In Disney's version of , The Little Mermaid, there is a happy ever after for every character; however, in the original tale, the mermaid fails to make the prince fall in love with her because he is in love with another.. The prince had almost married her out of convenience, but found his true love and marries another woman instead. The poor mermaid was then given an ultimatum, she could either stab the prince or die, and she chooses to sacrifice her life for the one she loves. Like The Little Mermaid, Emily and Charlotte Brontë show in their novels, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, that unless there is true love between both parties in a romantic relationship, there will never be true happiness. The belief that it is better for a relationship to be based on romantic love, then of more practical considerations in shown by others Emily and Charlotte Brontë in their novels.
In Jane Eyre, there is only one couple that united in true love, Jane and Mr. Rochester. Jane is clearly in love as she states that “[She] had not
…show more content…
Rochester to be together. There is clearly no love in this marriage since Bertha ties to kill him on many occasions. Jane also makes sure to point out to Mr. Rochester that “‘[Mr Rochester] speaks of [Bertha] with hate - with vindictive antipathy. [She claims] It is cruel - [Bertha] cannot help being mad”’(306). There marriage was a result of Mr. Rochester’s father’s greed which ultimately condemns his son to a miserable life. Mr. Rochester had been away from Thornfield frequently, until Jane started working there. He is trying to be as far away from Bertha as possible. There has never been love between those two and that leads to Bertha’s death and Mr. Rochester's impairments. The Brontë sisters seem to have similar dispositions in their books; however, the main characters in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights don’t get to a happy ending quite like Jane and Mr.
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.
To begin, when Mr. Rochester secretly returns to Thornfield as a gypsy he tells many fortunes but when the secret comes out there is nothing but distrust for him. For example, when Jane finds out that Mr. Rochester was the gypsy, and Mr. Rochester asks if she can forgive him for his trick, she says ¨[She] cannot tell till [she] [has] thought it all over. … [she] shall try to forgive [him]; but it was not right¨ (Bronte 213). This shows that Jane had lost some trust in her beloved Rochester by such a simple joke and it was that, the secret had been kept from her, that makes Jane really wonder if she could tru...
The need to love and to be loved is a general characteristic basic to human nature. However, the moral principles and beliefs that govern this need are decided by the individual. In the novel Jane Eyre , author, Charlotte Brontë, vividly describes the various characters' personalities and beliefs. When the reader first meets the main character, Jane Eyre, an orphan of ten, she is living at Gateshead Hall in England with her Aunt Reed and three cousins, all of whom she greatly despises. Soon after, Jane is sent away to the Lowood Institution, a girls' school, where she lives for the next eight years. Jane then moves to Thornfield Hall to work as a governess for Mr. Rochester; they fall in love and plan to be married. However, during the wedding ceremony, it is revealed that Mr. Rochester already has a wife. Humiliated, Jane leaves Thornfield and travels to Moor House. While there, Jane hears Mr. Rochester's voice calling her name one evening; she immediately returns to Thornfield only to find a charred and desolate house burned by Mr. Rochester's lunatic wife. During the tragedy, Mr. Rochester's wife dies and he looses a hand as well as the sight in both eyes. However, because his wife is deceased, Jane and Mr. Rochester are free to marry and do so. Even though Jane's existence is anchored in the need to love and to be loved, she is an intense character and refuses to sacrifice her moral principles and beliefs regardless of the situation.
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.
After discovering that they both love each other so very dearly, Mr. Rochester and Jane were getting married. When they get to the church and are beyond ready to tie the knot, they can’t. Jane gets slapped in the face with the fact that Mr. Rochester is already married to a woman who is still alive, and her name is Bertha Mason. This is Bertha’s formal introduction into the story, in the 26th chapter. She was introduced previously, however, as “the madwoman in the attic”. It was said that Bertha was downright insane, and she was in the care of Grace Poole. Her previous introduction was back in chapter 20 as “Grace Poole’s own goblin” (ch 20 pg 219). That was when she attacked Mason, her brother. As more of the truth behind the goblin unfolds, certain details become easier to understand. Once Bertha is introduced in the church as Mason’s sister, it can be understood why he came to Thornfield in the first place: to check on his sister. Mr. Rochester seems to loathe this woman beast that he calls “that fierce ragout”. “Compare these clear eyes with t...
Bronte, we meet Jane Eyre, who finds her true love to be someone she is not
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.
...depicts human love as a product of maturity, whereas Disney depicts it as a cause of maturity” (Trites 4). This fundamental change of maturity in Disney’s version is where the problem rests, teaching audiences that seeking a mate is the path to maturity and independence for women, when in reality love is complicated and ever changing. The “disneyfication” of The Little Mermaid perpetuates negative aspects of American cultural ideals, losing the moral integrity and lessons intended to be taught from the original fairytale.
No matter how much we try and do everything right, some things just are not meant to be and the mermaid was not meant for the prince (Ingwersen). Love can make people go crazy and they will do anything to receive that same love and passion back from them (Cravens). In this story, the little mermaid is madly in love with the prince and she does everything and anything to gain love back from him. “Stick out your little tongue, and let me cut it off in payment, and you shall have the potion." "Let it happen," whispered the little mermaid” (Andersen).
Before Jane can become Rochester’s wife, she has to prove that she holds upper-class sensibility, however even though Jane becomes “quite a lady” her cousins are still seen as her superiors socially based solely on wealth. Nonetheless, Bronte does not alter society’s boundaries at any point in the novel – Barton is highly critical of the nature of Victorian society but ultimately Jane is able to marry Rochester as his equal only because she has managed to come into her own inheritance. The novel still however critiques the behaviour of most of the of the upper-class characters Jane meets; John Reed is dishonest as is Rochester with his series of mistresses, Blanche Ingram is conceited and Eliza Reed is inhumanely cold. The final view of Thornfield, described to the reader, emphasises the contrast between Jane’s breath-taking dream of Thornfield and the reality of its corrupt nature. The difference highlights that the comforting view of the upper-class doesn’t always capture their true nature, which is effectively masked by wealth and social status.
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.
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.
Edward Rochester, the owner of the Thornfield estate and the later romantic interest of Jane, also has dynamic emotional relationships throughout this Bildungsroman novel. Rochester, a powerful but unusual man, uses his authority to assert his position through his relationship with both Bertha and Jane Eyre. Bertha, his first wife, with whom he has an arranged marriage, involves an association that primarily revolves around preserving
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.
There is no scarcity of material in the subject of love. It is an important part of how society has come to be what it is today, a gem that has continued to exponentially grow in value over the centuries. Yet despite all of the paragraphs upon paragraphs of discussion that comes along with the topic of love—it is for certain that love creates an irrationality within the confines of the human mind. It makes the strongest of individuals waver or the seemingly all-knowing blinded from the truth. The idea of Love can be described at times kind and peaceful, yet at other times vicious and unrelenting seems to be its middle name. So which one is it? Or is love an interchangeable entity? According to Alicia Keys, love is very much “Like the Sea.” In her beliefs, love is often punishing to those who reside within its waves and could very well take those who fail to succeed under; yet it could also be beautiful and rewarding experience once the couple manages to weather the storm. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights deal with this theme of romance where “the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice” (Crusie, par. 9). The progression that each of the couples embark in Jane Eyre