More handpicked essays just for you.
Jane eyre compare and contrast rochester and st. john
St. john jane eyre religion
St john jane Eyre analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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
What is a tragic hero? A tragic hero is typically defined as a character in a literary work who has a lot of pride and makes a judgment error that leads to their ultimate demise. The downfall usually has to do with their pride.
...to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt. It seemed as if an invisible bond had burst, and that I had struggled out into unhoped- for liberty.” Never knowing what was going to happen next, like St. John wasn’t first portrayed as a cousin but at the end he was being portrayed as a husband rather than even a cousin all because of Jane. She puts the twist and turn into the story, which causes the reader to being pushed or perceived into liking Jane.
Sometimes a trusted friend cannot give you good advice. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, the character Friar Lawrence was a trusted friend who cost his friends their lives.Friar Lawrence is responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths because he helped them rush their relationship and came up a faulty plan that eventually cost them their lives.
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.
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).
St. John Rivers exhibits all of the qualities of a respectable Victorian man. His father "was a plain man enough; but a gentleman, and of as ancient a family as could be found" (Bronte 383). St. John's father, although a gentleman, had lost a great deal of money "by a man he had trusted turning bankrupt" (384). In short, St. John's station in life is one of a gentleman, although he lacks an inheritance of any kind. As he describes himself to Jane, "since I am poor and obscure, I can offer you but a service of poverty and obscurity... for I find that, when I have paid my father's debts, all the patrimony remaining to me will be this crumbling grange" (395-396). St. John sees his financial situation as a virtue. It is obvious that his financial situation does not distress him; he still goes to college and becomes a minister. In his account of his personal life he leaves out nothing. His past is known, an...
In fact, I am glad the book ended with the focus on the character of St. John instead of with Jane or Rochester, as it hints to us that the importance of the book is not about finding the right person, falling in love, and living happily ever after. The theme of this book is about following your conscience. In this regard, Jane and St. John both did the same thing in this story: They both had strong, driving consciences; they both were tempted but pursued their course; and they both found a satisfying life in the end. This book is not about developing a relationship with a romantic partner, but about developing a relationship and learning to follow and live in tune with your own moral conscience.
As the novel progresses we meet three different characters of religion: Helen, St. John, and Mr. Brucklehurst. Jane dismisses all three of the religious views shown by these three. Throughout the novel Jane questions her faith and idea of religion, until after a while she comes to her own conclusion and creates her own beliefs. Helen does not fear her death and shows little care about her life on earth because she believes heaven is more important. Mr. Brucklehurst is cruel and strict because of his religious beliefs. St. John chooses to deny the love of his life and attempt to marry a women he does not love because he feels that he must stay faithful to his God. Unlike the three religious people in her life, Jane learns to balance her faith in God and her love for the mortal world.
The story begins with a young Jane Eyre who is essentially neither loved by anyone nor independent in nature. At this point in the story, the reader discovers that Jane is an orphan and is being supported by the Reed family. This discovery is made through the portrayal of John Reed when he is taunting Jane about her social status. John claims that since it is his family who supports Jane, it is their choice to dictate the circumstances under which she lives. In this case, Jane is not allowed to play with the younger Reed children or read a book that belongs to the Reeds. The fact that6 Jane is an orphan living under someone else's roof displays that she has not yet gained her independence.
When Jane Eyre resided at Gateshead Hall, under the care of her aunt, Mrs. Reed, she yearned for a change. The treatment that she received at Gateshead Hall was cruel, unjust, and most importantly, lacked nurture. Jane wanted to escape Gateshead Hall and enter into a school. The school that was imposed upon Jane was Lowood Institution. Through her eight year stay at Lowood, Jane learned how to control her frustrations and how to submit to authority. After leaving Lowood Institution and taking the occupation as governess at Thornfield Hall, Jane realized that her experiences at Gateshead Hall and Lowood Institution had deeply rooted themselves into her personality. After departing Thornfield Hall, Jane wandered about as a vagabond. Arriving at Whitcross, Jane was starving, cold, and in need of help. It is St. John Rivers who aids in helping Jane back to health. Through her experiences at Gateshead Hall, Lowood Institution, and Whitcross, Jane Eyre becomes the recipient of the positive and negative aspects of the New Poor Law depicted by Charlotte Bronte in nineteenth-century England.
...ed to be his wife, I can imagine the possibility of conceiving an inevitable, strange, torturing kind of love for him, because he is so talented.”(389) this quote shows that Jane does not love St. John and if she stays with him she wont be happy to be with him.
In Jane Eyre we listen to St. John telling Jane his deepest desire to be a missionary. He says he "aspires but after the day when the cross of separation from fleshly ties shall be laid upon his shoulders, and when the Head of that church-militant of whose humblest members he is one, shall give the word, 'Rise, follow me!'" (347; ch. 30). St. John is foreshadowing his separation from his family to follow the call of the missionary. His sister Diana describes his ambition to go to India as a "fever in his vitals" (349; ch.30) and that her conscience "will hardly permit me to dissuade him from his severe decision…. It is right, noble, Christian: yet it breaks my heart" (350; ch.31). She sees the missionary work as something extreme and severe. When she talks of the fever in St.
Jane initially arises from a destitute background, following the death of her parents-and her main struggle involves finding her way within the restrictive Victorian era. Perpetually isolated and afraid-alienation from her “more beautiful” Georgiana and Eliza adversely impacts her mind, and negates her confidence. “I wiped my tears and hushed my sobs, fearful lest a sign of violent grief might waken a preternatural voice…(8)” Indeed, Jane’s sorrow underscores her trapped grief; she is physically attacked by John-and her only sense of solace is derived from the preternatural: Mr. Reed’s spirits, which she feels if alive, would have been a much more kindly family member. However, as she progresses to Lowood School, she begins to find inner confidence through her studies. “I toiled hard, and success was proportional to my efforts; I was promoted to a higher class; allowed to commence French…(56)” These academic fruitions thus reveal how Jane’s growth is dynamic-she sheds her isolated silence to reveal a hardworking, knowledgeable girl eager to pursue her ambitions. Then, as a governess at Thornfield, Jane encounters many vicissitudes that highlight her self-reliance, including Mr. Rochester’s affections, which she rejects due to its lack of accordance with her values, and St. John’s proposals, which she also denies, due to his wishes to “influence” her entirely. This characterization is in turn dynamic, for she progresses from a lowly servant tormented by her insecurities,
John interrupts Jane when she is reading one day telling the story of her past as he thinks that Jane had been lying to them about her name. Jane tells him that she is Jane Eyre and finds that Mr. Briggs has written a letter for her stating that she has inherited a lot of money from her dead uncle. They both realize that they are cousins and Jane tells them that they will split the inheritance between them.
The treatment of India is important in this context. St. John Rivers wants Jane to join him as his wife on a missionary expedition to India, but Jane sees the discipline and severity of his character as too stifling for her to thrive in. The implication is that she would revert to her former slave position under his influence. But Jane recognises that although his discipline is too much for her, he will do extremely well in India, perhaps indicating that the Indians are in need of such a severe influence to keep them under control.