Jane Eyre Sacrifice

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.

Once Jane finally meets her employer, Rochester, she realizes soon after that she loves him. Jane says, “’I have known you, Mr. Rochester; and it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you for ever. I see the necessity of departure; and it is like looking on the necessity of death’” (Brontë 377). In this moment, Jane realizes she doesn’t want to leave Thornfield because her love for Rochester has grown over the few months she has been there.

The novelist Charlotte Bronte, published Jane Eyre in the 19th century, which depicts the romance and affairs involving Jane, through Blakemore’s interpretation “St John is arguably more sadistic than Rochester.” It can be inferred that St John version of marriage is basically slavery with no passion and love involved. This is accomplished by the juxtaposition of Rochester’s and St John’s proposals, characterisation of St John, and motifs of hypocrisy, in relation to situate the audience to view St John’s perception of Jane as nothing more than a tool. As presented in the novel, Jane’s two love interests, St John and Rochester, proposed to Jane, analysing the dichotomy of the intentions in marrying love demonstrates different insights. St John’s

Jane’s approach could be considered romantic and embodies conventional feminist concepts; she remains headstrong and stubborn in the face of injustice. The representation of Jane as a strong, independent woman upholds the belief that woman can achieve their goals. Jane does precisely this; she marries Rochester, becomes a part of a family as well as gains financial independence. The way in which Bronte represents Jane is emphasized through her narrative stance. The reader is presented with a firm and rebellious character, her diction is simple and assertive. She addresses the reader directly and is able to identify and challenge the problems she faces with determination. Furthermore Jane is able to identify and comment on how she feels woman are subjugated by their society; she denounces that “woman are supposed to be very calm generally: but woman feel just as men feel […]” (Bronte

Through a close reading of the selected passage of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, a reader can see that Jane attempts to separate herself from her decisions by personifying her emotions and giving them a specific voice, which strongly reflects the societal views of the time. At this point in the story, Jane has discovered, on her wedding day, that Mr. Rochester is still married to a woman named Bertha, and that woman still lives in his house. Distraught, Jane locks herself in her room and tries to decide what she should do. When she wakes up the next day, she is again confronted with what she needs to do in the wake of her discovery.

<br>Jane admits "to her instruction I owed the best part of my acquirements; her friendship and society and been my continual solace; she had stood me in the stead of mother, governess, and latterly, companion".

Jane always tries to keep herself respect at all cost despite the prevailing male dominance in her world. She knows that it is the time that obedience must end and resistance must begin if she wants to live according to her own will. Thus, Jane Eyre is created to set an example for females to give out her voices in the series of struggles in the man-dominant world.

Not only do her thoughts betray her independent spirit, but so too do her actions and words. Her relationship with Mr. Rochester is heavily defined by her brash actions and opinionated answers. Mr. Rochester, a typical Victorian male, exudes superiority even when he professes his love to Jane, sending out subtle hints about how she should act and live while planning the wedding. In many of the conversations between Mr. Rochester and Jane, Jane opens up more than is socially acceptable, proving herself to be just as fierce in her opinions as her employer. In one conversation, she tells Mr. Rochester, “It is my spirit that addresses your spirit…equal—as we are” (Brontë 296). She establishes herself as an equal in her relationship with Mr. Rochester before she even accepts his proposal. Similarly, Jane’s relationship with her cousin St. John is riddled with her independent spirit. Jane refuses to marry St. John when his ideas of love clash heavily with her own, verbally scorning his love and his impassionate proposal. She explains to Mr. Rochester that St. John, “is good and great, but severe; and for me, cold as an iceberg. He is not like you, sir; I am not happy at his side” (Brontë 514). Doing so jeopardizes her chances of a good home and financial stability, but she refuses to compromise her own convictions and happiness even for the sake of comfort.

Every good, true, vigorous feeling I have, gathers impulsively round him... while I breathe and think I must love him.” (178) Unfortunately, when Jane learns Mr. Rochester is already married to another woman, she forces herself back into her shell. This is not easy for Jane as she tells the reader, “...a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals. Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning! Not a

“I am no bird and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will” (Bronte, Jane Eyre 293). In the Victorian time period Charlotte Bronte lived the unequal life as a woman, like many others. The only difference is Bronte did not believe in living in inequality, and she wrote about her hardships in her literature. In her book, Jane Eyre, the reader can see many similarities in her main character’s life and her own. Jane Eyre has many ways of showing how Victorian women were expected to be and act, included in the life of Jane. Bronte also continues her portrayal of the inequality of women and the decision of love versus autonomy through two of her poems, “Life” and “The Wife’s Will.” Charlotte Bronte displays the inequality in life of women in the Victorian era by taking her life and revitalizing it into themes of her works, by providing a journey of discovery of love or autonomy.

