Jane Eyre: The Conflict Between Love and Autonomy Research Paper

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Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre, the desire of the protagonist to be loved is overpowered by her desire to be independent and autonomous. The difficulty, of course, is that Jane Eyre is first published in 1847: this was a world in which the humble governess who gives the novel its title was without rights and opportunities. In their groundbreaking feminist study of English literature The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar note that the novel was considered shocking, but not for any of the reasons that a twenty-first century reader might expect: they note that "Victorian reviewers….were disturbed not so much by the asocial sexual vibrations between hero and heroine as by the heroine's refusal to submit to her social destiny" (338). This "refusal to submit to…social destiny" is the heart of Jane's desire for independence and autonomy, to the extent that they were even achievable in this time period. A closer examination of the text will reveal the way in which Bronte constructs her heroine's narrative in order to structure an emotional journey which could arguably be viewed as a feminist journey as well.

Jane's integrity is continually tested throughout the novel. From the novel's outset, we can see the ways in which external circumstances impinge upon Jane's internal sense of integrity: here Jane is only ten years old, orphaned and living with her maternal uncle. Yet the imagery Jane uses to describe the circumstances is almost shocking: "no jail was ever more secure….

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the mood of the revolted slave was still bracing me with its bitter vigour; I had to stem a rapid rush of retrospective thought before I quailed to the dismal present" (Bronte II). Jane's identification of her social status as one of a chattel slave or prisoner is, of course, shocking. But it does a long way toward explaining Jane's profound hunger for equality. One noteworthy instance that demonstrates Jane's egalitarian sense, perhaps somewhat paradoxically, is that Jane refuses to treat the poor any better than she herself is treated: as she notes in the third chapter, "I could not see how poor people had the means of being kind…I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste" (Bronte III).

If this indicates Jane Eyre is judgmental, she proves that she is throughout the novel. Jane strongly objects to Rochester's lustful immorality, although when the issue is actually discussed, Jane couches her objection not in terms of sex but obedience: when Rochester says "It would not be wicked to love me," Jane ripostes "It would to obey you" (Bronte XXVII). Robert B. Martin notes that the style of conversation between Jane and Rochester itself is indication of Jane's placement of equality above love, noting that "only equals like Jane and Rochester dare to speak truth couched in….....

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