In Jane Eyre author Charlotte Bronte illustrates two comparisons and one main contrast among Mr. Brocklehurst, Mr. Rochester, and St. John Rivers. Bronte aims to present Brocklehurst, Rochester, and Rivers as men with similar traits that cause conflict with women, especially Jane. In response to the similarities, Bronte also depicts contrasts among the three men. These comparisons and contrasts ultimately decide their relationship with Jane throughout the novel. Mr. Brocklehurst, Mr. Rochester, and St. John Rivers have two similarities including: their secrecy and their alpha dog mentality; while their difference is how they react to being challenged.
The first comparison among Mr. Brocklehurst, Mr. Rochester, and St. John Rivers is their
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The quote also illustrates the extreme measures he takes to ensure himself that he has control. St. John Rivers is quite different compared to Brocklehurst. Instead of becoming furious with those who challenge him, Rivers remains calm but becomes isolated with the offender. A major example of Rivers’ reaction comes at the end of the novel when Jane refuses him. This example is shown in this quote,“‘Good-night, St. John,’ said I. ‘Good-night, Jane,’ he replied calmly. ‘Then shake hands,’ I added. What a cold, loose touch he impressed on my fingers!”(417). This quote depicts Rivers as a man who stays eerily calm when angry, but is secretly holding in all his rage. Jane realizes this when she touches his hand, and she notices how cold and loose the touch was, symbolizing Rivers’ cold and distant feelings told Jane. Rochester on the other hand acts much more mature compared to Brocklehurst and Rivers when challenged. Instead of becoming enraged or distant, he simply takes responsibility for his actions in which he is being challenged for. One moment of his maturity comes during his wedding with Jane. Rochester’s responsible nature is shown in this quote, “‘Enough--all shall bolt out at once, like the bullet from the barrel.--Wood, close your book, and take off your surplice; John Green (to the clerk), leave the church: there will be no wedding to-day:’ the man obeyed.”(296). In this quote, Rochester understands that there is no point is arguing with the men who challenged him. He simply ends the wedding so he can take responsibility about Bertha. Mr. Brocklehurst, Mr. Rochester, and St. John Rivers have their different ways of coping with people challenging
Jane Eyre’s inner struggle over leaving an already married Rochester is the epitome of the new "lovemad" woman in nineteenth-century literature. Jane Eyre is the story of a lovemad woman who has two parts to her personality (herself and Bertha Mason) to accommodate this madness. Charlotte Bronte takes the already used character of the lovemad woman and uses her to be an outlet for the confinement that comes from being in a male-dominated society. Jane has to control this madness, whereas the other part of her personality, her counterpart, Bertha Mason, is able to express her rage at being caged up. As what it means to be insane was changing during Bronte’s time, Bronte changed insanity in literature so that it is made not to be a weakness but rather a form of rebellion. Jane ultimately is able to overcome her lovemadness through sheer force of her will.
Charlotte Bronte utilizes the character of Bertha Rochester to interrupt Jane’s potential happy ending with Mr. Edward Rochester. Bertha is announced by Mr. Briggs as a way to stop the wedding and it also shows how hopeless Jane’s situation is. “That is my wife “said he. ‘Such is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know—such are the endearments which are to solace my leisure hours! And this is what I wished to have,’” (312) and “’I wanted her just as a change after that fierce ragout,’” (312) are quotes that express Mr. Rochester’s reasons for trying to remarry while he already has a wife, meanwhile showing his disposition towards said wife. Had Mr. Briggs and Mr. Mason not been present for the ceremony, Jane may have lived happily in ignorance. Due to Bertha’s involvement however, Jane could never truly call herself Mr. Rochester’s wife. She says, “’Sir, your wife is living: that is a fact acknowledged this morning by yourself. If I lived with you as you desire—I should then be your mistress: to say otherwise is sophistical—is false.’” (323) This quote shows that as a result of Bertha’s exposure, Jane refuses to marry Mr. Rochester. The influence that Bertha’s brief debut had on Jane’s life was significant enough to hinder the growth of her relationship with Mr. Rochester.
By comparing St. John to a statue, the reader is forced to see St. John as someone who is cold and rigid. Jane sets up the perception that St.John is disconnected from human feelings. Jane also presents a biased view of men when she first meets Rochester, who later becomes her husband. Furthermore, Jane’s first impressions of Rochester are also negative. Upon first being introduced to Rochester, after he asked to see her, Jane comments, “But it appeared he was not in the mood to notice us, for he never lifted his head as we approached. . .
Jane Eyre is about a girl named Jane who struggles to find who she really is and with it what she really wants. “As a model for women readers in the Victorian period and throughout the twentieth century to follow, Jane Eyre encouraged them to make their own choices in living their lives, to develop respect for themselves, and to become individuals” (Markley). One of the reasons why this book gained merit was because of its striking presence within its time period. During the “Victorian Age” woman did not have much say in society, so this novel broke boundaries to societal norms that restricted woman from things they have today. “Brontë is able to enact this tension through her characters and thus show dramatically the journey of a woman striving for balance within her nature.
