St. John Rivers Characters

These lines exchanged by Jane Eyre and Mr. St John perfectly exhibit the differences in their personalities. Jane Eyre is a passionate, emotional person, while Mr. St John comes off as "cold" and un-feeling. These contrasting temperaments make for an intriguing scene when Mr. St John asks for Jane to marry and move to India with him as a missionary's wife. Jane had a strong emotional reaction to Mr. St John's proposal and St John was taken aback when she rejected him, but he did not have a particularly passionate reaction. In the days and weeks to follow, St. John was by no means friendly or warm with Jane, but he was also not outwardly rude to her. All and all, Mr. St John's disposition can be described as "cold," and Jane's emotions, that had a fire-like intensity, led her to reject to St. Johns final proposal.

Jane is filled with passion, however, and her willful disobedience is often her attempt to explain her feelings.  We see her passion find its fulfillment and understanding in Rochester.  When they meet, we see Jane's all-consuming passion and not much less of a fire in Rochester, "'I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you: their expression and smile did not (again he stopped) did not (he proceeded hastily) strike delight to my very inmost heart for nothing...My cherished preserver, good night'.  Strange energy was in his voice, strange fire in his look" (Bronte 133).

In Jane Eyre, the classic novel by Charlotte Brontë, the character St. John (pronounced Sinjin) represents the easy way out of things in life. St. John is a clergyman that takes in Jane when he finds her at his doorstep, close to death. He eventually asks her to marry him and to go to India as a missionary with him. St. John represents the easy way out of things because he is the perfect suitor for Jane. He is young, only 29 years old, while Mr. Rochester is almost old enough to be Jane’s father. Jane describes St. John as “a handsome man: tall, fair, with blue eyes, and a Grecian profile” (Brontë 454), and his manners as “polished, calm, and gentlemanlike” (Brontë 454). He is everything a girl a simple as Jane could wish for in

Norman Maclean, the protagonist and narrator of A River Runs Through It, reiterates the self-sufficiency of his predecessors, Scottish Presbyterians who dissented from official church and moved from Europe to America and Canada, and eventually to little, rugged towns of Montana. While the novella idealizes self-sufficiency, suggests that people are always interdependent. Norman’s younger brother, Paul, for instance, is embarrassed when Norman questions his personal capability, asking if Paul needs money or a different type of help. Paul seems to be ashamed of asking for help, even when it is sorely needed. It’s also unclear to what extent Paul even wants to be helped. Indeed, Norman struggles to determine whether and how he can guide Paul out of his alcoholism and into a more stable lifestyle. Like Norman with Paul, Norman’s wife Jessie seems to struggle in much the same way with her disastrous brother Neal. The couple’s altruism actually begins to push them apart, as Jessie grows frustrated with Norman for not being able to help Neal, and Norman grows frustrated with himself for his inability to

John also can’t accept Lenina’s view of love, and gets mad with her behaviors. Finally, their love evolves into violence and pain. Even though John is popular, his integrity, strength and abilities can’t be proven to both himself and to others. He is good at reading, and enjoys reading Shakespeare. This feature helps him think and research more than others. As a product of both worlds, he stands out in the brave new world, and has his unique ideas and independent thoughts about this world.

Edward Rochester and St. John Rivers demonstrate many corresponding traits, yet many opposing traits, and through their willingness and ability to care for Jane, their courteous dispositions, and their honesty, fulfill the roles of gentlemen in 19th century

Jane Eyre says, “‘he forgets pitilessly, the feelings and claims and of little people, in pursuing his own large views.’” When Jane Eyre declines St. John Rivers’ marriage proposal, he does not take her feelings into consideration. St. John Rivers soly recognizes how her rejection will affect him and his mission trip to India. This shows that he is not open to the ideas and feelings of others when he has a goal set in mind for himself. St. John Rivers says, “‘Rosamond a sufferer, a labourer, a female apostle? Rosamond a missionary’s wife? No!’” St John Rivers is a priest who devotes his life to God. His devotion to God can be considered a strength and a weakness. This can be portrayed as a strength because he helps others around the world by going on missionary trips, but he also sacrifices all the pleasures and luxuries in his life. Instead of staying at Gateshead and telling Rosamond Oliver how he feels, he leaves on a missionary trip to India because he believes she is not suited to be a missionary wife. His devotion to God causes St. John Rivers to be strict and self-denying. St. John Rivers’ way of helping those who are destitute can be considered a strength of his. Before

