Blessed Teresa of Calcutta once said that “loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty” (Costello 20). Throughout the entirety of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë communicates this sentiment effectively. Jane Eyre, orphaned as an infant and brought up by coldhearted relatives, matures into a plain, lowly governess who struggles with a fear of loneliness throughout the course of her life. However, despite the overwhelming evidence (seen specifically in variations of the word “solitude”) of Jane’s severe aversion to loneliness, there are points in the novel where she truly enjoys her reclusiveness. These changes in attitude mostly occur after some of the major events in the novel. Therefore, seen explicitly in the …show more content…
Rochester. In fact, the prospects of spending a life with her one true love, Mr. Rochester, cause Jane to temporarily forget what loneliness feels like. However, what should be the happiest day of her life, is ruined when Mr. Mason, an old friend of Rochester, objects to the marriage due to bigamy. Mr. Mason asserts that Mr. Rochester already has a wife—Bertha. Bertha, with her unmistakable, menacing laugh, is the person who caused all the mischief in the house and who is locked up in Thornfield’s attic. When all of the truth is revealed, “Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent, expectant woman—almost a bride, was a cold, solitary girl again: her life was pale; her prospects were desolate” (Brontë 383). Jane, with her potential for a life with someone who loves her suddenly ripped from her, suffers heartbreak. Due to this, Jane resolves to leave Thornfield: “I rose up suddenly, terror-struck at the solitude which so ruthless a judge haunted ...” (Brontë 387). One can infer that in this moment, Jane feels the all-too-familiar pangs of loneliness; once again reminded of the extreme emptiness and quarantine of the red-room. Mr. Rochester, not willing to let Jane go, pleads with her to stay with him as his partner, not his wife. In complete defiance of his wishes, Jane stands firm and says: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I …show more content…
She heads for the Moors and ends up in the company of St. John Rivers and his sisters at Morton House. There, she discovers that they are actually cousins—a wonderful discovery for Jane, since she had not known she had more family in England. Her heart temporarily heals through finding this treasure. That is, until St. John, an ambitious yet religious man asks Jane to accompany him on his mission trip to India as his wife. Jane refuses his marriage proposal and St. John ceases to recognize Jane as his kin, causing her great despair. Thus, Jane decides to leave Morton in order to return to Mr. Rochester at Thornfield Hall. Upon her arrival, she finds Thornfield charred and in shambles. Jane eventually finds Mr. Rochester, now blind and one-handed from the fire, living in a nearby cottage. Since Bertha died in the blaze, Jane and Mr. Rochester end up marrying and having a baby. In the final chapter of the novel, Jane describes her life with her new
Charlotte Bronte utilizes the character of Bertha Rochester to interrupt Jane’s potential happy ending with Mr. Edward Rochester. Bertha is announced by Mr. Briggs as a way to stop the wedding and it also shows how hopeless Jane’s situation is. “That is my wife “said he. ‘Such is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know—such are the endearments which are to solace my leisure hours! And this is what I wished to have,’” (312) and “’I wanted her just as a change after that fierce ragout,’” (312) are quotes that express Mr. Rochester’s reasons for trying to remarry while he already has a wife, meanwhile showing his disposition towards said wife. Had Mr. Briggs and Mr. Mason not been present for the ceremony, Jane may have lived happily in ignorance. Due to Bertha’s involvement however, Jane could never truly call herself Mr. Rochester’s wife. She says, “’Sir, your wife is living: that is a fact acknowledged this morning by yourself. If I lived with you as you desire—I should then be your mistress: to say otherwise is sophistical—is false.’” (323) This quote shows that as a result of Bertha’s exposure, Jane refuses to marry Mr. Rochester. The influence that Bertha’s brief debut had on Jane’s life was significant enough to hinder the growth of her relationship with Mr. Rochester.
Jane becomes jealous when Rochester goes to see Blanch Ingram, a beautiful, young woman who also loves Rochester. When he returns, Jane leaves to see her dying Aunt and they are parted again. Now, in chapter 23, Rochester is supposedly telling Jane she can no longer be at Thornfield. Jane Eyre was written by Bronte in 1847, this was an era when the Gothic novel was very popular.
Another important journey Jane makes is from Gateshead back to Thornfield having visited her aunt Reed on her deathbed. By then Jane realizes that she loves Rochester. A key theme is raised here, Jane fierce desire to love and to be loved. She feels alone and isolated when she has no friends around her. This is a sharp contrast compared to other characters’ search for money and social position.
Bertha and Mr. Rochester were set up and pressured into marrying each other. Mr. Rochester claims that isolating Bertha in a secret room is a justifiable act because of her mental instability. However, The Bertha that the reader gets to see exhibits an accumulated maniacal rage as a result of her imprisonment. Jane describes her as a savage woman. The very sight of her when she attacked her brother or when she ripped the wedding veil traumatized Jane. However, Bertha impacted more than her safety. When Bertha is revealed to be Mr. Rochester’s wife, Jane finds out that despite the love she and Mr. Rochester have for each other; Jane can be nothing more than a mistress because it is illegal to divorce an insane women who is not in control of her actions.
