Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

The novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte delivers a strong feminist message. Jane was a strong woman in a time when women were not meant to be strong. She was very out spoken (even as a child) and very sure in her values and opinions. She would not change them for anyone. She did not even let men control her, which is what was expected of women in this era.

Jane’s father died when she was a little girl, leaving her basically on her own. The only kin she had that she knew of was an aunt that saw her as nothing but a burden and treated her cruelly. Her three cousins were just as bad, which further distressed her situation. Jane’s only escape from living with these awful people was the solitude she found in books. Any time she had spare time she would read. It is Jane’s love for reading and the knowledge she gained from them that gives her the power to finally stand up to her aunt. Her aunt ultimately gets rid of Jane by sending her to a very strict boarding school designed for orphans called Lowood.

At Lowood Jane befriends a girl by the name of Helen Burns. When she first meets Helen, she sees her being punished in front of her entire class for virtually no reason. After witnessing this incident, Jane talks to Helen about it because she does not understand why she did not resist the teacher she says: You are good to those who are good to you. It is all I ever desire to be. If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we sho...

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...he now has complete financial independence which I believe makes her more secure in returning to Thornfield because she is in need of nothing but peace of mind in knowing that Mr. Rochester is alright. When she gets to Thornfield she finds it burnt to the ground. Mr. Rochester has gone blind and is very deformed after he went into the fire to try and save his wife from the burning house. His attempt had failed and his wife died.

So in the end, Jane can now be with the person that she loves - Mr. Rochester. The irony of their marriage is that Jane will be the one taking care of Mr. Rochester instead of the other way around. Throughout the novel, Jane stands up for what she believes in even though in some cases it hurts her very badly. By her not being scared to do what it takes to follow her beliefs she went from a girl who had nothing to a woman who had it all.