How are ideas about religion examined through the characters of Mr Brocklehurst, Eliza Reed and St John Rivers?
Religion is a strong theme throughout Jane Eyre, with Jane meeting religion in different forms through different characters in the novel. Bronte used the characters to represent how religion is often used in people's lives. One of the first strong religious characters that Jane encounters is Mr Brocklehurst, a fearsome and tyrannical man who uses religion as a justification for cruelty and neglect at his school Lowood where Jane spent many years. To Mr Brocklehurst his strong religious beliefs are a tool to control others. Jane meets her cousin Eliza again when they are both adults after Jane returns to the Reeds home to visit her dying aunt Reed, Eliza's mother. Eliza however uses her religion differently to Mr Brocklehurst. Jane's cold and earnest cousin decides to devout her life to God and becomes a nun because she is scared of living a wasted life, like her brother John. One of the main characters in the novel St John Rivers also leaves a very religious life. St John Rivers only admitted passion is his religion and that is why he devotes his life to God and urges Jane to do the same, although she is never convinced to.
Mr Brocklehurst, the fearsome headmaster of Lowood School, uses his religious beliefs to control others. He lets people think that everything he says is true, and that if they are bad they will go to hell. By enforcing this fear, he gains control. Mr Brocklehurst tried to do this with Jane when he said to her on their first meeting "do you know where the wicked go after death?" to try and enforce that fear in her. However Mr Brocklehurst himself is hypocritical with his religion. He says to his pupils at Lowood that vanity is a sin, and he demonstrates this by cutting off a girl's naturally curly hair, saying the pupils at Lowood have hair '...which vanity itself might have woven'. Although this hypocrisy is never discussed by Jane - in fact she calls herself hypocritical because she believes that she is wicked, and that everyone at Lowood will think she is too when Mr Brocklehurst tells them this - it is clear to the reader that he is a hypocrite from the descriptions of his wife and daughters. His family is described as 'splendidly dressed' and it is said that his wife 'wore a false front of French curls', this is clearly accepted by him, and therefore he has set a different standard for his pupils to his family. Jane may have respected the man, if he had not publicly humiliated her in front of all at Lowood by telling them that Jane was a servant of the devil. It is for this reason, I believe, that he never earns Jane's respect. With Mr Brocklehurst, as with Eliza Reed and St John Rivers, Jane is never persuaded to lead a religious life, as they all try to make her do.
Religion is a strong theme throughout Jane Eyre, with Jane meeting religion in different forms through different characters in the novel. Bronte used the characters to represent how religion is often used in people's lives. One of the first strong religious characters that Jane encounters is Mr Brocklehurst, a fearsome and tyrannical man who uses religion as a justification for cruelty and neglect at his school Lowood where Jane spent many years. To Mr Brocklehurst his strong religious beliefs are a tool to control others. Jane meets her cousin Eliza again when they are both adults after Jane returns to the Reeds home to visit her dying aunt Reed, Eliza's mother. Eliza however uses her religion differently to Mr Brocklehurst. Jane's cold and earnest cousin decides to devout her life to God and becomes a nun because she is scared of living a wasted life, like her brother John. One of the main characters in the novel St John Rivers also leaves a very religious life. St John Rivers only admitted passion is his religion and that is why he devotes his life to God and urges Jane to do the same, although she is never convinced to.
Mr Brocklehurst, the fearsome headmaster of Lowood School, uses his religious beliefs to control others. He lets people think that everything he says is true, and that if they are bad they will go to hell. By enforcing this fear, he gains control. Mr Brocklehurst tried to do this with Jane when he said to her on their first meeting "do you know where the wicked go after death?" to try and enforce that fear in her. However Mr Brocklehurst himself is hypocritical with his religion. He says to his pupils at Lowood that vanity is a sin, and he demonstrates this by cutting off a girl's naturally curly hair, saying the pupils at Lowood have hair '...which vanity itself might have woven'. Although this hypocrisy is never discussed by Jane - in fact she calls herself hypocritical because she believes that she is wicked, and that everyone at Lowood will think she is too when Mr Brocklehurst tells them this - it is clear to the reader that he is a hypocrite from the descriptions of his wife and daughters. His family is described as 'splendidly dressed' and it is said that his wife 'wore a false front of French curls', this is clearly accepted by him, and therefore he has set a different standard for his pupils to his family. Jane may have respected the man, if he had not publicly humiliated her in front of all at Lowood by telling them that Jane was a servant of the devil. It is for this reason, I believe, that he never earns Jane's respect. With Mr Brocklehurst, as with Eliza Reed and St John Rivers, Jane is never persuaded to lead a religious life, as they all try to make her do.
