Comparing Great Expectations And Jane Eyre

1686 Words4 Pages

Abraham Maslow, a well-known American psychologist, theorized that human beings have innate needs that must be met in order to have a happy, healthy existence. The most necessary is, of course, the fulfillment of basic physiological requirements, followed by a feeling of safety. If these are fulfilled, every mentally healthy individual begins craving love and a need to belong. Love and being loved in return is, in fact, vital to an individual’s mental state. This, in addition to the feeling of euphoria, pleasure and joy it provides, and the sensual experience of romantic love, makes it a great obsession in nearly every culture. This craving humans to have their unrequited love returned makes great fodder for movies, songs, and novels. Many …show more content…

The books were written by British authors within fifteen years of each other and they follow the growth of the main characters from childhood to early adulthood. They both are set, in part, in the British countryside, and the children are both poor orphans. Most significantly, both Jane Eyre and Pip Pirrip observe or take part in many unhealthy or unrequited relationships. The two have love interests that, at points, appear to reject them, few friends, and uncaring parental figures. The abuse suffered by the child characters in the novels made an indelible impact on their lives, forcing them to choose to either overcome or succumb to its …show more content…

Jane lists her faults and short-coming, believing that she is at fault for her families treatment. She even starts to imagine that her uncle will rise from the grave to punish her. On page 23, Jane thinks to herself, “My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire. All said I was wicked, and perhaps I might be so; what thought had I been but just conceiving of starving myself to death?” This ten-year-old child is in a situation in which she feels so unloved that she considers, however briefly, attempting to kill herself. This is a prime example of the third tier in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs going unmet and decimating Jane’s esteem and attempts at

Open Document