Jane Eyre Essay Essay, Research Paper

Jane Eyre essay

I know what love is, as I understand it; and if a man and woman should be ashamed of feeling such love, then there is nothing right, noble, faithful, truthful, unselfish in this earth

-Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre is a complicated novel with many themes placed inside it. One of the most prominent themes in the novel is love. A lot of the time Jane displays love in this novel but is often rejected by her companions. The fact that relationships that have the possibility of love or have love in them are at one point or another tarnished are damaged shows a common fact that with love comes pain. The rejection of her aunt and family, the faulty trust between Rochester and Jane and the empty sentiment that St. John offers Jane are just some of the relationships that become morally and emotionally damaging for her. In the novel Jane Eyre when Jane experiences the promise of love or a loving relationship she is always faced with pain, rejection and loss.

The rejection of family causes significant damage to Jane s emotions because of her eager willingness to love them. In the case of Jane s aunt and the part of her childhood that involved her, Jane was often treated inferior to them because she did not have any family. As a child Jane was often beaten and punished by her cousins because of her status to the family. To her only real remaining relatives she was an outsider. When she finally confronts her aunt and makes the statement I should have been glad to love you if you had let me (page 69). This shows that Jane was more then ready to be loved and excepted by her family but instead was denied any affection from them. She was told often that she could not partake in any activities because they must exclude me from privileges included for contended happy children (page 58) as she was often told by her Aunt, Mrs. Reed. The cruelty that Jane was showed at Gateshead began to make Jane very resentful. She began to hate her aunt for what she had done for her and never at any point did she love her aunt began her aunt refused to love her. I am not deceitful: if I were, I would say that I loved you; but I declare I do not love you (page 68). She makes extreme comments when saying how she will reply if ever asked about her stay at Gateshead and her miserable life there, if anyone ever asks how I liked you. Or how you treated me; I will say that the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty . (Page 71). Jane as a child was only considered a plague on the Reed family and a dependent on the house of Gateshead. You are less than a servant for you do nothing for your keep. You are under obligation to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poor house (page 49). Jane is treat like she is in debt to Mrs. Reed though she is often punished, beaten and scowled at by her family. This is why Jane grew up to believe she was a constant dependent on everyone. Even when Jane grew older and was reunited with her aunt, there was not reconciliation between the two. The woman tells Jane that I wish she had died (page324) when talking about Jane s stay at Longwood thus showing Mrs. Reeds great resentment towards Jane. Jane offered her forgiveness to the dying lady but she refused it and said that she never loved Jane and also because of her awful treatment of Jane she broke many promises that she made to love Jane like one of her own. Jane acknowledges that Dying she must hate me still (page 324). The fact that there was no forgiveness even after those many years away from Gateshead is a sad revelation that Jane s only family that she knew of at the time never once loved her or thought to treat her like one of there own. The horrible relationship between Jane and Mrs. Reed show that Jane s first real model of parenthood was often harmful to Jane and tarnished what loving relationship they may have had as family.

Jane s loves for Mr. Rochester causes a lot of grief and self-doubt in Jane. Mr. Rochester often rejected and mistreated Jane though he truly did love her. Rochester was the first person to truly want Jane to be herslef and not a model of conformity that she was expected to be in…

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