Themes in Jane Eyre 2

Created by: Pascale
Created on: 11-05-13 09:58

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Themes in Jane Eyre
- Gender
  - Role of men
    - 'Habitually obedient to John'
      - John Reed is the 'man of the house' at Gateshead - Jane submits to this mostly
    - "Say, 'What do you want, Master Reed?'"
    - "we must be married" - St. John
      - St. John 'decides' to take Jane as a wife
      - "Refuse to be my wife, and you limit yourself for ever to a track of selfish ease and barren obscurity." - St. John
        The belief that without men, women were nothing
    - "I summon you as my wife" - Rochester
      - 'summon' - command, order, duty
      - Women's place to please men
  - Role of women
    - Feminist criticism
      - 'The heroine of the novel Jane Eyre has successfully demonstrated the image of a woman who is intelligent, independent, kind-hearted and most importantly, brave enough to say “no” to the social conventions and live up to her principle in life.'
    - A thinking woman was considered such a breach of nature that a Harvard doctor reported during his autopsy on a Radcliffe graduate he discovered that her uterus had shriveled to the size of a pea" (Gilbert 2032)
    - "It does good to no woman to be flattered by her superior"
      - Woman treated like children - in such a way that men can get the best out of them
    - 'As if loveliness were not the special prerogative of woman'
      - Expectations of women
        '"No sight so sad as that of a naughty child," he began, "especially a naughty little girl."' - Brocklehurst
        Men were given more allowances
    - '"No sight so sad as that of a naughty child," he began, "especially a naughty little girl."' - Brocklehurst
      - Men were given more allowances
    - "I should wish her to be brought up in a manner suiting her prospects...to be made useful, to be kept humble" - Mrs. Reed
      - It was expected of Jane to be subservient to men
      - 'humble' is contradictory to the word 'prospects'
    - Women depended upon men physically, financially and spiritually.
      - "A poor blind man, whom you will have to lead about by the hand?" - Rochester "Yes, sir." - Jane
      - "I am independent, sir, as well as rich: I am my own mistress." - Jane "And will you stay with me?" - Rochester "Certainly" - Jane
      - Jane defies social convention and marries a man who is physically and financially dependent on her. Possibly even spiritually after her 'pilgrimage'
- Love
  - St. John
    - "I scorn your idea of love" - Jane
      - Love for utility not feelings or romance
    - "undoubtedly enough of love would follow" - St. John
      - Puts his own aims ahead of Jane's feelings
    - 'He seemed to say..."I love you [Rosamond] ...but that heart i already laid on a sacred altar"'
      - St. John puts religion ahead of his feelings and true, even reciprocated love for Rosamond
      - Is his love for God greater than his romantic love for Rosamond? - Jesus is his wife in a sense
  - Rochester
    - '[Jane's] blanks of existence were filled up'
      - Rochester completes Jane
      - Essential in her life - without him she'd be incomplete
    - 'If I had loved him less I should have thought his accent and look of exultation savage'
      - Jane sees flaws in Rochester but loves him despite these things
      - Neither Rochester nor Jane are attractive
    - 'I saw nothing: but I heard a voice somewhere cry--- “Jane! Jane! Jane!.....And it was a voice of a human being--- a known, loved, well-known voice– that of Edward Fairfax Rochester; and it spoke in pain and woe wildly, eerily, urgently.'
      - After St. John's proposal
      - Spiritual connection to Rochester?
      - St. John
        "I scorn your idea of love" - Jane
        Love for utility not feelings or romance
        
        "undoubtedly enough of love would follow" - St. John
        Puts his own aims ahead of Jane's feelings
        
        'He seemed to say..."I love you [Rosamond] ...but that heart i already laid on a sacred altar"'
        St. John puts religion ahead of his feelings and true, even reciprocated love for Rosamond
        
