Jane Eyre Symbolism

In Charlotte Brontë’s, Jane Eyre, the protagonist’s life is a struggle; sometimes Jane has to lose something in order to gain something. As the room shifts from “obscurity and flickering gleam hovered here or glanced there.” This represents Jane’s internal struggle between good and evil shown through light and dark. Jane follows Mr. Rochester to the third floor of Thornfield, after Mr. Rochester asks if she is still awake. Unaware of the situation she walking into, Jane sees Mr. Mason, a friend of Mr. Rochester, laying lifeless on the bed with one arm soaked in blood. She concludes that Grace Poole attacked him and is scared that Grace may burst into the room again. Leaving Jane locked in the room with Mr. Mason, Mr. Rochester sets out

As Jane cleanses the wound of Mr. Mason by “[dipping her] again and again in the basin of blood and water,” she searches for her the cleansing of her own soul represented by baptism with holy water. In this way, Jesus promises to wash away all of her sins. While Jane truly wants to be a good person, she doubts that religion is her salvation. Not only does religion promise salvation, but Jane believes it is also the root of corruption. She sees this corruption in the cabinet door of the “devilish face of Judas, that grew out of the panel, and seemed gathering life and threatening a revelation of the arch-traitor”. Judas, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, is infamously known for betraying Jesus and is Satan in his subordinate form. Jane sees Brocklehurst, a clergyman, as a hypocrite because he preaches one thing, but does another. Knowing that Mr. Brocklehurst speaks the word of God, she denies him in the same way that Judas denied God. Hence, Jane sees herself as Judas. After Jane’s slate slips from her hands and falls to the ground and breaks into two fragments, Mr. Brocklehurst humiliates Janes in front of her schoolmates. He says “who would think that [Satan has] already found a servant and agent in [Jane]? Yet such, I grieve to say is the case [with Jane]” (83). People perceive Jane as evil because she has no religion. However, Jane knows that

After this passage, Jane and Rochester are talking to each other. Mr. Rochester questions Jane on philosophy and God. He says “I have myself—been a worldly, dissipated, restless man; and I believe I have found the instrument for my cure, in—[Jane]” (267). Charlotte Brontë creates an analogy between Luke and St. Paul to Jane and Mr. Rochester. While Luke the physician is Jane the “curer”, Mr. Rochester becomes St. Paul. Jane believes that she has to the ability to change Rochester into a “saint” and follow him faithfully. After Mr. Rochester professes his love for Jane, he claims that he will shower in her gifts. However, Jane rejects every gift Mr. Rochester claims he wants to give to her because it seems unnatural. She exclaims “don’t address me as if I were a beauty; I am your plain, Quakerish governess” (315). Luke was a humble person and did not want to call attention to himself. When Jane rejects the finest clothing and jewels, she breaks several social rules. Woman of Jane’s new class were supposed to dress lavishly and splendidly. However, like Luke, Jane believes personal virtues create the character not the social