St. John Rivers plays one of these life determining foils to Jane. Eyre. His confidence, devotion and reason intrigue Jane almost enough. silence her inner passionate spirit, but it is the forces of nature that prove to be stronger than human will. & nbsp; The life path of a Victorian woman was somewhat limited in its direction and expression of individuality. Jane Eyre strongly adheres to the Victorian morality which was dominated by the Anglican party of the Church of England in which passion and emotion were kept concealed. Jane's.
We learn that Jane is a young girl who is a victim of emotional and
Eventually, she returns to her former employer, discovering Thornfield in ashes, Mrs. Rochester dead, and Mr. Rochester blind and free from wedlock. Flooded with motifs, Jane’s continual struggles between her passions and responsibility prevail as the main theme of Bronte’s entrancing narrative. From the introduction of Jane’s orphan life, she battles between her ire at cousin John’s antics and obedience to Aunt Reed’s reluctant guardianship.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre chronicles the growth of her titular character from girlhood to maturity, focusing on her journey from dependence on negative authority figures to both monetary and psychological independence, from confusion to a clear understanding of self, and from inequality to equality with those to whom she was formerly subject. Originally dependent on her Aunt Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Mr. Rochester, she gains independence through her inheritance and teaching positions. Over the course of the novel, she awakens towards self-understanding, resulting in contentment and eventual happiness. She also achieves equality with the important masculine figures in her life, such as St. John Rivers and Mr. Rochester, gaining self-fulfillment as an independent, fully developed equal.
Bronte wrote Jane Eyre to emphasize her beliefs behind the purpose of women, and how society lacked to understand them as who they were created to be. The issue of lack of opportunity for women to engage in intellectual preparation and continuation is prevalent within the character of Jane. Expectation of women’s role was a social norm, with a lack of diversity or individuality. Bronte challenges this issue through the character of Jane, whom experiences a tug-of-war sensation between being herself, who she wants to be and should be, and what society wants her to be, and pushes her to be. Bronte was trying to explain that women have the same capability as men to be productive individuals of society, but they are held back from establishing their potential. The most unique understanding of Bronte’s challenge to society is the understanding that the characteristics and personality of Jane as a female is shamed and criticized, however these features are identical to those of a successful and representable man in
When reading Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, I find myself cheering for Rochester. After finishing the book, I ask myself why Jane chooses Rochester over St. John. After all, Rochester has a "mad" wife, Bertha Mason, locked in the attic of Thornfield Hall at the same time that he is proposing marriage to Jane. He has a ward living with him, possibly the offspring of an illicit affair with a French dancer. He is arrogant, pushy, and basically ill-tempered. St. John, on the other hand, is well mannered, respected, and has a promising future. To answer my own question, then, it is essential to look at how each man fits the idea of masculinity in Victorian society, at how each man relates to Jane, and at why Bronte creates her two leading men to be such extreme opposites.
Passion and reason, their opposition and eventual bringing together, serve as constant themes throughout the book. "Unjust!--unjust! Said my reason...How all my brain was in tumult, and all my heart in resurrection!" (Bronte, 17) Jane's passions are uncontrolled because she is not using reason. We see the dangers of nature and passion tempered by reason in the scene in which Rochester almost marries. Jane must get over her overwhelming passion for Mr. Rochester or Jane runs the risk of losing herself. In this case, passion nearly gains a victory over reason. Jane nearly loses her own personality in her overwhelming love. "Feeling without judgment is a washy draught indeed; but judgment untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition" (Bronte, 247). In other words, the individual must attain a balance between reason and passion, not be dominated by one or the other.
Throughout Jane Eyre the three male characters: John Reed, St. John Rivers, and Edward Rochester endure suffering caused from society and the family power structures. Although males during the Victorian era, and especially these three men, were exhibited as having power and or wealth, they had a flaw that caused them to suffer in some shape or form. John Reed ultimately dying, St. John moves to India and essentially has a loveless and delusional attitude towards life, in addition Mr. Rochester and the new Mrs. Rochester are united and become equals.
It is human nature to desire freedom and yearn passion, yet it is also human nature to obtain acceptance and follow reason. It is a never ending battle between passion and reason; without reason there is no acceptance, without passion there is no freedom. In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Jane strongly struggles between passion and reason. Though Jane loves Mr. Rochester, her employer at Thornfield Hall, she has certain values to uphold in order to conform with society. Jane does not let her affections overtake her morality, though her return to Mr. Rochester proves passion to be stronger than reason.
Love is an important theme in the famous novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Jane's love for Rochester is clearly noticible throughout the novel. But Jane's true love for Rochster becomes appearent in only a few of her actions and emotions. Although it may seem Rochester manipulated her heart's desire, this can be disproven in her actions towards him. Jane followed her heart in the end, by returning to Rochester.
" I don't know, I asked Aunt Reed once, and she said possibly I might