Overall Meaning: Chapters 33-38 (end)

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Plot Recap

I finished the book! Again, a lot happened. We return to Jane living with the Rivers, back to full health and working as a teacher for local peasant children. One night, St. John Rivers reveals to Jane that he has discovered her identity, that her uncle has died and left 20,000 pounds to her, and that he knows this because he is her cousin. Jane is overjoyed to finally have a family, and shares the money with St. John, Diana, and Mary. St. John tries to convince Jane to come to India with him as a missionary, but insists that she must marry him for such a journey to be proper. Finding St. John unbearably rigid and completely devoid of love for her, Jane refuses. She suddenly hears Mr. Rochester’s voice calling out to her, and leaves the Rivers to find out what has become of him, not having been able to forget him during their year of separation.

Jane returns to Thornfield to find it burnt and beaten by the elements — empty. She learns from locals that Mr. Rochester’s wife, Bertha, set fire to the place, and subsequently died by suicide. Mr. Rochester was injured while saving people in the fire, and is blind in both eyes and has had his hand amputated. He now lives in a remote cottage, and Jane travels there to find him. She expresses her undying love for him, and is now more his equal because of her money and his disabilities. The narration skips ten years into the future — when Jane is writing the autobiography — and she reveals that they got married, that two years into the marriage some of Mr. Rochester’s eyesight came back, and they have a child together. Mary and Diana are both married, and St. John is in India and happily awaiting his death (and reunion with God).

 

Themes and Meaning: Critique of Society

There is one overall theme in Jane Eyre that sticks out to me now, as I reflect on the book as a whole. That is a criticism of society (which, let's face it, is the general theme of many, if not most, famous works of literature). I see Brontë as criticizing several aspects of society in this book: gender roles, marriage, and religion.

Gender Roles

As I discussed in my first blog post, Jane is a compelling narrator because she is strong-willed, smart, and independent. She stands up for herself and usually has a clear head on her shoulders. She also does not put up with expectations for her behavior as a woman, even around men. For instance, Jane speaks frankly with Mr. Rochester and, later, with her cousin St. John, startling them but causing them to respect her more. Jane says of St. John, “He had not imagined that a woman would dare speak so to a man. For me, I felt at home in this sort of discourse.” (419). The fact that the male characters grudgingly respect Jane’s forwardness shows that Brontë wants the reader to understand that rigid expectations for women’s behavior are foolish.

To that end, she also writes Jane to frequently entertain profound thoughts about the roles of women and men in society. At one point, Jane remarks, “Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel… it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings… It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.” (119). This is a strikingly feminist message about the equality of men and women that was not widely accepted at the time this book was written.

I’m impressed by the degree to which Brontë was ahead of her time with this, and I think, overall, she wants Jane Eyre to communicate that women can be successful and happy if they don’t conform to society’s expectations. This is something that I certainly feel to be true in the present day, and also something we have seen in other books we’ve read for AP Lit; The Handmaid’s Tale, Song of Solomon, and Macbeth all explore gender roles (meaning primarily the role of women) to some extent. I think all four books agree that women are always more complex than society believes them to be.

Marriage

Marriage is a bit of a loaded topic in Jane Eyre, from Mr. Rochester’s secret wife to St. John’s attempts to convince Jane (his cousin!) to marry him because he thinks she will make a good missionary. Overall, the message is that marriage is often undertaken for the wrong reasons. This is certainly a topic that has been touched on in many pieces of literature.

The first negative depiction of marriage in Jane Eyre comes when Jane describes her opinion of Mr. Rochester’s intention to marry Blanche Ingram for “interest and connexions” — she does not blame them for it, because “all their class held these principles” (208). However, within this statement is necessarily a criticism of the high society that promotes marriage for advantage instead of love. Brontë believes that marriage among the upper class is more an exercise of power than a display of love, and she disapproves of this.

The most negative depiction of marriage in the book is, of course, the whole Mr. Rochester ordeal; he deceives Jane about already being married, only to reveal the secret at the altar. Even before that fiasco, however, Jane is skeptical of marriage, telling Mr. Rochester that, after they get married, “For a little while you will perhaps be as you are now… and then you will turn cool; and then you will be capricious; and then you will be stern” (290). She believes that, even when people marry for love, they inevitably begin disliking each other. This communicates Brontë’s distaste for marriage as an unhappy institution; and then, of course, Jane learns that Mr. Rochester is hiding a secret wife. This all communicates the message that marriage is hardly worth the trouble because of the possibility for deceit. I actually think the strongest message in this plot is a pro-divorce one; Mr. Rochester presumably feels it is not socially acceptable to divorce his existing wife, so he decides his only option is to lie to Jane.

