Medical Lens In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

Analyzing Jane Eyre through the Medical Lens

Jane Eyre is a Victorian Era bildungsroman by Charlotte Brontë that follows the development of the antagonist, Jane, throughout many tribulations reflective of the time period it was written. Focusing on the health criticisms throughout the novel, Alan Bewell’s “Jane Eyre and Victorian Medical Geography” takes an in-depth look at the medical practices of the Victorian Era and how they influenced Brontë’s work. Through a medical historical lens, Alan Bewell analyzes the trends of Victorian Era medicinal practices displayed in Jane Eyre. Applying his understanding of Victorian medical beliefs, Bewell criticizes the Victorian practices that are emphasized by Brontë’s choice of scenery and characters.

This focus on Victorian Era medical practices allows Jane Eyre to be used to criticize the medical beliefs of the time period and evoke change. Brontë’s adaptation of her personal life into the novel, calls for a reflective piece on the values and practices of the Victorian Era and ultimately allows for a subtle call to action amongst the English people.

In the Victorian Era the practice of defining medical geographies was on the rise. Rather than searching for the cures to diseases, Victorian doctors focused on the classification of areas by health standards. Bewell capitalizes on the “important role that contemporary medical descriptions of "healthy" and "unhealthy" landscapes played in the nineteenth-century understanding of place” and their relation to how Jane Eyre is written (Bewell 774). The medical descriptions of landscapes contributed to public sentiments of areas around them. Places were considered to be disease-ridden due to the “science that sought to map the world's diseases, establishing correlations between the "places" where people lived and the eases from which they suffered” and often suffered with public favorability (Bewell 775). In return, areas were thought as being the source of disease and the efforts of doctors went to providing ways to mitigate the effects of the deleterious areas. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre uses setting to represent the health of areas in which Jane lives or visits. Brontë writes, “We had been

wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so somber, and a rain so penetrating that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question,” which highlights the “cold winter wind,” “clouds so somber,” and “rain so penetrating,” implying that there would be no presence of bacteria and in fact the area would be “healthy” for humans (Brontё 6). In Jane Eyre, setting is used to represent the health of Jane as she travels throughout her life. This is evident in the end description of Lowood as Brontë highlights “the unhealthy nature of the site; the quantity and quality of the children’s food; the brackish, fetid water used in its preparations; the pupils’ wretched clothing and accommodation” (Brontё 84). Attributing back to health, this can easily account for the declining salubrity of the pupils and less noticeable mental health of Jane. Charlotte Brontë’s description of the setting throughout the novel is on behalf of absorbing the Victorian era medical practices. Incorporating the practices of the time period into her novel, Brontë is able to aid in making criticisms on the feckless methods use to handle disease and ultimately contributes to the change in health practices in her lifetime.
One means to eliminate the rise of disease was to implement ways to “cleanse” diseased areas. Alan Bewell explains that the new Victorian practice hoped to “[institute] proper methods of sanitation; by draining marshlands, which were believed to be the source of harmful miasmas; by improving the soil through agriculture and by avoiding cultivation at certain times of the year; by cutting down forests or widening urban streets to increase the ventilation of airs; by assuring that people lived at a distance from cemeteries, cesspools, marshes, tanneries, or slaughterhouses; it was hoped that medicine might ultimately control diseases. The health of human bodies would be guaranteed by ensuring the health of the physical environments in which people lived” (Bewell 777). Calling for the need to eliminate the diseases in contaminated areas in order to ultimately benefit the individual, Bewell’s research highlights the shift in Victorian medical practices. This new work focused on not only eliminating the diseases but also helped contribute to cleaner health practices. The belief that disease came from bad air, “mal-aira” and as a result there was a need for legislation that would allow for better ventilation and their “therapeutic power” as many did not understand the role bacteria plays in disease, lead to improvements in the overall health of individuals (Bewell 777-778). Jane Eyre showcases the benefits of larger, open-aired spaces for individuals to live in as reflected by Jane’s mental health. When Jane is at Thornfield she comments on “enjoying the calm prospect and pleasant fresh air” contributing to the overarching idea that with fresh air a person is able to be at their optimal health (Brontё 101). Brontë’s reasoning for showcasing this positive outlook in Jane’s life goes to show that with open air, the health effects of individuals can be improved. Brontë’s underlying criticism of the health practices attributed to wide changes in health policies across England. As demonstrated by Brontë’s inclusion in the novel, the criticism of health standards go to champion Brontë as an individual who influenced the social environment of England by using Jane Eyre as a catalyst to that change.
Bewell also capitalizes on the rise of English colonialism as it contributes to views about disease and how this is emphasized in Jane Eyre.

