Passion,Dreams In Jane Eyre Essay, Research Paper

Passion, Dreams, and the Supernatural in Jane Eyre

Eliza Brownell ‘97 (English 61 1993)

ntrospection, half-belief in the supernatural, conflicting emotions,

gushing description appear throughout Jane Eyre. Rochester’s mention of

prescience — both foreshadowing and premonition — come up again and again

throughout the work. “I knew. . . you would do me good in some way . . . I saw

it in your eyes when I first beheld you,” Rochester tells Jane. Both he and she

believe implicitly the things they read in eyes, in nature, in dreams. Jane has

dreams which she considers unlucky, and sure enough, ill fortune befalls her or

her kin. When she is in a garden which seems “Eden-like” and laden with “honey-dew”, the love

of her life proposes to her. However, that very night the old horse-chestnut tree at the bottom

of the garden is struck by lightning and split in half, hinting at the difficulties that lie in

store for the couple.

The turbulent exploration of Jane’s emotions so characteristic of the text reveals some of

Bront?’s most prevalent ideas — that judgment must always “warn passion,” and that the sweet

“hills of Beulah” are found within oneself.

As Jane grows throughout the book, one of the most important things she learns is to rule her

heart with her mind. When a child at Gateshead she becomes entirely swept up in an emotional

tantrum, which proves to be the most painful memory of her childhood. At the pivotal point in

the plot when Jane decides to leave Rochester, she puts her love for him second to the

knowledge that she cannot ethically remain with him – the “counteracting breeze” once again

preventing her from reaching paradise. Only when Rochester has become worthy of her, and

judgment and passion move toward the same end, can she marry him and achieve complete

happiness./

Charlotte Bront?, like her heroine, traveled to wondrous lands within the confines of her own

head. While Jane, engrossed in Bewick’s History of British Birds,…

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