Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte

In Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte intertwines various religious ideas in her mid-nineteenth century English setting. Throughout the novel, Jane Eyre blends various religious insights which she has learned from different sources. While Jane was young, she had only a Biblical textbook outlook on life combined with the miserable emotional conditions of her surroundings. This in turn led to Jane being quite mean with Mrs. Reed. When Jane eventually goes off to Lowood and meets Helen Burns, she learns of her religious philosophy far more than the words would mean. Over the course of many years Jane then applies the basis of Helen's religious philosophy and adjusts it for herself in relation to the

Throughout the novel, Charlotte Bronte introduces characters that challenge Jane’s spirituality and impress their religious beliefs on her. However, these characters, whom of which are Mr. Brocklehurst and St. John, all live in such a way that contradicts what they claim to believe. Therefore, Jane rejects the religion presented to her and attempts to become her own savior.

In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte demonstrates how one’s Christian faith affects love, obedience and career. The morality provided by Christianity sketches an ideal life which is interpreted and executed in how one loves, obeys, or finds satisfaction in a career.

“I sincerely, deeply, fervently long to do what is right; and only that” (426). Throughout Jane Eyre, the characters struggle to live out and develop their faiths, according both to God’s will and their own. In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, faith and religion are displayed in different forms through the characters of Helen Burns, St. John, and Jane Eyre.

In Charlotte Bronte’s coming of age novel Jane Eyre, the main character Jane not only struggles with the aspects of social class deviations but also her journey to find her own faith in God and religion. On her journey she encounters three greatly different variations on Christian faith, all of which, though she ultimately rejects, help her come to her own conclusions of her own faith and spirituality. Her first true questioning of religion is with her friend and Lowood school Helen Burns. Jane finds Helen to be serenely devout in her faith in God, and Jane admires her for it. However, Jane struggles to accept Helen’s passive view, as it lacks the understanding that Jane seeks. Also, at Lowood Jane encounters the owner of the school Mr. Brocklehurst, who acts as a dictator over the girls and teachers at Lowood. His religious ideals are those of sacrifice but it is apparent that Mr. Brocklehurst takes no consideration of these ideals in his own life style. Jane immediately rejects Mr. Brocklehurst’s point of view as it is so obviously hypocritical. Finally Jane meets her cousin St. John, a minister. Upon observing him and observing one of his sermons she realizes that though he is driven and passionate his views focus on “disquieting aspirations” as oppose to the uplifting of spirituality. She realizes that St. John lacks a true understanding of what faith and spirituality really mean. In Jane’s search for spirituality her journey leads her to find her own faith through the

Bronte views religion as a tool both capable of being used for good and evil through Jane’s interaction with characters such as Helen Burns, representing the good, whereas Mr. Brocklehurst, and St. John represent the bad, demonstrating how blind faith can lead to hope but also danger, and hypocritical, immoral actions without any questioning.

In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte demonstrates how one’s Christian faith affects love, obedience and career. The morality provided by Christianity sketches an ideal life which is interpreted and executed in how one loves, obeys, or finds satisfaction in a career. During Jane’s time at Lowood, she comes across Helen Burns, who is mature, disciplined, and angelic. Helen is scrutinized constantly by her teacher Miss Scatcherd for the many flaws seen in Helen, specifically her inability to concentrate. From embarresment to physical action, Miss Scatchered chatisezes Helen daily.

Religion plays a very significant role in the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, and several of the novel’s most important characters exhibit religious views that are both similar and different from one anothers’ in various ways. One of the novel’s most important and complex characters, Mr. Rochester, has views on religion that (like the character himself) mature over the course of the novel. By the end of the novel, it is clear to readers that Mr. Rochester’s views on religion have undergone a massive change, most likely due to the misfortune and isolation experienced by this character in the later portion of the novel. Early on in the novel when Mr. Rochester is first introduced, he talks to Jane about countless subjects, ranging from

The final, and perhaps the most important, controversial topic addressed by Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre is religion. Though there were various religions arising in Europe, Christianity was definitely the primary religion of the country of England, and it was assumed to be the belief of all. Despite Brontë’s Christian upbringing and frequent Biblical allusions throughout her novel, some believe that Jane Eyre shows a rejection of Christianity rather than an acceptance. For example, in “On Jane Eyre’s Moral Choices,” Richard Benvenuto states that “the portraits of Rochester and St. John speak more directly to a conflict between passion and conscience than perhaps they do to the larger division of nature and grace” (Benvenuto page).

Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre contains a character named Helen Burns who not only develops the major theme of religion, but also challenges the theme and shapes the morals of the text for the better of the main character, Jane Eyre. She is significant to the novel, due to the fact that she humbled Jane from the beginning of Lowood until the moment she died in her arms and transformed her existence as a whole with her martyr personality. Jane and Helen’s last conversation contrasts tremendously with what many adults in Jane’s life have confronted her with, and contrasts with Jane’s previous fears. Without Helen Burns, Jane wouldn’t have become the woman she was when the novel ended.

Belonging, equality, and society verses self are all common ideas in the media. These themes will always be present in the world because humans are always searching for self-actualization, to be treated as equal or better, and to keep self-morals despite pressuring societies. The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontё explores these themes. Authors tend to write what they know and these themes can reflect how Brontё viewed the world around her. Charlotte Brontё uses Jane Eyre to explore 19th century feminism, sense of belonging and family, and how to keep individual morals when society does not favor those morals.

     Charlotte Bronte addresses the theme of Christianity in the novel Jane Eyre. Bronte states: "Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last" (35). In Jane Eyre, Bronte supports the theme that customary actions are not always moral through the conventional personalities of Mrs. Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and St. John Rivers.

Helen Burns, the childhood friend of the titular Jane Eyre, lives not to see the second volume of Charlotte Brontë’s preeminent novel. Similar to her gravestone inscription, however, Helen rises again, her influence extending farther than those of her childhood exploits. The older orphan’s unique opinions toward feminism, power dynamics, and most importantly, religion, live on through Jane Eyre, forming a parallel legacy to compare all of Jane’s decisions to. Through exploring Jane’s religious transformation in context to Helen, Eyre is revealed as less egalitarian and rather elitist, one who strives for power and domination rather than feminist equality.

In the novel Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, the role of religion is the influence it plays through the characters, and how they model different views of Christianity through the views of Jane. Throughout the novel, Jane encounters different people that shape and influence her own belief in a Christian God. Main characters Helen, Mr. Brocklehurst and Eliza, are individuals who model different perceptions of societies perspectives on Christianity, by either use as an instrument of power, an excuse for unethical behavior, or simply to use as a survival through life.

Religion plays an important role in Jane Eyre, a book by Charlotte Bronte. This book is about a girl that endures many struggles during her life. One of those struggles is her faith. Jane, throughout the book, struggles to find the right balance between her moral beliefs and earthy pleasures; between obligation to her consciousness and attention to her body. Two very important religious figures that Jane encounters are: Helen Burns, her childhood friend, and St. John Rivers, her cousin. Each person views Christianity in a different form and thus it affects them in different ways.