conversations with her and forcing her to start to be herself rather than the character she had forced herself into being. He called her pet names and treated her the way she had always dreamed of being treated. That is why after being away from Thornfield for a week,

Rochester. There is a saying that one will always find their way back home and for Jane, this is especially true. Although she is forced to leave him, she never stops longing for him and when she is finally reunited with him, the contentment she felt returned. Victoria also spent much of her life feeling undesirable and often felt she had nothing to live for. When she turned eighteen and “graduated” from the foster care system, she did not even care enough to try to find a job to keep a roof over her head. She ended up living in the park for a while until she managed to get back on her feet. However, even in this time in her life, the only thing she cared about was flowers. Specifically, the language of flowers Elizabeth had taught her drove her to do things like approach Renata for a job and later start her own business helping others through her flowers. Her “home” was her flowers and they gave her life purpose; as Victoria states, “I had been loyal to nothing except the language of flowers. If I started lying about it, there would be nothing left in my life that was beautiful or true” (Diffenbaugh