Jane Eyre Fear Of Fear

Throughout the first section of the novel, we are constantly reminded of the barriers in which Jane is suppressed by. Through this figurative element we can come to terms with the development of the character of Jane Eyre.

Faith and religion rests in the core of Jane’s character and actions, but also causes tension with her independence. At Lowood, she struggles to reconcile her desire to rebel against oppression and injustice with the words of Helen saying to submit like Christ. She chooses to submit, experiencing an “extraordinary sensation”, feeling “as if she was a martyr” (67). Through her submissions, she learns to be virtuous. This virtue is challenged when she must choose either to be Rochester’s mistress, or to forsake the man she loves, jeopardizing her happiness. Abiding by God’s law, she leaves, believing that “God directed [her] to a correct choice” (366). Jane faces her fiercest tension when she faces St. John’s proposal to marry him and become a missionary’s wife. She desires to continue in God’s will, telling St. John that “I will give my heart to God”, but knows that marrying him goes against her every desire. She wishes to be free from St. John; she desires her independence. She nearly submits, were she “but convinced that it is God’s will” that she marry St. John (426). She prays for Heaven to “show [her] the path” (426). Jane truly seeks God’s will, and in return, “seemed to penetrate very near a Mighty Spirit” (427). Her devotion to God is rewarded as she prays in her “different way to St. John’s” (427). God releases Jane from a life married to St. John and allows her to return to Rochester and become his wife. Jane’s faith in God allows her to make virtuous

Jane seems to overcome different obstacles through her life, that later converge and appear to maturate and show through her independence in womanhood and feminism views. Jane has grown up in different conditions all her life. Her family didn’t love her or give her much attention. When questioned about her well being and place in society she then announced “ I can live alone, if

At Thornfield, Jane must choose either to marry Rochester, though he is already married, or leaving him. She chooses her moral integrity over the love Mr. Rochester offers. She writes, “not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved…and I must renounce love…One drear word comprised my intolerable duty- ‘depart!’” (445). Rochester fulfills her needs for love, affection, and acceptance, but Jane is unwilling to make the necessary sacrifice of integrity and self-respect. With St. John, Jane faces the inverse of the conflict, now choosing love over what appears to be the higher moral calling. She admits there is some autonomy in following St. John’s demands, “my body would be under rather a stringent yoke, but my heart and mind would be free” (578). At this point, Jane has achieved monetary and social freedom. With the inheritance, she has received, she has access to the autonomy she has always wanted. Now she can satisfy her moral standards by serving as a missionary. Yet she admits to herself, “he will never love me,” (574). She rejects the offer in lieu of her pursuit of love. Thus, both needs are rejected, accepted, and debated till it appears that Jane is doomed to choose one and reject the

Jane Eyre was published during a time when the treatment of females was not so great. Women were seen as possessions, and were passed back and forth from person to person until the day they died. There was no such thing as an independent female, and even though they were allowed to be somewhat educated but not allowed to control their own lives. Jane Eyre was a woman with a lot of experience in this department, but she definitely wanted her own control even though she didn’t have the power for this. The novel, Jane Eyre, showed the real treatment of women back in the Victorian age. “The Madwoman and the Blindman: Jane Eyre, Discourse, Disability attempts to reintroduce some interpretive possibilities to Charlotte Brontë's novel and, more specifically,

“I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me.” (69) In Charlotte Bronte’s book Jane Eyre, Jane was treated horribly but must obey. She believed that Christians should dislike those who dislike them. Through meeting different Christian people Jane spiritually grows.

To understand Jane’s metamorphosis, however, one must first contextualize both Helen’s and Jane’s original viewpoints. Upon entering the Lowell school, Jane suffers from a persistent insecurity. Scarred from her lack of love in Reed house, Jane binds her happiness to the opinion of others, childishly announcing, “I would rather die than live—I cannot bear to be solitary and hated” (Brontë 8). In turn, Helen sagely responds, “You think too much of the love of human beings… the sovereign hand… has provided you with other resources than your feeble self… Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when… death is so certain an entrance to happiness?” (Brontë 8). Essentially, Helen argues for complete independence from others’ opinions, for in death all is forgotten. When contextualized in Victorian culture,