Evident in her use of characters and their physical descriptions, Brontë also aims to criticize the effects of colonialism. In Bewell’s article “Jane Eyre and Victorian Medical Geography” he highlights the question of colonialism in regards to the beliefs of English citizens while he, “[addresses] the question of English colonialism and the related issues of race, class, and gender, therefore, we need to be aware of the extent to which the positions that writers took in relation to these ideas-their politics and geopolitics, in other words-were frequently determined or underwritten by a tacit acceptance or rejection of contemporary medical geography, which argued that the most important question to ask of places was not "Are they pleasant?" but are they "healthy or not?” (Bewell 775). This new perspective on how the English looked at their conquests contributes to the overarching theory on how health could have been affected by outsiders and shaped the minds of citizens. Bewell’s comment highlights how the English viewed lands and people foreign to them in terms of public health and in turn how affects their personal lives. Charlotte Brontë uses characters to demonstrate the sentiments of English citizens towards that of foreigners. Demonstrated in her description of Bertha Mason, Brontë aims to show how foreigners were objectified by

the definition of her characters. This criticism is shown in Rochester’s statement, “Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family;- idiots and maniacs through three generations! Her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman and a drunkard!” which represents public sentiments towards outsiders (Brontë 296). Representative of local views, Bertha’s description also aims to show how disease was to be associated with people different than that of the social norms. Attributing to mental health issues, which commonly can be associated with disease, Brontë uses Bertha to demonstrate the fear amongst people for those often obtuse and unstable in their knowledge. The use of foreign characters such as Bertha serves to provide a more rounded view into the viewpoints of the hegemony of the English people. The treatment and view of foreign individuals was often negative and by Brontë’s presentation of Bertha she created an environment that called for social change about mental health issues, diseases and ultimately the idea of colonialism.
Alan Bewell’s historical look at Jane Eyre served to showcase the powerful message that Charlotte Brontë exemplified within her novel. Challenging social norms and calling for change, Brontë uses Jane Eyre to evoke responses to the health scene in the Victorian Era. Bewell was accurate in his use of the historical lens to pinpoint where and why Brontë depicted health issues in her story. Using his newfound knowledge, Bewell was able to connect the reasoning behind the depiction of areas Jane visited and the people she met as it related to criticizing the English health standards and use of geographic medicine. Highlighting Jane Eyre in its relation to social change allowed Alan Bewell to draw conclusions from his research in relation to how the book was written to be a social catalyst in the Victorian Era amongst the issue of healthcare. The incorporation of health into the novel also allows for a hidden message inside of the book. Every character and setting description played on the medical practices of Brontë’s lifetime. Besides making connections to why some areas and characters are depicted the way they are, the influence of health practices throughout the book calls for an analysis of the social hierarchy during the Victorian Era. Brontë’s placement of characters parallels their living and physical conditions and plays into the idea health is associated with social status. John Reed (although he dies from alcoholism) is portrayed as successful throughout the novel and is often portrayed salubriously whereas Bertha Mason is shown as lunatic and therefore lacking in (mental) health. Physical and mental health descriptions attributed to the placement of characters along the social ladder and ultimately enable Charlotte Brontë to criticize not only the medical practices but also the social structure of the Victorian Era using her prudence of the time period to integrate the social injustices into Jane Eyre and inflict change in England’s legislature, further shaping the country to benefit its citizens.