Jane Eyre as a Buildungsroman or Quest?XXVIII-XXXVIII: Jane between Love of Man and Love of GodConclusion

Outline

•What does Jane want? • Part I & Part II; • Part III • Jane Eyre’s Position vs. Women of Different

Classes and Families • Jane & Rochester: server or soul-mate?• St. John and his Proposal • The Three Proposals Compared• Conclusion

Review (1): Chaps I-IV -Gateshead

Next Slide

Review: Chaps V-X Education vs. Self-Restraint in Lowood

What does Jane Want? • End of part I: Chap IV: a change seemed near,—I desired and

waited it in silence.• End of Part II: Chap X: “I desire liberty…a new servitude” (74)• For Romance? Chap XI: [Arriving at Thornfield] I desired to

be tall, stately, and finely developed in figure; I felt it a misfortune that I was so little, so pale, and had features so irregular and so marked. • For Intellectual Achievement? Chap XII: I longed for a

power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen: that then I desired more of practical experience than I possessed; more of intercourse with my kind, of acquaintance with variety of character, than was here within my reach.

(Review: Chap XI-IXX –)The Quest for Love vs. The Realistic and the Gothic

Jane’s Role as a Governess vs. Her Desire

(Chap XX-XXVII) for Love or Respect or Service

Rochester’s self-concern vs. Jane’s self-assertion

1) no conversation between Mason and Jane; 2) I summon you as my wife. (223)3) “cast a glance on my sufferings—think of me.” 4) “Is it better to drive a fellow-creature to

despair than to transgress a mere human law—no man being injured by the breach?

Discussion Questions for Chap 28-38

1. Available jobs for women: How is Jane saved from death or becoming a fallen woman?

2. How are Mary and Diane opposed to Georgiana and Eliza? What are their roles?

3. How is St. John characterized? Why is his proposal hard to turn down?

4. What do you think about the ending? Jane’s relations with Rochester? The fact that the novel ends of St. John?

5. Jane’s Quest: In what ways does this part develop such main motifs of Jane’s need of love, intellectual and financial autonomy on the one hand, and education and respect for authority on the other?

Overview: Chap XXVIII-XXXVIII• 28-35: fall and rise in fortune;

• 36-38: return to Thornfield and going to Ferndean

1. Available jobs for women: How is Jane saved from death or becoming a fallen woman?

Overview: Chap XXVIII-XXXVIII• 28-35: fall and rise in fortune;

Chap XXVIII

Jane gets off the coach at Whitcross, wandering into the heath. Lives outdoor for two days, asks for opportunities of employment (dressmaker, plain-work, servant; 287) without success, starts to trade for food, and then ask for food (290)Arrives at Marsh End. Rejected by Hannah, Rescued finally by St. John.

Chap XXIX

St. John, Diane and Mary described Made peace with Hannah (301; poverty not a crime)The Rivers 302Jane’s account of her past

Chap XXX

Mary, Diane and Jane close to one another Jane follows them to read more St. John – stern, direct in his gaze, incommunicative, sermon (suggestive of his bitterness and disappointment) 309-10News of the death of their uncle John Rivers (315)

Chap XXXI

Jane’s work at a cottage “degraded” “free and honest” (316) Rosamond Oliver 319

Chap XXXII

Jane’s teaching goes well, but she’s troubled by nightmares a/ RRosamond Oliver 323-24Jane’s reading poems 326Jane discusses RO with St. John (328-31)

Jane’s 2nd Education

Mary and Diana: books (XXX 308) St. John:

Chap XXXIII

St. John’s revelation of Jane’s inheriting a 20,000 pounds Jane’s elated about having 3 relatives, decided to divide it up among the four.

Chap XXXIV

Reunion with Diane, Mary and St. John (St. John, hard and cold) Christmas week (347); Diana and Mary—witting, pithy and original discourse (Rosamond married to sb else)St. John starts to “train” and observe Jane, asking her to learn Hindostance 349; 350Wants Jane to have a purpose in life (351); Jane disappointed at not getting any letter from Thornfield. St. John’s proposal (353)

Chap XXXV

St. John stays on to persuade Jane Jane confides to Diana Jane is almost brought to agree (369), but she hears the call of Rochester

Chap XXXVI

Back to Thornfield only to find it in ruins; get the story told by a host of an inn

XXXVII Rochester changed (379)

XXXVIII Conclusion –marriages and about St. John

2. How are Mary and Diane opposed to Georgiana and Eliza? What are their roles?

Classes & Families in the novel

The Reeds The Rivers(Mrs. Reed)(John)

St. John

Georgiana Diana –

Eliza Mary -- as governesses

XXIX – 302, etc.Jane (next slide)

Ingram Rosamond Oliver (XXXII: 323-34) (like Adele)

Brockle-hurst

Diane and Mary

XXIX – 302, etc.Diana had a voice toned, to my ear, like the cooing of a dove. She possessed eyes whose gaze I delighted to encounter. Her whole face seemed to me fill of charm. Mary’s countenance was equally intelligent—her features equally pretty; but her expression was more reserved, and her manners, though gentle, more distant. Diana looked and spoke with a certain authority: she had a will, evidently. It was my nature to feel pleasure in yielding to an authority supported like hers, and to bend, where my conscience and self-respect permitted, to an active will.

