Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre fixates on the coming of age of a poor orphan girl developing into an independent woman in Victorian England. In “Gazes, Fires, and Brain-Body Repair in Brontë’s Jane Eyre” Nina Pelikan Straus examines Jane Eyre through a lens of psychoanalytic criticism. This lens involves examining the effects of life circumstances on a character and how these contribute to individuals under similar circumstances. Straus effectively analyzes the psychological development in Jane Eyre through her emphasis on Jane’s desire for parental figures and the implications of external metaphor, explaining how Jane’s rejection during childhood influences her behavior throughout the rest of her life.
Jane’s desperation for a figure of parental
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Straus asserts that because “early trauma influences ‘all future socioemotional functioning’” Rochester’s bodily damage from the fire was necessary to make him and Jane equivalent. Jane’s emotional damage matches the eventual physical damage that Rochester had to brook; he understands her childhood suffering because he is brought down in a similar way by the fire. The fire at Thornfield scars Rochester in a way that makes his physical form match the emotional damage he has borne all along. When Jane learns that Rochester is now “stone-blind” (Brontë 436), the two have come full-circle, with Jane gaining wealth to match Rochester’s and him gaining damage to match Jane’s. Rochester’s blindness connects to the metaphor of fire having the ability to both destroy and create: fire brought him to a state of physical degradation while benefiting him by allowing Jane to feel equivalent to him in their relationship and freed him from his marriage to Bertha; here, Jane Eyre shows the effects of the major fire in its power to metaphorically and physically alter the lives of the characters. This natural power connects to the psychological ability of Jane to change her circumstances through her own actions; she discovers this when she is able to overcome the damage suffered in her …show more content…
Straus includes the gaze of Helen Burns in Jane’s development, emphasizing Helen’s “physically reparative ray” (Straus). Straus explains that Helen’s kind outlook, one of the first that Jane has experienced, has a healing effect on Jane following her traumatic childhood. In another instance, the way that St. John Rivers initially looks upon Jane reflects both her present situation as a beggar and his own tendency to lower her to be subservient to himself. St. John uses a dehumanizing metaphor almost immediately upon meeting Jane, stating that “my sisters, you see, have a pleasure in keeping you…as they would have pleasure in keeping and cherishing a half-frozen bird…” (Brontë 354). St. John’s relation of Jane to a helpless animal conveys his perception of her and introduces a condescending tone he maintains toward her character. Jane’s lack of confidence stemming from the abuses she suffered in her childhood causes her to be sensitive to the way that others gaze upon
St. John Rivers is introduced into the novel as a savior. He takes Jane into his home and under his care when she believes to have reached the end of her road. It is here, at Moor House with St. John, that she is given a new beginning with a new identity, job, and, eventually, a family with St. John and his sisters. As a clergyman, St. John is a good, moral person whose intentions are to provide for his people and his family. He also eventually wants to become a missionary someday soon. Jane likes the idea of this and it is evident to readers that Jane admires St. John and loves him like the brother he has become to her. He even gives her a job as a teacher at a school for less fortunate children. It is here that she is introduced to Rosamond Oliver and her father.
The misfortunes Jane was given early in life didn’t alter her passionate thinking. As a child she ...
When we first meet Jane she is a young and orphaned girl with little self-confidence and hope of feelings a sense of belonging and self worth. It is unfair that Jane already feels lonely and desperate in such a cruel world as it is. Jane is open with her thoughts during her narration, “…humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed” (Bronte 7). Jane already feels as though she cannot participate in everyday activities because she acknowledges that she is a weaker person. By Jane believing she is weak she is succumbing to her own entrapment. The novel opens with Jane feeling inadequate about going on a walk with her cousins and the novel ends with Jane embarking on a journey of her very own, this is not a coincidence.
Jane Eyre has been acclaimed as one of the best gothic novels in the Victorian Era. With Bronte’s ability to make the pages come alive with mystery, tension, excitement, and a variety of other emotions. Readers are left with rich insight into the life of a strong female lead, Jane, who is obedient, impatient, and passionate as a child, but because of the emotional and physical abuse she endures, becomes brave, patient, and forgiving as an adult. She is a complex character overall but it is only because of the emotional and physical abuse she went through as a child that allowed her to become a dynamic character.
Because Jane is the narrator, the reader is given a biased point of view that St. John’s character is unfavorable. Throughout Jane’s life she has had oppressive male figures dominate her life, such as John Reed and Mr. Brocklehurst. Thus, Jane can condition herself to be apprehensive when confronting men. After gaining her physical and emotional strength, Jane studies St. John’s character. Jane’s first impression of St. John is pessimistic, she states “Had he been a statue instead of a man, he could not have been easier”(Bronte 329).