Religion

The theme about religion in Jane Eyre is especially interesting to me. The first notable mention of religion is in the character of Mr. Brocklehurst, the proprietor of the charity school that Jane attends as a child. He is extremely religious — annoyingly, and in a way that makes it clear he has a superiority complex — but also a hypocrite. While he espouses “good Christian values” at Lowood, for example by threatening to cut off the hair of girls he suspects of curling it (which would be vain of them if their hair was not, in reality, naturally curly), his wife and daughters are revealed to be high-class snobs who wear their hair in elaborate curls and buy the most expensive dresses. This is undeniably a negative portrayal of religion, the subtext being that overly pious people are hypocrites and easily corrupted.

A similar example to Mr. Brocklehurst is St. John Rivers, who often lets his piety get in his way. Not only does he convince himself he cannot be with the woman he loves, Rosamond Oliver, because of his position as a clergyman and missionary, he then tries to compel Jane to marry him and accompany him to India. The only rationale for this is that he thinks she would make a good missionary and it would be improper for them to travel together if they were both single. Again, this is a negative portrayal of religion because its message is that religion leads people to make bad decisions. Also in this plot point is the message that missionary work is specifically negative because people try to coerce others to participate in it, as St. John attempted with Jane.

However, there is a contrast in Jane Eyre between these negative portrayals of devout, almost performative religion, and the more positive depiction of religion on a personal scale. The plot arc of Jane’s and Mr. Rochester’s relationship has distinct religious and almost karmic undertones: he commits a sin by lying about already being married, loses Jane, a hand, and his sight as punishment, and then regains Jane and some of his sight after repenting (and after his existing wife dies). In fact, in the build up to Jane and Mr. Rochester getting back together, both describe turning to God for guidance:

Jane: “I mounted to my chamber; locked myself in; fell on my knees; and prayed in my way — a different way to St. John’s, but effective in its own fashion. I seemed to penetrate very near a Mighty Spirit; and my soul rushed out in gratitude at His feet.” (471)

Mr. Rochester: “I did wrong: I would have sullied my innocent flower — breathed guilt on its purity: the Omnipotent snatched it from me. I, in my stiff-necked rebellion, almost cursed the dispensation: instead of bending to the decree, I defied it. Divine justice pursued its course; disasters came thick on me: I was forced to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. His chastisements are mighty; and one smote me which has humbled me for ever… Of late, Jane — only — only of late — I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker. I began sometimes to pray: very brief prayers they were, but very sincere.” (501)

In both of these quotes, the religious focus is very personal, as opposed to the way that characters like Mr. Brocklehurst and St. John tend to apply their religion to others. The message is that turning inward to God, and acknowledging your own faults, is what leads to divine rewards. This reminds me of the historical shift in thinking that happened during the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, and similarly later in various Christian communities, away from prescribed religion and toward a personal study of the Bible and relationship with God. It seems to me that Brontë is advocating that type of spirituality here; that individuals may find guidance in their relationships with God, but they shouldn’t use it to influence others. 

The message in Jane and Mr. Rochester’s story is therefore that, if you take personal responsibility for your sins and atone for them, you may be rewarded with something that you want. The message is also that God will punish you for your misdeeds; that there is some sort of absolute moral right and wrong that will determine the events of your life, a form of karma. These are interesting messages because they are not solely Christian or pious; I see them as being a broad statement from Brontë that you should essentially treat people the way you want to be treated.

Notably absent in the conclusion of Jane Eyre is any suggestion that it may not have been the best decision to lock a mentally ill woman in an attic. The idea of cosmic retribution against Mr. Rochester is mainly a punishment for lying to Jane, not because he treated his wife badly. If I can think of a way to tie it in, I want to explore the idea of Bertha’s mental illness in my next blog post. For a book that is so progressive and feminist for its time, I find it interesting that this aspect was so glossed over. It was 1847, after all. However, on the whole, I think the social criticisms so prominent in Jane Eyre are still highly relevant to our society today, which is one of the things that made it so interesting and enjoyable to read.

Works Cited

Allingham, Helen. Old Cottages at Pinner. 1885-1895. Unsplash, 

    unsplash.com/photos/4lDX-xTLl3Q. Accessed 16 Mar. 2021.

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. Woodstock, Beekman Publishers, 1980.