Conforming to society’s rules is not an option for everyone. This holds true for the orphan Jane Eyre. Jane lived during the Victorian Era in England. During this time period women did not have the same freedoms as men, so as of result women lived under constant oppression. Women had to suffer loveless marriages and the inability to survive without men. Not only, were women oppressed emotionally they were not able to be independent from men. Jane Eyre objects the rules of society and attempts to find passion and independence in her life. Within Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre’s passionate belief for freedom becomes a symbol of empowerment among women.

Throughout the novel Jane Eyre, the main character Jane sets off on several quests, though there are two main departures that beg the focus of analysis. After completing her education and teaching at Lowood academy, Jane, the quester in question, sets off in pursuit of a change in her life that she desires. Her destination becomes Thornfield manor, and she believes that her position of governess there will fulfill her stated purpose of a change in life from the dreary Lowood.

When Mr. Rochester decided to tell Jane he was married to Bertha, it has changed Jane’s views about him. “"That is my wife," said he. "Such is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know—such are the endearments which are to solace my leisure hours!” (Bronte 303). After revealing his marriage Jane did not want to stay with him anymore. She did not want to continue the wedding, instead of running away. She could not handle how he would keep a secret so valid away from her, and that he says he loves her. "But, Jane, I summon you as my wife: it is you only I intend to marry." I was silent: I thought he mocked me.” (Bronte 320). It was distressing to find out he betrayed her with a secret that changed everything in their relationship, and that will be hard to solve and to be forgiven.

One of the most famous passages from the novel comes from Jane’s very clearly feminist inner monologue. She states that “Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel…they suffer from too rigid a restraint…” (130). Jane, as a forward-thinking and progressive protagonist, exemplifies in every sense the essence of gender equality of her time. Bronte reveals the limitations experienced by the female sex and the effects of those limitations on her protagonist. By doing this, the author uses Jane to fulfill her feminist and pro-equality agenda. Another example of Jane’s inner monologue comes from her irritation with Rochester. When Rochester showers Jane with gifts soon after their engagement, Jane’s “…cheek[s] burned with a sense of annoyance and degradation” (309). She becomes increasingly irritated with Rochester because of the complete lack of respect Rochester has for her feelings due to his joy of becoming engaged. Because Jane is already considered inferior to Rochester because of her lack of wealth and her status as an unmarried woman, being pelted with lavish tokens of affection is less than an ideal situation for her. This imbalance between the two highlights the already sexist society of the Victorian era. After Jane’s engagement to Rochester, she recounts the fact that she “…could not, in those days, see God for His creature: of whom I had made an idol” (316). She becomes blinded by the overpowering love she held for Rochester, to the extent that she put him on a pedestal, seeing him as an “idol”, and not a human being capable of fallacies. Bronte uses this dangerous mental circumstance Jane is in to illuminate the clear disparity between men and women of the time. Jane’s infatuation with Rochester serves as an important device implemented by Bronte to further her argument against sexist Victorian

The Victorian Era in England embraced strict societal values that dictated how women should submit to their parents when they are young, and to their husband when they are grown. While these notions may seem unnecessarily harsh from a modern standpoint, the phenomenon of finding comfort in these rigid standards existed during this time. For example, a woman who marries a wealthy man may be required to give up many of her own faculties and submit to her spouse’s rules, but she may be at ease knowing that she is well taken care of in terms of basic necessities in addition to luxury items. The idea of “finding immense support in rigid notions” played a “central role in the identity and culture” of Victorian England. This idea permeates in the life of the protagonist of the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Having grown up in an in which neither her intellect nor her emotions were ever acknowledged, Jane wrestles with the idea of conforming to Victorian standards for a woman, versus finding freedom in following her own passions as a single woman. Her journey through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood force her to reckon with “which restraints are worth enforcing” and “which would prove unnecessary, even harmful, if embraced”. Bronte represents Jane as a heroic woman of her time in the way that she remains true to herself despite instances of imprisonment and entrapment during each stage of her life.