In the well-praised novel Jane Eyre, the balance of passion (early 19th Century romanticism) and reason (Victorian realism) is represented as a major theme throughout. Bronte successfully displays the balance of passion and reason between Jane's relationship with Mr. Rochester and St. John Rivers as an obligatory aspect of marriage as well as a necessary ideology of life. Jane struggles with the balance of passion and reason initially with her relationship with Mr. Rochester at Thornfield. Her internal conflict soon continues when she meets St. John Rivers at Marsh End. Although Jane does not properly balance the novel's theme of passion and reason instantly, she achieves the balance at the end of the novel with Mr. Rochester.
At the beginning of the novel, Bronte presents Jane as a lonely, yet independent and intelligent child who faces difficult hardships at a very young age. At Gateshead, Jane is greatly mistreated by her family members which result in her attending a school for orphaned children called Lowood. Although Jane's life at Lowood is an improvement compared to life at Gateshead, she still feels as though she belongs elsewhere. Jane sends out an advertisement for a wanted governess after six years of living at Lowood and soon begins working at Thornfield Hall where she begins teaching a young French girl Adele Varens. Upon arriving, Jane is informed by the housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax that the owner of Thornfield Mr. Rochester travels often and has lived through a troubled life. After many months have passed at Thornfield Jane finally meets Mr. Rochester and he takes a great secretive interest in her. The relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester is the first non-abusive relationship Jane has with another man in the no...
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...t on earth. I hold myself supremely blest - blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine" (Bronte 519). Every hardship and trouble Jane endured, from Gateshead to Morton, amplifies the perfect balance between passion and reason Jane receives at the end of the novel. Jane achieves this balance by being with the one she loves the most without any complications of reasoning. Her internal conflicts between Mr. Rochester and St. John Rivers contained many complications including Mr. Rochester's mad wife Bertha, not being in love with St. John, and her own sense of self-respect. Bronte successfully reveals this balance at the end of the novel by Jane receiving a large amount of money, allowing Jane to be with Mr. Rochester without Bertha, Jane discovering she has family, and Jane starting her own family with Mr. Rochester.
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.
Pain, misery and disappointment are all a significant part of this world’s concepts of both life and love. A prime example of this is displayed in Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, where the protagonist, Jane, suffers through a particularly difficult life; her love is constantly stripped from her the moment she is relishing it most. With Bronte’s introduction of Bertha Rochester, Jane’s never-ending cycle of disappointment and loss of love.
Chapter 23 of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre Jane Eyre begins by telling us about Jane's strict and unhappy upbringing with her upper class Aunt, Mrs. Reed. She is then sent to Lowood School where her only friend Helen falls ill and dies. When Jane is older she becomes a Governess working for Mr. Rochester at Thornfield Hall. Jane and Rochester fall in love but neither of them express their feelings to each other.
Jane spends her first 10 years of her life at Gateshead Hall, a lavish mansion. She lived with her Aunt, Mrs Reed, and three cousins, Eliza, Georgina and John. During her time in the mansion she wouldn't dare argue with the mistress, and fulfilled every duty. Jane is deprived of love, joy and acceptance. She is very much unwanted and isolated.
The Quest for Inner Beauty in Jane Erye The beauty of a woman is usually classified into two categories: superficial, or physical, beauty and inner, or intellectual, beauty. In the Charlotte Bronte's Jane Erye, the protagonist rejects her own physical beauty in favor of her intelligence and morality. This choice allows her to win the hand of the man she desires. Jane values her knowledge and thinking before any of her physical appearances because of her desire as a child to read, the lessons she is taught and the reinforcements of the idea appearing in her adulthood.
Analyse the methods Charlotte Brontë uses to make the reader empathise with Jane Eyre in the opening chapters. Reflect on how the novel portrays Victorian ideology and relate your analysis to the novel’s literary content.
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.