An example of John’s feelings of superiority over Jane, is shown in how he adores the fact that she is a weak woman, who depends greatly on him. Throughout the story her behaviors exhibit that she feels inferior to her husband. Jane obeys every command John gives without asking any questions. Jane delivers, “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (Gilman 474). Jane is forbidden to complete tasks on her own. Jane’s feelings of inferiority are deeply rooted from being under her husband’s complete control. Jane explains, “I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!”(Gilman 474). John does everything for ...
In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses Jane Eyre as her base to find out how a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with her responsibilities. . Mistreated abused and deprived of a normal childhood, Jane Eyre creates an enemy early in her childhood with her Aunt Mrs. Reed. Just as Mrs. Reeds life is coming to an end, she writes to Jane asking her for forgiveness, and one last visit from her.
Given the background of Victorian motherhood, the nourishment, teachings, and support from the mother are never really present in Jane’s life. Placing other women in her life are able to fill the void where her mother would have been, but never fill the void as a mother really would.
St. John Rivers is a faith-full clergyman in his twenties who is brave and cares for the needy, and he is a major character in half of Jane Eyre. St. John is a highly educated man who is handsome, but although he cares for the uncared, he is a frigid controlling man, especially towards the main character, Jane Eyre. St. John first meets Jane when he finds her sitting down on the front doorstep at Moor House cold and hungry, and he takes to his caring duties and lets Jane come into the house and stay along with his two sisters', Mary and Diana, eager invitation. Although St. John tried asking questions to Jane, he was mostly reserved to himself the time Jane was there, and he barely spoke a word. He lets Jane stay at Moor House despite how scarce
Jane does not experience a typical family life throughout the novel. Her various living arrangements led her through different households, yet none were a representation of the norm of family life in the nineteenth century. Through research of families in the nineteenth century, it is clear that Jane’s life does not follow with the stereotypical family made up of a patriarchal father and nurturing mother, both whose primary focus was in raising their children. Jane’s life was void of this true family experience so common during the nineteenth century. Yet, Jane is surrounded by men, who in giving an accurate portrayal of fathers and masculinity in the nineteenth century, fulfill on one hand the father role that had never been present in her life, and on the other hand the husband portrait that Jane seeks out throughout the novel.
Moseley goes on to say, “Liberty and love are in some way at war in the lives of all of us.” It is not until Jane reaches personal liberation, that she is capable of loving someone else to a full extent. Throughout Jane Eyre Jane must learn how to gain love without sacrificing herself in the process. Orphaned at an early age, Jane becomes used to a lackluster lifestyle without any true value. It is not until she finds love and comfort in her friends at Lowood that her life begins to turn around. Upon meeting Rochester, Jane’s life was only as plain as she made it. She untwines in a world wind romance, ultimately finding the love she craved without losing her self-value.
When Jane is shunned by Mr. Brocklehurst in front of the entire Lowood population, Helen is the one person that does not immediately judge Jane. In fact, she makes her feel more comfortable in a place that is filled with punishment and hypocrisy. Though Lowood does not truly feel like home, Helen is able to provide Jane with not only all the compassion she needs as well as support and respect. This is one of the first loves Jane experiences on her journey and it allows her to become more open to the love she finds in her future endeavors.
One of these, St John Rivers finds Jane a job teaching at a charity school. He then surprises her by telling her that her uncle has died and she is rich and he is also her cousin, knowing this she shares the inheritance equally with him and two other cousins. St John wants to travel as a missionary and he wants Jane to go with him as his wife, Jane wants to go but not as his wife because she doesn't love him, she nearly gives in but then hears Mr. Rochester's voice calling her. She hurries back to Thornfield but it has been burnt down by
Pain, misery and disappointment are all a significant part of this world’s concepts of both life and love. A prime example of this is displayed in Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, where the protagonist, Jane, suffers through a particularly difficult life; her love is constantly stripped from her the moment she is relishing it most. With Bronte’s introduction of Bertha Rochester, Jane’s never-ending cycle of disappointment and loss of love.
At the beginning of the book, Jane was living with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her children. Although Jane is treated cruelly and is abused constantly, she still displays passion and spirit by fighting back at John and finally standing up to Mrs Reed. Even Bessie ‘knew it was always in her’. Mrs. Reed accuses Jane of lying and being a troublesome person when Mr. Brocklehurst of Lowood School visited Gateshead. Jane is hurt, as she knows she was not deceitful so she defends herself as she defended herself to John Reed when he abused her, as she said “Wicked and cruel boy! You are like a murderer – you are like a slave driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” to John Reed instead of staying silent and taking in the abuse, which would damage her self-confidence and self-worth. With the anger she had gotten from being treated cruelly, she was able to gain ...