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

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

Increasing her desire, Rochester respects Jane as an equal; generating the image of a benevolent deity, a substitute for God. “My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven” (316). Highlighting Jane’s thirst for unending love, this demonstrates her desperation as a result of her abusive childhood. Internally struggling with the battling battalions of love and affection between Rochester and God, Jane essentially selects Rochester and rewards him with the title of Augustus. Comparing Edward to heaven exhibits Jane’s decision to receive temporary affection that crumbles more effortlessly than stale bread. Moreover, suddenly shaking Jane’s finite, fragile, and inconsistent foundation of love, she realizes her mistake in ascending Rochester above religion. “Not a human being I loved; and him who thus loved me I absolutely worshipped: and I must renounce love and idol”

John, an aspiring missionary whom takes her in at Moor House. St. John’s problem is not so much hypocrisy, but an overzealous attitude toward religion; an attitude which causes him to manipulate Jane for his purposes. When he sits her down to propose marriage he tells her, “God and nature intended you for a missionary's wife. It is not personal, but mental endowments they have given you: you are formed for labour, not for love. A missionary's wife you must — shall be. You shall be mine: I claim you — not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign's service,” (Bronte, 428). He feels no romantic desire toward Jane, however, he wants her hand in marriage to appear as the perfect male missionary with a wife. Jane rejects this proposal, not only on the basis of rejecting his ‘religious’ motives, but also because she believes only in true, romantic

Although St. John Rivers shares many Christian beliefs with Helen Burns, he presents another spectrum of the religious movement that Bronte dissuades. It is clear that St. John is a religious zealot who devotes “a large portion of his time…visiting the sick and poor among the scattered population of his parish.” (357; ch.30) However, his devotion to God does not make him a saint. “Zealous in his ministerial labours, blameless in his life and habits, he yet did not appear to enjoy that mental serenity, that inward content, which should be the reward of every sincere Christian and practical philanthropist.” (357; ch.30)Bronte makes this point clear when Jane observes at one of v his sermons. “Throughout there was a strange bitterness; an absence

It instead shows Jane’s inner struggle to do what is “right” versus what she desires. The separation between the voice of herself and her thoughts exhibits her helplessness to change her path from what her mind has already decided. This displays the heavy influence society has on Jane, which is further proven by the personification of Jane’s two strongest rivaling emotions. The heavy influence of a patriarchal dominated society is evident in her “Conscience” being a strong male figure, whereas her “Passion” is a weaker, feminine figure. Similarly, the strongest reasoning for Jane to leave Thornfield is driven by the patriarchal demand for a female to remain “pure” until holy marriage, rather than Jane’s own desire to leave, further solidifying the idea that the voice given to her mind is not just her own internal thoughts, but also the demands and expectations of

Supernaturality, love, as well as hypocrisy as a sub unit of religion,are dominant themes combined in the retrospective novel 'Jane Eyre'. The novel depicts characters, such as Mr Brocklehurst and St.John Rivers that are challenges to the ideal christian way and faith throughout the novel.

Jane however feels it's justified because in God's eyes it's not the same, they are equals there, “...just as if both had passed through the grove, and we stood at God’s feet, equal- as we are!’”(216). Even up to the marriage, Jane stays true to the idea that even though social norms say it's not right but the idea that God sees it as right makes Jane happy with what she is choosing. When Jane finds out Rochester is married she rejects this idea and the reasons to be with him because she feels the marriage to a married man is against God's will, that if she does this she won't make him a true husband but an idol, that it would be putting her own wants before God’s, “... Him who thus loved me I absolutely worshiped: and I must renounce love and idol. One drear word comprised my intolerable duty- ‘Depart!’”(216). With this idea if Jane feels she doesn't depart she is making her love for God less than her love for Rochester. Jane only changes her feelings about marrying Rochester not for wanting to be more independent but because she felt it was against God's will. When she decides to leave Thornfield she feels that it was what God wants and that's what gives her strength to leave which shows as she is just starting to run away down Thornfield drive “I still could not turn nor retrace one step. God must