This opinion is a representation of the husbands who felt burdened by their wives who became inconvenient. They felt that they had been cheated out of a devoted spouse because when she is hysterical, she cannot be successful in completing her social responsibilities as a woman and a wife. After an examination by medical doctors, Mr Rochester decides to hide her in the attic and pretend she does not exist. Feeling that she tarnishes his name by being his “mad wife”, he believes locking her away is the only solution. The separation between Mr Rochester and Bertha Mason is evident in the fact that Brontë never refers to her as Bertha Rochester. She is stripped of her married name to extinguish any connection to her
... self-worth. She believes that there is a chance for her to change her future. She had to make certain sacrifices in order to discover her strength, true friendships and her self-worth. She sacrifices her love to preserve her self-worth. After realizing her marriage to Rochester cannot be lawful and will mean surrendering her sense of dignity and virtue, she leaves him. When Jane leaves Thornfield she says “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself” (Bronte 336). In the end, she finds her happiness, as she is now with the man she loves, she preserves her self-worth without sacrificing her integrity.
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. From the introduction of Jane’s orphan life, she battles between her ire at cousin John’s antics and obedience to Aunt Reed’s reluctant guardianship.
Thornfield Manor is but one stop in Jane's journey to freedom from her restraints and her stay there begins in a comfortable manner. Although it begins warm, Thornfield becomes a haven of boredom, restlessness, and discontent for Jane. To free herself from the boredom, Jane goes out to mail a letter and unknowingly encounters Mr. Rochester. Jane finds that "...the frown, the roughness of the traveler set me at my ease:"(Bronte 105). Through her past experiences, Jane knows how to deal aptly with Mr. Rochester and displays her skills in doing so in a conversation with him even when she knows who he is. "I don't think, sir, you have the right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience"(Bronte 125). In the comment Jane makes directly to Mr. Rochester, she is bold. He is her employer but she refuses to be demeaned by him and her experiences at Gateshead and Lowood teach her to be firm but polite, a part of her move toward education and away from containment. Another example of Jane's rebellion comes from within her. She realizes that she is falling in love with Mr. Rochester and it is unacceptable because she is socially inferior to him. The love she holds is a rebellion in itself because she is impoverished and lower than him. Jane compares herself to the beautiful Blanche Ingram in order to sort her feelings. She continues on with her rebellion when Mrs. Reed calls for her. Mrs. Reed is ill and, although she treats Jane badly at Gateshead, Jane goes to her side- in her refusal to let Mrs. Reed overcome her. Jane slowly learns how to deal with the bad times life has handed her thus far. Mrs. Reed, still just as cold on her death bed as she has been in the past, continues to denounce Jane and has contempt for her. Mrs Reed proclaims, "The fever broke out there [Lowood], and many of the pupils died.
...ugh in the end Jane and Mr. Rochester do get married, Jane is an emotionally battered character who has to look deep inside of herself to do what is best for her. This happens to people every day. They are hurt by dishonesty and deceitfulness. It can ruin their lives unless they make the commitment to be honest with themselves and those around them.
Jane started out with no family, causing her to yearn for someone to accept her as their family, treating her with love and respect. At a young age, Jane lost her parents, leaving her with her aunt and cousins. They treated her poorly, acting as if she was incompetent and considering her more of a servant than a family member. Then, they sent her off to school, forgetting about her entirely. Eventually, Jane acquired the family she had always dreamt of. She never felt quite right with other people accepting her, that is, until Mr. Rochester came into her life. She did not feel as though she had found her true family until she had met him. "All these relics gave...Thornfield Hall the aspect of a home of the past: a shrine to memory.” (92). When they get married, her dreams are achieved, as she finally got the family she had always wanted.
St. John, her cousin, help find a small cottage for Jane. After her previous occupation as governess she decided to teach in a nearby school. Later in the book, St. John offer his hand in marriage to Jane, but she denied. Jane then thought of the marriage with Mr. Rochester and regretted that she said no. Jane went back to Thornfield for her lover. She wasn't happy with any other person and the only cure to her unhappiness was to marry Mr.
For the first half of Jane Eyre, Bertha is only known to the reader through her nearly phantasmal presence&emdash;the peculiar laugh, and the mysterious incident in which Rochester's bed was lit on fire. Only after the foiled wedding of Rochester and Jane, in which Mr. Briggs and Mr. Mason appear unexpectedly declaring that the wedding should not proceed, does Rochester explain to Jane that he has a living wife detained on the third floor of Thornfield Hall. "He lifted the hangings from the wall, uncovering the second door: this, too, he opened" (327). "In a room without a window" Bertha is found living as a wild animal sequestered from everyone but her caretaker Grace Poole. Like a ferocious beast, she is even tied down and bound.
Each work focuses on the female search for liberation; Anna through sex, and Jane money. However, the feminist figure of note in Jane Eyre is not Jane herself, but Bertha Mason, the mentally ill wife of Mr. Rochester. Bertha is stripped of her autonomy and literally confined in her husband’s attic for defying Victorian expectations. Rather than the “angel of the house,” she becomes the demon. Bertha ultimately dies by suicide, like Carmilla, for her deviance from Victorian standards.
Brontë suggests that Jane has no family and nobody who loves her. Jane’s lack of love in her life makes her stronger and tougher. She learns not to always have to depend on anybody, but then again, it is upsetting that she has nobody to reach out to in a time of need. Brontë reveals Jane’s lack of love through Mrs. Fairfax and her questions about Jane’s family background.
Edward Rochester, the owner of the Thornfield estate and the later romantic interest of Jane, also has dynamic emotional relationships throughout this Bildungsroman novel. Rochester, a powerful but unusual man, uses his authority to assert his position through his relationship with both Bertha and Jane Eyre. Bertha, his first wife, with whom he has an arranged marriage, involves an association that primarily revolves around preserving