Sacrifice In Jane Eyre

“Jane’s relationship with Rochester in the early part of the novel is based not on love but control, manipulation and secrecy. She does well to escape”

In his quest for self-transformation into a man of purity and harmony, Rochester sets his sights on Jane as the key to his renewal. Wooing her is different from any of his past lovers, though he seems to do so easily, but Rochester struggles to see that as he seduces and nearly marries Jane in bigamy, he is sullying the purity he so greatly craves. He is so blinded by the happiness close at hand, that he fails to realize Jane’s unhappiness and eventual departure. The loss of his physical vision is atonement for his lack of observing the effects of his actions, and consequently, darkens his life permanently without Jane, his moral eyes.

So, Rochester showed the brother (Richard), the priest, and Jane his wife. He explained how Bertha had lit his bed on fire, stabbed Richard, and destroyed Jane’s wedding veil's; she was more a monster than a wife. Heartbroken by learning of this marriage, Jane fled to her room where she stayed for hours upon hours. "Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent expectant woman - almost a bride - was a cold, solitary girl again: her life was pale; her prospects were desolate (341)." When she finally emerged, Rochester tried to convince her to stay with him. “I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment (363).” This was not something she could not do; as Rochester said, "...[It would] strip you of honour and rob you of self-respect (346)..." The next morning, Jane left Thornfield Hall with some money and few possessions. She did not say goodbye to

We first encounter this relationship between Jane and Rochester during their first dramatic meeting. She encounters him when he falls off his horse and she is required to give him assistance. Jane’s first impression of his face is that ‘He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow’. This may portray the dimness in his face awaiting to be enlightened by a woman which, in this case Jane. Further on in this chapter, unaware of who he is, on her return home, Jane is amazed to discover that the gentleman she assisted in the road was her employer, Mr. Edward Rochester. Jane’s future relationship with Rochester is most clearly set out in their first meeting. Although without any money, reserved and socially dependent, Jane is not

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.

Rochester and St. John Rivers display very similar characteristics throughout the novel, such as their social standings, severe dispositions, and proposals to Jane. Both men come from wealthy and respected families. Edward Rochester is born into a high-class family and owns multiple estates, such as Thornfield Hall and Ferndean Manor. Likewise, St. John comes from an esteemed and well-known family that Mr. Oliver, the wealthiest man in Morton, speaks well of when questioned about the topic by Jane. Secondly, both Mr. Rochester and St. John come off as harsh and distant until Jane gets to know them well. Mr. Rochester is brusque and asks Jane many questions about herself, but discloses very little information about his background. During her time with St. John, she attempts to make him disclose to her his feelings towards Rosamond Oliver and says, “‘With all his firmness and self-control,’ thought I, ‘he tasks himself too far: locks every feeling and pang within — expresses, confesses, imparts nothing’” (373; ch. ). Lastly, both Mr. Rochester and St. John ask Jane to marry them. Jane almost marries Mr. Rochester, but leaves him after realizing that he is already married. She refuses to marry St. John because she doesn’t love him and returns to Mr. Rochester, who she eventually does marry and spends many happy years with. Altogether, Mr. Rochester and St. John have similarities such as their respected families, their distant natures, and their proposals to

Furthermore, Jane says “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself” (Chapter 27, Bronte.) This statement greatly represents the growth that Jane has undergone. She no longer dreads the solitude that once haunted her because she respects herself enough to realize that she did not deserve to experience such great dismay. Through independence and self-recognition, Jane has discovered the importance of loving oneself. Without the reliance on the thoughts of others, the once extremely troubled girl found bliss through a lack of outside control. In regards to her relationship with Mr. Rochester, Jane understands that she must leave him behind to maintain her own well-being. She does not allow the wealth or proclaimed love from Rochester to skew her decisions and she does not linger to dominate the life of her lover. Instead, she moves forward to continue her endless pursuit of happiness and independence.

He is also very much used to getting what he wants. When he orders Jane to play him some piano, he says, “Excuse my tone of command, I am used to saying, ‘Do this,’ and it is done: I cannot alter my customary habits for one new inmate,” (Brontë 123); and although he does excuse his tone, he refuses to change it. Throughout the story, Mr. Rochester falls in love with Jane, and they plan to be married. He insists on buying silk dresses and beautiful jewels, yet Jane only allows him to buy her simple things, saying, “I was glad to get him out of the silk warehouse, and the out of the jeweller’s shop,” (Brontë 274). On their wedding day, Jane discovers that he already has a wife - a murderous lunatic- and runs away, only to return a year later to find out that Thornfield has burnt down, and that Mr. Rochester was blinded and lost a hand in the fire. The reader sees that Mr. Rochester is much humbler, living only with two servants to wait on him. His humbleness shows even more upon his proposal to Jane, for when she says yes, he asks her “A poor blind man who you will have to lead about by the hand?” (Brontë 458) and then again, “A crippled man, twenty years older than you, whom you will have to wait on?”

