Jane Eyre Dialectical Journal Essay

“Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, or creed.

“. . .if others don’t love me, I would rather die than live -- I cannot bare to be solitary and hated, Helen. Look here; to gain some real affection from. . .whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken. . .’” (Brontë 82). Explanation: Jane Eyre, for all of her life prior to Lowood Academy, was disliked by her superiors and hated by those who should be considered her comrades. Finding comfort and love in Helen Burns, her first childhood friend, she confides her youthful desire to be loved. At such a young age, Jane desired even the most dilute of love, no matter the cost. Her immaturity hinders her happiness, causing her to feel as if she has been severely deprived of such fondness. Her tantrum not only leaves her friend stunned, but she learns a most valuable lesson in faith and doing what is most right with God that lasts with her throughout her journeys of woe and worry along Mr. Rochester’s side.

| | |Even though she was afraid of the red room the fire made her |

On page 83, Mr. Rochester has a “massive head”, “granite-hewn features” , “great dark eyes” and fine eyes too”. The reader is supposed to think of him as someone who is a predator towards Jane because of his mean looking and dark features and because of Jane’s past experience with men in power. Readers are supposed to be wary of Mister Rochester.

Huck checked everywhere, to make sure no one was awake. Then he crept down the stairs, he saw the coffin. He figured out that the only place to hide the money bag, was Peter’s coffin. When he put it in, he heard someone coming behind them. He ran away but still watched. the person was Mary Jane. She began crying to the coffin, Huck ran away, and went back to bed. He kept thinking about what will happen to the money; he didn’t want to the king to take it. A thought came to him, they would find it when they went to screw the lid for the coffin.

This starts from the ending of the end of the 3rd paragraph on page 214 “We settled into the family carriage”. I used the author’s questions, but shaped Charlotte's answers and personality to resemble a true teenager in that century.

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will " (ch. 23 pg. 280) This quote intensifies Jane’s transitional character from her former ruled life to her now independent life. The metaphor of the bird tells an allusion as unlike a bird she has no entrapment and she can move around whereas as a bird has a cage trapping its freedom.

Throughout Jane Eyre, there is no mention of Creole culture or even anybody pertaining to the Creole heritage. The Creole culture is not mentioned until we discover how Rochester has a wife, who is Creole. Phrases such as “growled like some strange wild animal” (Brontë 293) and “a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane” (Brontë 293) are used to describe this “mad woman” in the attic we come to know of. Brontë’s places claims and statements about “Bertha’s” mental state through Rochester to imply that her “madness” is due to her Creole heritage. We later find out in the Wide Sargasso Sea that the accusations about Bertha are false and are made simply out of misunderstanding and lack of knowledge.

Charlotte Bronte’s novel “Jane Eyre” is about a young girl who is coming of age and facing the struggles of social class and religious aspects. Throughout her entire journey of life Jane never gives up on what she truly wants. Why does Jane never give up on finding her true faith and life all together, even through all the obstacles she faces in life? Jane faces challenges and/or obstacles such as religious beliefs, love, and social class.

The time in which Charlotte Bronte lived is quite different from our modern day. This is evident through the way she reflects it in her works. Some aspects of her works are relevant to our time, despite the differences they carry. This includes the culture, and lifestyle. Things have changed since the 19th century, because of the evolution of technology and culture, yet we have managed to salvage some aspects of them. Jane Eyre can be viewed to be tremendously different than our time, which is to some extent true.

Opinion Question: What do you think of Mrs. Reed at the end of her life? Did she deserve the death that she got? As a reader, did you feel any sympathy towards her in the

“Yes, Mrs. Reed, to you I owe some fearful pangs of mental suffering. But I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did.” (Bronte 19). Jane Eyre, the main character of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, defines a line between her emotions and self-control. In this statement of compassion, Jane absolves all of her anger at Mrs. Reed. Throughout her childhood, Mrs. Reed treated Jane unjustly, similar to her life at Lowood. These childhood acts of unfairness shapes Jane’s character, far more than a normal child. In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane maintains a delicate balance between passion and discipline throughout her life. Jane always asserts herself and never agrees with anything unjust.

Jane Eyre is described as plain rather than beautiful. Would the plot of the novel still make sense if Jane were beautiful? How would the story be different if Jane were not poor? Why does it matter?

In both books there is an underlying theme of love. It appears countless times in both books, sometimes it is very obvious and other times it is harder to identify. One example of the harder loves to recognize is in Jane Eyre; the love between Jane and her freedom forces her to say no to Rochester. At the same time some of the loves are very obvious, like Jane and Rochester. In each individual book the love between the characters is very different. The relationships seem to be ever changing.

Within Jane Eyre, a fundamental conflict exists in Rochester’s secrecy as he hides his former wife Bertha Mason from everyone, believing that her insane and feral nature prevents any form of peace in his own life. However, while various aspects of Rochester’s story suggest that she may have inherited her family’s genetic predisposition to insanity, the work also suggests that a large portion of her violent behavior towards Rochester originated from his own actions and faults, supporting Bronte’s thematic argument investigating the overall influence of nature or nurture most affecting one’s personality. From Jane’s first visual encounter with Bertha describing her as “a savage face [with] red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of lineaments,”