Jane Eyre Flaws

The Victorian era in England was one of strict propriety, and the temperate state of existence saw little criticism in direct conversation. A perseverant few, however, found subtle ways to question the status quo. Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, was among them. Jane's encounter with a soothsayer, in which the prophetic hag asserts that Jane's rigid morals hamper her happiness, highlights Brontë's critical attitude towards the Victorian state of being. In her analysis of what the different parts of Jane's body intimate about her future prospects, the fortuneteller only finds an "enemy to a fortunate issue...in the brow." The phrase "fortunate issue" means prosperous offspring to the superficial reader, but in preceding paragraphs,

where the hag divulges the meaning behind Jane's other body parts, such as the eye, no allusion is made to Jane's descendants.

However, the old woman does mention that Jane needs to "stretch out your hand, and take it [happiness] up" in order to gain happiness (171), and the hag claims that the brow believes "I have an inward treasure." That the brow is content with its "inward treasure" implies that it has no desire to reach for happiness, and so "fortunate issue" has a meaning identical to that of happiness; thus the brow is an of Jane's happiness. The reason that the brow stymies happiness shows the absurdity of the Victorian life. According to the soothsayer, the brow "professes" that "I have an inward treasure, born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld." This is an argument against how Victorians lauded austerity: Victorians purported to believe that discomfort was virtuous and purported to shun worldly pleasures, and Jane's brow "professes" to be able to forego all that is carnal and appetizing. While outwardly, Victorians obstinately vouched for self-restraint, they stealthily and cannily indulged in secret; thus the word "profess." After criticizing the Victorian's hypocrisy, the old woman goes on to denounce their hauteur, which has deeper roots than their faked moral standards, and which another inhibitor of

Jane's happiness.

Where earlier the brow "professes," here it "declares": "Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms." The forehead has a deep-seated idea that it can dominate lowly emotions, and it clings to reason, believing that natural tendencies can only lead one astray. Reason, however, is not reason in the sense that it is known today; religion has a vital role in this form of reason. To Jane's forehead, emotions constitute relics of the primordial faiths that preceded Christianity: "The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they are." Jane's forehead equates the "passions," or emotions, that she is able to suppress to "heathens," or pagans. Similarly, pious Victorians revere Christianity and disparage more primitive religions; therefore, Jane's forehead, the threat of Jane's happiness, is so partly because of Victorian superciliousness. No matter which misfortunes Jane faces, the stalwart forehead will remain Victorian: "desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgment will still have the last word in every argument....Strong wind, earthquake-shock, and fire pass by: but I shall follow the guiding of that still small voice which interprets the

dictates of conscience." "Judgment" may refer to the "small voice which interprets the dictates of conscience" because the description of judgment's victory follows the description of the efforts of "desire" to corrupt; "judgment" also could refer to the judgment of God after death. Either way, the forehead's views show the extent of the control that the Christian principals that the Victorians strictly adhered to has over it: no matter what hardships it faces, it will continue to succumb to the impulses of the conscience and the Christian values they reflect. Thus the Victorian personality smothers Jane's happiness. After exposing the thinking behind Jane's forehead, the hag presents Jane's response to it. Jane capitulates to the diehard Victorianism of her forehead out of fear: "I have attended the claims of conscience, the counsels of reason....I know how soon youth would fade and bloom perish, if, in the cup of bliss offered, but one dreg of shame, or one flavour of remorse were detected." Jane thus follows the will of her conscience because regret will erode her vitality. The prospect of a reprisal of the conscience therefore worries Jane. She cannot succeed with a "dreg of shame" or "flavour of remorse" and experience happiness nonetheless; success must be pure and unconditional. That only unequivocal success suffices for happiness suggests that Victorians who enter the world without unlimited leisure seek it to emulate the privileged classes. After attaining a desirable life, Victorians need to feel as though they were born into it, as Dorian Gray is. This is a result of the leverage that social class had in the Victorian age. Thus the pervasive and potent force of heritage in Victorian England drives Jane to consent to the urgings of her brow.