"'The marriage can not go on: I declare the existence of an impediment'" (306). Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, is the story of an orphaned girl who is sent to live at Gateshead Hall with Mrs. Reed and her three cousins, whom Jane doesn't get along with. At the age of ten, Mrs. Reed sends Jane away to Lowood Institution, an all girls' school, where she spends the next eight years of her life. At the age of eighteen, Jane leaves Lowood and accepts the position as governess at Thornfield Hall. Mr. Rochester, the owner of Thornfield Hall, and Jane fall madly in love and plan to get married, but little does Jane know, Mr. Rochester has a terrible secret that could ruin Jane's life. Throughout the novel, the theme of deceit and dishonesty results in unhappiness and suffering not only to those being lied to, but also to those people perpetuating the untruths.
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.
There are many stages throughout the book in which the reader can feel sympathy for Jane Eyre; these include when she is locked in the Red Room, when Helen Burns dies at Lowood, and when she and Mr. Rochester are married the first time.
In the beginning of Jane Eyre, Jane struggles against Bessie, the nurse at Gateshead Hall, and says, I resisted all the way: a new thing for me…"(Chapter 2). This sentence foreshadows what will be an important theme of the rest of the book, that of female independence or rebelliousness. Jane is here resisting her unfair punishment, but throughout the novel she expresses her opinions on the state of women. Tied to this theme is another of class and the resistance of the terms of one's class. Spiritual and supernatural themes can also be traced throughout the novel.
The three events that mark Jane as an evolving dynamic character are when she is locked in the red room, self reflecting on her time at Gateshead, her friendship with Helen Burns at LoWood, her relationship with Mr. Rochester, and her last moments with a sick Mrs. Reed. Brought up as an orphan by her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, Jane is accustomed to her aunts vindictive comments and selfish tendencies. Left out of family gatherings, shoved and hit by her cousin, John Reed, and teased by her other cousins, Georgina and Eliza Reed, the reader almost cringes at the unfairness of it all. But even at the young age of ten, Jane knows the consequences of her actions if she were to speak out against any of them. At one point she wonders why she endures in silence for the pleasure of others. Why she is oppressed. "Always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, forever condemned" (Bronte, 12). Jane’s life at Gateshead is not far from miserable. Not only is she bullied by her cousins and nagged by her aunt, but help from even Bessie, her nurse and sort of friend, seems out of her reach. In the red room scene Jane is drug by Ms. Ab...
Many novels speak of love and indulging in passion, but few speak of the dynamics that actually make a marriage work. Jane Eyre is one of these novels. It doesn't display the fleeing passions of a Romeo and Juliet. This is due entirely to Bronte's views on marriage and love. The first exception to the traditional couple the reader is shown is Rochester's marriage to Bertha. This example shows the consequences of indulging in passion. The opposite side is shown through another unlikely would-be couple, Rosamund and St. John. Through this pair, Bronte reveals the consequences of indulging in duty. Another view of marriage is also present in the book, through the character Jane Eyre and her actions.
The novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, has a plot that is filled with an extraordinary amount of problems. Or so it seems as you are reading it. However, it comes to your attention after you have finished it, that there is a common thread running throughout the book. There are many little difficulties that the main character, the indomitable Jane Eyre, must deal with, but once you reach the end of the book you begin to realize that all of Jane's problems are based around one thing. Jane searches throughout the book for love and acceptance, and is forced to endure many hardships before finding them. First, she must cope with the betrayal of the people who are supposed to be her family - her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her children, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. Then there is the issue of Jane's time at Lowood School, and how Jane goes out on her own after her best friend leaves. She takes a position at Thornfield Hall as a tutor, and makes some new friendships and even a romance. Yet her newfound happiness is taken away from her and she once again must start over. Then finally, after enduring so much, during the course of the book, Jane finally finds a true family and love, in rather unexpected places.
A Critical Evaluation of Jane Eyre Although Jane Eyre grows and matures, Margaret McFadden-Gerber views her as a relatively emotionally stable young feminist. Through the duration of the novel, Jane demonstrates her "self-love" that is often an influential emotion leading to drastic and hasty reactions. In the very opening few chapters, Jane takes a stand for herself and presents her bruised ego, pride and maturity. Sara Reed, her aunt, dismisses her place in the family as Jane is physically and emotionally removed from her "family's" activities.