Diane and Mary as Cousins

• Turn out to be her cousins, whom Jane shares her inheritance with. • Finally Jane has a family and is happy with

housework.

3. How is St. John characterized? Why is his proposal hard to turn down?

St. John’s Ambition vs. Domestic Bliss

Jane: St John--“placid” vs. “restless” (XXIX 303)-- his sermon – powerful, but bitter (XXX 310)-- dislikes domestic bliss-- cold, hard man •-- Jane: “'This parlour is not his sphere… 'the Himalayan ridge or Caffre bush, even the plague-cursed Guinea Coast swamp, would suit him better. Well may he eschew the calm of domestic life; it is not his element.'” (XXXIV)

St. John’s Education & Persuasion

St. John: “God and nature intended you for a missionary's wife.”

“you are docile, diligent, disinterested, faithful, constant, and courageous; very gentle, and very heroic”

• St. John – “it is not me you deny, but God.”• Jane: "I daily wished more to please him: but to

do so, I felt daily more and more that I must disown half my nature . . . force myself to the adoption of pursuits for which I had no natural vocation“ (XXXIV)

Jane’s Struggle

• I was almost as hard beset by him now as I had been once before, in a different way, by another. I was a fool both times. To have yielded then would have been an error of principle; to have yielded now would have been an error of judgment. So I think at this hour, when I look back to the crisis through the quiet medium of time: I• was unconscious of folly at the instant,

(chapter XXXV: 368)

Jane: cannot repress her emotional needs; resist “feminine” role

• Jane-- 'Oh! I will give my heart to God,' I said. 'You do not want it.‘ • “Formerly…because you did not love me; …

because you almost hate me. If I were to marry you, you would kill me. You are killing me now.’• His lips and cheeks turned white—quite white.• ‘I SHOULD KILL YOU—I AM KILLING YOU? Your

words are such as ought not to be used: violent, unfeminine,

5. Jane’s Quest: In what ways does this part develop such main motifs as Jane’s need of love, intellectual and financial autonomy, on the one hand, and education and respect for authority on the other?

3 kinds of authorities: Intellectual, Gender, Religious

4. What do you think about the ending? Jane’s relations with Rochester? The fact that the novel ends of St. John?

Jane’s Development: seen through her Responses to the 3 Marriage Proposals

1. R: I summon you as my wife.2. SJ: A missionary's wife you must—shall be. • I want a wife: the sole helpmeet I

can influence efficiently in life and retain absolutely till death.'

3. Jane: I knew I meant more than friends, but could not tell what other word to employ. He helped me. R: 'Ah! Jane. But I want a wife.'

1. Disbelief Jane: “I will marry you.”2. Willing to go to India, but “free” (not as his wife)3. R: Unwelcome news? -- Jane: 'That depends on circumstances, sir—on your choice.‘Reader, I marry him.

Conclusion: Education and Marriage for Women•Ms. Temple—married to a good clergyman• Georgiana – married to a wealthy “worn-

out” man of fashion • Rosamond– married to a rich man she only

knows for two months• Diane—married to a navy captain; Mary –

a clergyman • Adele -- docile, good-tempered, and well-

principled. (shed off her “French” defects)

Conclusion: Major Issues in Jane Eyre’s Quest• Jane Eyre’s Quest: what does she desire? • How does she quest for what she desires? Is she in any way compromised? • Consider …

i)Class Differences & Her Social Climbing [w/ Class Differences – challenged, but not completely denied)

ii)Social problems of women, orphans and esp. governessesiii)The Ambiguous Roles of Religion and Charityiv)Her struggle between Passion and Legal, Christian/Humanistic Concerns

Is the novel feminist*?

Conclusion: Jane Eyre & Reader• Jane Eyre – the mature Jane and the young

rebellious Jane• The narrator1. asks the Reader to visualize “Let the reader add,

to complete the picture, refined features” (V 40; XI beginning)

2.explains her narrative methods: “oh, romantic reader, forgive me for telling the plain truth” (XII)

3.Asks for sympathy: True, reader; and I knew and felt this—[never tired of Helen] (IX 80); not tranquil in my mind(XI); Reader!—I forgave him at the moment, and on the spot. (XXII) ;

4.Brings Reader’s attention to important turning points (e.g. encounter with Bertha)

Conclusion: Outsiders in Jane EyreBertha: easily dispenses with at the end

India: “If I join St. John, I abandon half myself: if I go to India, I go to premature death” (XXXIV 356).•St. John “he labours for his race: he clears their painful way to improvement: he hews down like a giant the prejudices of creed and caste that encumber it.”

We saw him approach her; and then, ma'am, she yelled, and gave a spring, and the next minute she lay smashed on the pavement.''Dead?''Dead? Ay, dead as the stones on which her brains and blood were scattered.‘ (XXXVI)