These were the ways in which ‘Jane Eyre’ followed the typical romance patterns for general romances. But there is much more to this novel. At the time ‘Jane Eyre’ was written it was part of a changing movement in Romance. People were demanding more depth than there typical romances previously had. The Hero’s were changing. Instead of being this good looking knight in shining armor they no longer had to have good looks.
“‘You examine me Miss Eyre,’ said he: ‘do you think me handsome’”
“No, sir.”
This was moving away from the old fashioned romances and adding more thought to it. For the time ‘Jane Eyre’ was written a lot of readers would have been quite surprised at the heroine calling the Hero ugly.
The Hero’s personality was also changing into a solitary dreamer that was commonly plagued by guilt and remorse.
“I am a trite, commonplace sinner,”
Mr. Rochester certainly has a past this is clear as soon as we meet him but the reader is kept waiting to find out what it is, he is not always polite to Jane. He always has a sense of mystery around him. This is a more complex Hero that would be quite new to readers for the time when “Jane Eyre” was written.
The Heroine was also changing in romances, she now was not just there to be kind and look pretty she was now representing individualism, self expression and freedom.
“Seek one elsewhere than in me, St John seek one fitted to you”
The Heroine was standing up for who she was and refusing to be anything other then herself. Jane is a perfect example of this refusing to marry St John even though it is in her interests, because she feels they do not share true love.
‘Jane Eyre’ is more than a romance in the way it challenges many other issues such as religion and as a novel it is very thought provoking to the reader. It covers religion many times. At the start of the Novel Jane at a very young age has to face death when Helen dies.
“Again I questioned; but this time only in thought. ‘Where is that religion? Does it exist?’”
Jane is unsure which contrasts Helens view.
“I believe; I have faith: I am going to God.”
This leaves room for the reader to think about it and make up their own mind. This again is different from the typical romance by questioning death and God.
Religion is brought up again when Jane refuses to put her happiness first and become Mr. Rochester’s mistress.
“I wanted to be weak that I might avoid the awful passage of further
suffering I saw laid out for me; and conscience turned tyrant, held passion by the throat,”
She is surer of God now and refuses to sin. For a modern reader their opinion might be that she should go ahead and be with Mr. Rochester as it is considered acceptable to have a relationship if a marriage is separated in a modern day society because church is not such a big part of our society now, whereas in Charlotte Brontë’s time people were very scared of going to hell. A reader from the time when ‘Jane Eyre’ was written would probably have admired Jane in being faithful to her religion as it would have been very unacceptable to their society for Jane to have a relationship with him regardless. The character of Mr. Rochester would have seemed shocking when he tries to convince Jane to be his mistress, for the time it was written the readers would have considered Mr. Rochester’s views very wrong.
‘Jane Eyre’ challenges the society of the times, for example; the treatment of school children when she is sent to Lowood.
“with the keen appetites of growing children, we had scarcely sufficient to keep alive a delicate invalid.”
Images like this that ‘Jane Eyre’ puts forward would have given out the strong message to society at the time it was written that bad treatment of children is wrong and cruel. It is more shocking to a modern society because Children have to be cared for now by our laws.
At the time ‘Jane Eyre’ was written children that had no money or who were without a proper family were cared little about and considered as less than other people. ‘Jane Eyre’ tries to make the point that this view is incorrect.
“Georgiana, a more vain and absurd animal than you was certainly never allowed to cumber the earth.”
This shows up how much of a kinder and better person Jane is but as a child Jane was continually being told that she wasn’t as good as Georgiana and the other Reed children.
“Poor Miss Jane is to be pitied too”, “at any rate, a beauty like Miss Georgiana would be much more moving in the same situation”
They are shown up that their opinions are shallow and it encourages the reader to look past appearances and class.
The whole way through the novel Charlotte Brontë is putting across the message that it is more important what is on the inside of people than on the outside. She shows it up especially well when contrasting Jane and Blanche. Jane is very clear in her own mind what she thinks of Blanche.
“She was very showy, but she was not genuine; she had a fine person many brilliant attainments, but her mind was poor,”
This is different from typical romances because normally the Heroine is very pretty and the people who are nasty also represent this in their appearances by being unattractive.
Blanche Ingram does not agree with this and believes looks to be important.
“I grant an ugly woman is a blot on the fair face of creation;”
Not only is this showing up the contrast between her and Jane but this also makes the reader form disagreeable opinions of Blanche Ingram and therefore are quick to agree with Jane in disliking her.
The lack of importance of appearance also is shown between Mr. Rochester and St John.
“He is good and great, but severe; and, for me, cold as an ice burg. He is not like you sir.”
Even when St John is good looking and accomplished when Mr. Rochester is crippled and ugly Jane still reasons that Mr. Rochester is the better choice because only he loves her therefore only he will make her happy. This is different from your typical romance because even though the reader agrees with Jane that she has made the right choice and at the end she explains she is happy, the ending has a tragic quality to it, in that they missed out on the chance of a much better life because of their circumstances.
‘Jane Eyre’ as well as being a romance and covering many moral questions has a more subtle mystery theme to it. It often refers to Jane’s superstitious and foretelling dreams. For example she believes dreaming of a child is a bad sign and when she has dreams of a child something bad always follows. This adds mystery to the novel as the reader knows something bad is going to happen and it kept in suspense to find out what is going to happen.
Mrs. Rochester in the attic is a big part of the mystery the reader is given little clues that there is something strange.
“This was a demonic laugh – low, suppressed, and deep – uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my chamber door.”
After this she saves Mr. Rochester from a fire. The fire around Mr. Rochester’s bed could be interpreted either as a symbol for their passion or as a bad omen for even worse things to come.
Charlotte Brontë uses a lot of symbolism and extended metaphors in ‘Jane Eyre’. For example when Jane and Mr. Rochester get engaged the oak tree gets struck by lightening and splits in half. This could represent their future when they are spilt up. Mr. Rochester refers to this tree again at the end of the novel to compare to himself.
“I am no better than the old lightening-struck chestnut tree in Thornfield orchard,”
This could represent the tree being spilt apart as him being crippled. Where as he sees both himself and the tree as useless Jane sees Mr. Rochester not as a ruin but as a stable structure that things can lean on and shelter in the shadow. This metaphor helps the reader to understand Jane’s point of view in not seeing his deformities as a problem and looking past to all the things that he still has in his mind.
Jane is often described as a bird. At the beginning Jane is feeding a robin out of her window. This shows Jane’s nature as kind and generous. It also could be seen that the bird represents Jane, accepting any food as Jane accepts gratefully any love and kindness she is shown. The bird is hungry like Jane longs to be loved. It is used later on by Mr. Rochester when he is proposing to Jane.
“Jane, be still; don’t struggle so, like a wild frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its desperation.”
This could also be seen as dramatic irony because later on Jane gets frantic and gets so desperate she runs away and nearly ends up dieing and Mr. Rochester has accurately described in a metaphor what Jane does later on.
Jane Eyre is a wonderfully different romance novel that had a big part in the change of style of romance. It has all the qualities anyone would look for in a regular romance as well as clever symbolism, a sense of mystery and horror that would have been considered gothic when it was published, it questions religion, class, society and appearance. This novel causes the reader to think about things that are in a way still relevant even in modern society. There is a lot more to Jane Eyre than just romance.
