Jane Eyre

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Jane Eyre

When Jane Eyre is introduced to Reverend St. John Rivers, she has already had a lifetime of experiences, but she still does not have a good sense of self. By the time that Jane leaves St. John, she is a newly self-assured woman who knows what she wants in life, and is determined to achieve her goals.

When St. John is first introduced in the book, he finds Jane completely destitute with nowhere to go and no one to rely on for help. Despite her refusal to reveal her true identity, St. John takes Jane in to live with him and his two sisters, Diana and Mary. Once she has been nursed to health, St. John gives Jane a job as a school teacher at a girls school as well as a small cottage in which to live (339). At this point in the novel, word reaches the Rivers family of their Uncle's death. Unfortunately, another relative was favored for the large inheritance over them.

While living in Moore House, Jane begins to feel like she is part of the Rivers family. She regards their home as her home (360), and its inhabitants as her brothers and sisters. Soon, Jane is informed that St. John has been told to whom their Uncle's estate was left- one Jane Eyre. It seems that St. John was christened St. John Eyre Rivers (366). St. John, Diana, and Mary are actually Jane's cousins. This gives Jane the family that she has always wanted, she finally has people to love her.

One day, St. John announces to Jane that he will be going to East India to be a missionary, and that he wants Jane to go with him as his wife (383). Jane is reluctant to appease him, and he tries to convince her to come by telling her that it is God's Will that she do this (391). Many times Jane has done things that she did not want because it was God's Will. She was sent out of her Aunts house, suffered punishments at Lowood Institution, and did not marry Mr. Rochester, all for God's Will. But this time she realized that this was not God's Will. The next day while trying to reconcile with St. John, Jane hears a voice on the wind calling her name much like the story of Damascus in the bible that she had studied for so long.

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