        Is his love for God greater than his romantic love for Rosamond? - Jesus is his wife in a sense
      - 'True love'?
- Elements
  - Fire
    - "You are cold, because no contact strikes the fire from you that is in you." - Gypsy aka Rochester
      - Rochester's desire for a passionate relationship with Jane
      - Sees that Jane is passionate in other respects
    - "Don't keep me long; the fire scorches me" - Jane
    - '"Come, Miss Jane, don't cry,"...She might as well have said to the fire "don't burn!"'
      - Jane feels it is impossible for her to suppress her emotions
  - Ice
    - 'bitter cold' (Lowood)
      - Bronte's critique of these institutions
      - The fiery and passionate Jane is suppressed at Lowood
    - 'This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire' (The red-room)
      - Jane's passion confined
      - Contrast to red
      - Where her uncle died - cold, still air, haunting, lifeless
    - 'ice of reserve' (describing St. John's nature)
      - St. John is dispassionate
      - 'ice' solid state - Jane doesn't see that with marrying him, love will follow. She believes that he will always be this way
      - 'reserve' perhaps St. John isn't really like this - ignores his feelings for Rosamond, keeps reserved
    - "I am cold" - St. John
      - "Whereas I am hot, and fire dissolves ice."
        Nature wouldn't allow them to be together
    - 'He [Rochester] would sometimes pass me haughtily and coldly'
      - Rochester in denial for his passionate feelings for Jane
    - “death-white realms” - Bewick's History of British Birds
      - Represent Jane's physical and spiritual isolation at Gateshead
- Rochester as Jane's master and pupil
  - 'I was then his vision'
    - Sight, vision, wisdom, perception
  - 'my master'
    - Serves Rochester and knows her place
    - Jane has this level of respect for Rochester despite their romantic relationship - still considers herself a governess
  - 'wild beast... dangerous'
    - Jane 'tames' Rochester
  - "I meant, however, to be a bigamist" - Rochester
    - Jane is Rochester's moral superior - will not marry him on the grounds that it is not morally sound
- Bildungsroman
  - Jane Eyre is a typical Bildungsroman in the sense that it begins with her as a child and she works her way up in life
  - 'Bewick's History of British Birds'
    - Jane is fascinated with the idea of flight beyond an oppressive situation
  - "A man could rise through his own exertions he had control over his destiny" - Patricia Alden
    - Specifically named 'man' - Bronte defied this and allowed Jane social mobility
  - Novel is like a pilgrimage - The Pilgrims' Progress
    - Gateshead - Lowood - Helen Burns, Miss Temple, Mr Brocklehurst. Thornfield, Moor House - St. John, Diana and Mary, Thornfield
  - 'There was no possibility of taking a walk that day'
    - Obstructive movement and confinement from external conditions - possibility of future release 'that day'
  - Social mobility, self improvement, social improvement
  - Victorian ideas that one must be married - Bronte is reluctant to fulfill this
  - "Mobility was not really a choice when "standing still" amounted to slipping down into working class" - Patricia Alden
  - Bronte finally submits to the Victorian belief that a woman's place is in the house - anti bildungsroman? Aspirations - housewife
  - German - formation novel
- Jane as a narrator
  - "Jane, I don't like cavillers or questioners"
    - Jane doesn't introduce herself to the reader - we find out her name by default
  - 'With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy'
    - Jane reads her book in silence - reader empathises with her as this is what the reader is doing
  - 'I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness'
    - Jane unsure and unconscious-trustworthy narrator?
    - However, she did end the chapter here
  - "I found you full of strange contrasts. Your garb and manner were restricted by rule; your air was often diffident, and altogether that of one refined by nature..." - Rochester
    - Whilst Jane is mostly trustworthy, she is not her own psychoanalyst
    - Sometimes we need an outside perspective to understand what Jane isn't telling the reader but is influencing the novel
  - 'I stood in the position of one without a resource, without a friend, without a coin'
    - Jane describes herself as helpless and desolate
    - This humility and honesty makes Jane trustworthy to the reader

Comments

Report Sat 5th April, 2014 @ 14:17

A very detailed mind map that identifies the main themes; the ideas highlighted are relevant and useful and used alongside direct references to the text could be a very helpful revision tool. Use in conjunction with Themes in Jane Eyre 1.