After refusing to marry Mr. Rochester she leaves Thornfield with no destination. She turns up at the Moor House, the residents there are St. John Rivers and his sisters Diana and Mary. These residents Jane learns are her cousins. After having stayed there for quite some time, St. John starts to have feelings for Jane. In an attempt to hide his true feelings, he asks Jane to marry him for the sole purpose to be his missionary wife in Africa.

Mr. Rochester has had a life full of struggle and is dissatisfied on the whole. After being tricked into a marriage with a madwoman, Mr. Rochester feels trapped. Then follows a life of dissipation and shallow affairs, which leads him to despise himself. It is after he has tried all attempts to find true love that Jane enters his life as the perfect woman for him.

When Jane enters Thornfield she thinks she is going to work for a woman named Mrs. Fairfax, but she does not. She works for a mysterious man name Mr. Rochester. This man is going to be an import aspect of Jane’s life. Jane works as a governess to a young girl named Adele. Jane encounters Mr. Rochester when she goes for a walk and runs into Rochester, whose horse is injured. After the encounter Jane and Rochester start to gain interest into each other. Mr. Rochester is a man with a large amount of money and Jane is a woman with very little money, the fact that she works for Mr. Rochester defies their unprofessional relationship. “Like governesses, these marriages between older men and younger women were viewed with great ambivalence during the Victorian period”(Godfrey). Both characters develop strong feelings for one another and become close to getting married but a discovery of a secret puts the marriage to a halt. After

As a governess, Jane is shown the life of the luxurious. Mr. Rochester's mansion is overwhelming, and his parties are extravagant. Mr. Rochester speaks to her frequently, because he needs someone to listen to him. When Edward reveals to Jane his former cheating wife, she feels a connection to him on personal level. Jane has never felt this since her relationship with Helen Burns at Lowood. Jane becomes

Though Jane is well educated and possesses the etiquette and training of a person in upper class society, social prejudices limit her because she is simply a paid servant, in their eyes. While at Thornfield, Jane falls desperately in love with the owner of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester. Jane is Mr. Rochester’s intellectual contemporary, but her social status prevents her from being his true equal. In the novel, Jane proclaims, “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart!” (Bronte 637). After Mr. Rochester finally proposes, Jane is hesitant to marry him because she feels as if he would be lowering himself to marry her. This feeling greatly increases after Jane discovers he is married to Bertha Mason, and that he keeps her locked away in Thornfield’s attic due to her insanity. Mr. Rochester proposes that Jane becomes his mistress, which, according to Victorian society, would be more fitting since Jane is a plain governess. Jane realizes that she can never compromise her morals that way and leaves Thornfield. While on her own, Jane still strives to gain independence, discovers new kin, and learns she has a wealthy uncle who has left her a large inheritance. After her loneliness and longing for Mr. Rochester becomes too great, she returns to Thornfield. Jane is

In this dilemma, Mr. Rochester decides to keep Bertha a secret and continue to marry Jane as if Bertha didn’t exist, only for the fact to be made known on his wedding day. Once knowing this, Jane, feeling betrayed, leaves Thornfield and Mr. Rochester. Mr. Rochester’s actions brought him only hardship, and almost cost him the person he loved most.

Although she knows Blanche and Rochester are not in love, she believes they will marry due to money and class. Ingram is equal to Rochester, and Jane is not. She knows she cannot unlove him, but "all his attentions appropriated to a great lady who scorned to touch [Jane] with the hem of her roses as she passed" (Bronte 211). In Jane 's mind, she is no match for Blanche, and she refuses to marry Rochester because they are not equal. After Jane and Rochester become engaged for the first time, he attempts to spoil her with gifts and special treatment. However, Jane will not accept. First, he takes Jane to Millcote to buy her accessories. When he looks at her with "passionate pleasure" she looks at him and threatens that he "need not look in that way...if [he does, she 'll] wear nothing but [her] old Lowood frocks to the end of the chapter. [She 'll] be married in this lilac gingham" (309-310). She refuses these gifts as she believes she should not be treated higher than her actual class. She also refuses to dine with Rochester at his request.When he asks her to join she tells him that she has "never dined with [him]; and [she] sees no reason why [she] should now" (311). Rochester then begins to question what she wishes to become of her salary and other days to which she responds that she "shall just go on with it as usual. [She] shall keep out of [his] way all day"