Jane Eyre: Feminist Independence vs. Love in Brontë

Introduction: Jane Eyre's Feminist Desire

In Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, the protagonist's desire to be loved is consistently overpowered by her desire to be independent and autonomous. The difficulty, of course, is that Jane Eyre was first published in 1847—a world in which the humble governess who gives the novel its title had virtually no rights or 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: "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 whatever extent they were achievable in her time. A closer examination of the text reveals the way in which Brontë constructs her heroine's narrative to structure an emotional journey that can arguably be viewed as a feminist journey as well.

Jane's Integrity and the Hunger for Equality

Jane's integrity is continually tested throughout the novel. From the outset, we can see the ways in which external circumstances impinge upon Jane's internal sense of integrity: Jane is only ten years old, orphaned and living with her maternal uncle. Yet the imagery she uses to describe her circumstances is almost shocking: "no jail was ever more secure….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" (Brontë II). Jane's identification of her social status with that of a chattel slave or prisoner is startling, but it goes a long way toward explaining her profound hunger for equality.

One noteworthy instance that demonstrates Jane's egalitarian sensibility—perhaps somewhat paradoxically—is her refusal 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" (Brontë III). This unflinching self-awareness marks Jane as a character whose moral compass is calibrated by consistency rather than sentiment.

Love, Religion, and Moral Judgment

If this indicates that Jane Eyre is judgmental, she proves it throughout the novel. Jane strongly objects to Rochester's lustful immorality, although when the issue is actually discussed, she couches her objection not in terms of sex but of obedience: when Rochester says "It would not be wicked to love me," Jane ripostes, "It would to obey you" (Brontë XXVII). Robert B. Martin notes that the very style of conversation between Jane and Rochester signals Jane's placement of equality above love, observing that "only equals like Jane and Rochester dare to speak truth couched in language of unadorned directness" (Martin 94).

Indeed, Jane places so little emphasis on sexual indulgence that she willingly accepts religion to help curb her passions—though crucially, at the novel's end, she rejects the offer of religiosity in order to finally unite with Rochester. Novelist Joyce Carol Oates, in an essay on Jane Eyre, notes that the religious theme is sounded at the book's end only to be rejected, writing of St. John's final words as recorded by Jane that "those who have love have no need of this particular Lord Jesus" (Oates 58).

Conclusion

Yet the reader of Brontë's novel is capable of understanding Jane's journey independent of a political interpretation. The conflict between love and autonomy can be satisfactorily resolved—as it is when Jane and Rochester are finally united—but only on terms that Jane herself is willing to find acceptable. Brontë thus constructs a narrative in which romantic fulfillment and personal integrity are not mutually exclusive, provided that the conditions of the relationship honor the heroine's fundamental demand for equality. In this sense, Jane Eyre remains as resonant today as it was in 1847: a story not merely about love, but about the right to define the terms on which love is received.

Works Cited

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1260/1260-h/1260-h.htm

Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar, Susan. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Print.

Martin, Robert B. Charlotte Brontë's Novels: The Accents of Persuasion. New York: Norton, 1966. Print.

Oates, Joyce Carol. "Romance and Anti-Romance: From Brontë's Jane Eyre to Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea." Virginia Quarterly Review 61, no. 6 (Winter 1985): 44–58. Print.

Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. New York: Mariner, 1989. Print.