Coming Of Age In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

1045 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Jane eyre janes growth through the novel

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is a coming of age novel that discusses Jane’s challenges as she grows up and continues into adulthood. Jane was deemed as a ‘poor orphan’ by her aunt and her cousins; unfortunately her uncle passed away and made her aunt promise to care for Jane as she would her other children. Mrs. Reed, Jane’s aunt, did not keep her promise to her late husband, instead she treated Jane poorly and allowed her son to do so also. Jane spoke back to her cousin, Master John, when he threw a book at her and injured her. As she was taken to the red-room, for her punishment, she fought back and seemed unrelenting. This seems to be the first time she finds herself, if you will. This new attribute isn’t lost, it actually tends to grow …show more content…

Rochester when she found out about his wife, she would not have found herself. She learned to experience life and to live for herself instead of obeying authority. She no longer felt like an outcast either, due to her ties with her family, even if they didn’t last she knew that she belonged somewhere. This change in Jane benefitted her in ways that nothing else could. She stopped allowing things to happen to her and stood up for herself and decided what she wanted for herself. In the moment, during the wedding, she decided that that life just wasn’t for her and she changed how she perceived life. It didn’t matter that she had to start over, alone and hungry on the streets. She finally felt the attachment to family when she met the Rivers’ but that was quickly over due to the fact that he asked her to marry him. She still had made the decision to stick up for herself and what she believed in, so she said no. It seems to some that she went backwards when she went back to Thornfield to find Mr. Rochester, but that just shows that she went back for the right reasons. She was able to make the decision without a superior authority, which showed that she made the decisions that made her the happiest form of Jane that she could

Show More
Related

  • Cruelty In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

    614 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jane Eyre is born into a world where she is left bereft of the love of parents, family, or friends, but instead surrounded by hateful relatives. She resolves to attend school to begin her quest for independence. This theme is seen through Jane’s behavior when she renounces her relation to her aunt Mrs. Reed, ignoring the nurse’s orders and leaving her room to see Helen again, and when she acquires the courage to speak her opinion to Mr. Rochester.

    Read More

  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bornte

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    When we first meet Jane she is a young and orphaned girl with little self-confidence and hope of feelings a sense of belonging and self worth. It is unfair that Jane already feels lonely and desperate in such a cruel world as it is. Jane is open with her thoughts during her narration, “…humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed” (Bronte 7). Jane already feels as though she cannot participate in everyday activities because she acknowledges that she is a weaker person. By Jane believing she is weak she is succumbing to her own entrapment. The novel opens with Jane feeling inadequate about going on a walk with her cousins and the novel ends with Jane embarking on a journey of her very own, this is not a coincidence.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Betrayal In Jane Eyre

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel, Jane Eyre starts as a young girl of ten years old; she lives with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her cousins John, Georgiana, and Eliza. At Gateshead, Jane has undergone betrayal in the acts that the Reed family does not treat her as a part of their family. Mrs. Reed treats Jane unkindly and as if she was a victim to put it, in other words, Mrs. Reed says “ take her away to the red-room and lock her in there” (Brontë, Ch. 1). Mrs. Reed

    Read More

  • Jane Eyre Through Bronte's Eyes

    3631 Words  | 8 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Bertha Mason and her Impact in the Novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Jane has gone through experiences and some which let her down in a few ways. Jane also has people who impact her which hinder her future. She has been through so much and sometimes things and good sometimes they’re bad. Jane’s life has really changed and she experiences many things

    Read More

  • Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre

    1754 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Themes of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Discuss Charlotte Bronte’s portrayal of childhood in Jane Eyre.

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    Discuss Charlotte Bronte’s portrayal of childhood in Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bront’s ‘Jane Eyre’ was a controversial novel at its time. It traces the heroine from an orphan child to a contented adult woman. Through the trials Jane experiences Bront highlights many. hypocritical aspects of Victorian society, mainly focusing on the religious hypocrisy of the era.

    Read More

  • Physical & Emotional Abuse in Jane Eyre: How This Affected Jane’s Evolution Into a Dynamic Character

    1183 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre as a Coming of Age Story

    1678 Words  | 4 Pages

    Charlotte Bronte's classic, Jane Eyre, is a "coming of age" story. The main character, Jane, travels from the innocence of childhood through the maturity of adulthood. During this journey, Jane goes through the battle of education vs. containment, where she attempts to learn about herself and about the world. She must constantly battle a containment of sorts, however, whether it be a true physical containment or a mental one. This battle of education vs. containment can be seen by following Jane through her different places of residence, including Gateshead Hall, Lowood Institution, Thornfield, Moor House and Morton, and Ferndean Manor, where she is, finally, fully educated and escapes the feeling of containment which she held throughout the novel.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Independence In Jane Eyre

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jane Eyre’s Journey to Independence In the outstanding novel of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront, the story is told of a romantic heroine named Jane Eyre who pursued independence during an era in which women were inferior to men. Jane proved her independence by demanding self-respect, becoming socially independent, and pursuing true love based on equality. Jane Eyre was an orphan left to depend on unsympathetic relatives who mistreated her. As Millicent Bell explains in her article “A Tale of the Governess,” “With the Reeds she suffers not only the dependency of childhood and female hood, but the excruciating humiliation of the poor relation.” The cruel treatment she received from her family members caused her to have no sense of belonging.

    Read More

  • The Challenges Faced In Jane E

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Maturity of Jane Eyre in Charlotte Bronte's Novel

    1815 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, it was love, and not age or education, that led Jane to mature and grow as a person. With the help of Helen Burns and Miss. Temple, Jane Eyre learned what it meant to love someone. Both these people influenced Jane to mature into a young lady by showing Jane their love and affection. When Jane left Lowood to become a governess, she met the love of her life, Mr. Rochester. With his love, Jane Eyre eventually matured fully and grew into a self-sufficient woman and left the hatred and anger behind.

    Read More

  • Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre – A Story of One Abused Child

    3617 Words  | 8 Pages

    In his essay “Jane Eyre: The Quest for Optimism,” Frederick L. Ashe writes, “It is hard to imagine anyone learned enough to read Jane Eyre who would consider her first ten years emotionally healthful ones” (Ashe). Ashe, whose criticism appeared in Novels for Students, Volume 4, is correct in his opinion. Jane’s abuse first begins in her own home. Her life until age ten is filled with abuse from her cousin John Reed, the mockery of the household servants, and the physical and mental abuse of her Aunt Reed. John’s first abuse of Jane comes when he throws a heavy book at her head. Bronte writes in Jane’s voice, “I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp” (Bronte 13). John’s physical abuse of Jane is not the only abuse she receives, though. After Jane recovers from the abuse bestowed upon her by John, Miss Abbot, a servant, says of Jane, “If she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that” (Bronte 28). Although this abuse pains Jane, it is the abuse of her Aunt Reed that hurts Jane the most. Aunt Reed’s first maltreatment of Jane is on the first page of the novel. Aunt Reed gathers her children around her for a happy family moment. Jane, however, is left alone. Jane says, “[Aunt Reed] regretted to be

    Read More

More about Coming Of Age In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

Open Document