Jane Eyre Dialectical Journal

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

Quotation: “See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.” (IV.iii.301-302)

Each person is in control of their actions in life. Although conscience may make each individuals actions seem honorable, the truth is they might be.

“The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.” – Oswald Chambers

She will simply find joy through the recognition of her own positive attributes. This alone is a step towards independence because Jane was taught to feel as though she was not worthy of happiness for much of her life. Abandoning the mindset of unworthiness is a successful method of releasing herself from the grasp of Mrs. Reed. Jane is no longer dependent on negative assertions- Thus, exemplifying her freedom.

Prejudices are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

situations, their guilt comes from some sort of sin, whether it be considered a sin in

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

Jane in her younger years was practically shunned by everyone and was shown very little love and compassion, from this throughout her life she searches for these qualities through those around her. Due to Jane’s mother’s disinheritance she was disowned by Mrs. Reed and her children, and was treated like a servant consistently reminded that she lacked position and wealth.

“Well, for instance, when I left her to-day, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. `The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering

The quote teaches a valuable lesson too. The lesson it teaches later in life or sooner is that if you just wait, soon it will later happen, you must be patient and later something unremarkable and so valuable you would do outstanding, and once you do that it will or should remain a memory or it should.

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

Related to birds there is another symbol, the flight, which acts as a stand for awakening. This symbolic theme appears constantly throughout the novel. We can see that Edna escapes her life, her children and her husband following her own believes of freedom. In this fragment we can see that Mademoiselle Reisz guides Edna through her awakening, but she cannot help her forever: "she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong. ‘The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth’” (page 217). In other words, she says that she has to be brave in order to defy society.

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."

In this passage, Jane breaks free from the bonds that hold her down and repress her, and for the first time the reader realizes Jane’s true personality and individuality (Anderson).