Bertha Mason has become quite the literary character since Charlotte Brontë wrote her in Jane Eyre in 1847. As discussed in chapter one, there was a social correlation between women and hysteria. While the raw facts show otherwise, there was a great fear that a woman could be falsely committed or locked away in her home by her husband. Jane Eyre is a novel that plays upon that fear and brings these frightening scenarios to life. Brontë's depiction of Bertha Mason also reveals how a woman with hysteria was viewed. It is not an understandable portrayal, and Jane is visceral with her descriptions of the hysterical woman. The aim of this chapter is to argue that Bertha Mason is a literary response to the public debates of mental illness, specifically hysteria in women. This chapter will begin with an analysis of her character, from her description to her actions. Following this, there will be a deeper examination into how nineteenth-century psychiatry handled the symptoms of hysteria that are portrayed in the novel. This analysis will show how Brontë used the knowledge available to society to exploit the fear of wives being mistreated while using current treatment methods. By the end of this chapter, there will be a clear understanding of how nineteenth-century literature responded to the public debates on hysteria in women.

Jane’s desire for love is brought about from a lifetime of absence, and still to her, this love feels forced and like a master/slave relationship.

Jane shows spiritual growth through all of the obstacles she was put through as a child; the narrator illustrates Jane in a way that makes us convinced that the storyline is all about a weak girl who just hurts. But nevertheless

In this chapter, readers learn of Jane’s strong self-worth and determination to respect herself. Despite her temptations and love for Mr. Rochester, she knows that she must not give in to a life of a mistress. Her inner strength guides her to resist all temptations and lust, to move on with dignity and self-respect. Although Jane knows that she can find comfort in staying with Mr. Rochester, she refuses to do so. Her moral righteousness and self-worth allow her to leave a life of sin and lead a right path, despite the obstacles that come in the way. Though the path is rough, and Jane must endure grief and many hardships, she overlooks all, her strength, will, integrity leading her. With immense fortitude, she walks away from what she most desires

Bertha Mason has become a significant literary character since Charlotte Brontë included her in Jane Eyre in 1847. As discussed in chapter one, there was a social correlation between women and hysteria, and a great fear by women of false committals or home imprisonment by their husbands. Jane Eyre is a novel that plays upon that fear and brings these frightening scenarios to life. Brontë's depiction of Bertha Mason also reveals society’s views of hysteria. This is an illness that is difficult to understand, and Jane’s descriptions of the hysterical woman have a visceral feel to them. This chapter will argue that Bertha Mason is a literary response to public debates concerning mental illness, specifically hysteria in women. It will begin with an analysis of her character, from her description to her actions. This analysis will show how Brontë used the knowledge available to society to exploit the fear of the mistreatment of wives while using current treatment methods. This chapter aims to read Bertha Mason not only as the hysterical woman but as a figurative illustration in the novel.

Because of the antagonism that the Reed’s had toward Jane, there was an absence of nurture and love; leading the Reeds to alienate Jane from their family because they didn't want to give her feelings of substinance and care, because she was of orphan status. Thus speaking, this lack of concern lead Jane to believe that her own self worth could be defined through her own self dependency. Reliance on others, for Jane, could result in her being abandoned by the ones that were supposed to care for her so she became self sufficient. Not to mention, the lack of care the Reeds had for her, also, caused her to believe her value was measured through the amount of attention she acquired and Since the attention she could receive from the Reeds would have a scarcity of positivity, Jane developed the ideology that negative attention would suffice better than no attention at all. Explicitly, Jane could not simply ask the Reeds for their awareness or for them to have any regard for her because immediately she would be

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a novel that has a deep secret rooted within its very foundation. Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea often seen as a prequel to Jane Eyre (as it is set a time that precedes the events of the novels) sets out to unearth the secrets that are hidden within Jane Eyre; it fills in the chasm that exists in Jane Eyre by providing the history of Edward Rochester’s Creole wife Bertha Mason nee Antoinette Cosway. In a 1979 interview with Elizabeth Vreeland Rhys explained her reason for writing Wide Sargasso Sea:

In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the author sets the story in the context of a patriarchal society in the Victorian era. Through the story however, the main character Jane builds relationships with other female characters that allows readers to understand the multifaceted idea of the “ideal woman” within the a patriarchy. With the relationships Jane has to the characters including Helen Burns, Miss Temple and Blanche Ingram, Brontë gives her criticisms of the restrictions that these expected gender roles put on women of the time period. Brontë uses the female characters in her novel and their relationship with or in contrast to Jane to show the confines and consequences that result on women who are subjected to the standard of being an