Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre - Essay Example

A Close Reading of Jane Eyre: Lowood Charlotte Bronte’s popular book Jane Eyre presents its readers with a rather critical view of Victorian life. As her main character, Jane, progresses from childhood through to adulthood, she demonstrates the difference between the Victorian society life and the inner being. Victorian society held rigid social constraints that clearly delineated between the genders and the classes. Within this social view, Jane, as a glorified servant and a woman, was expected to control all her impulses, emotions and passions, willingly relegating herself to her subservient position so as to avoid any embarrassing social confrontations. Yet, Jane is also portrayed as a woman who has strong inner feelings that refuse to be ignored and constantly cause her difficulty. As Jane grows through the book, this conflict between society’s rules and her inner feelings becomes more and more obvious, finally reaching a resolution at the end in which she has found both an accepting home and a social status that permits her some freedom while still retaining her own inner fire thanks to her ability to retain a degree of independence even from her husband. As can be interpreted from this brief summary of the book, one of the key themes revolves around the struggle between the social constraints of Victorian society and the personal need for self-expression and fulfillment in the individual. This concept is addressed repeatedly throughout the novel as Bronte continues to paint ‘pictured thoughts’ to illustrate the various elements that contribute to or that relieve the struggle. A close examination of a brief passage found at the beginning of Volume 1, Chapter 7 illustrates how these ‘pictured thoughts’ and vignettes serve to support the theme of internal and external struggle. The specific language Bronte chooses to place in Jane’s mouth regarding her first year at Lowood frames a bleak image of denial. She describes it as “an irksome struggle” (63) that exists not just on the physical plane, but, to an even greater degree on a spiritual plane: “The fear of failure in these points harassed me worse than the physical hardships of my lot” (63). The physical hardships are also given strong adjectival support as the girls remained trapped by “deep snows”, “impassable roads” and forced to work “within these limits” of a small, sparse and bitterly cold garden (63). The clothing they are provided is “insufficient” and nonexistent while such neglect caused “irritation”, torture” and “swelled, raw and stiff toes” (63). Their food is similarly “scanty”, “distressing” and “scarcely sufficient to keep alive a delicate invalid” (63). The “famished great girls” become a “menace” to the little ones as Jane suffers “secret tears” caused by the “exigency” or immediacy of hunger (63). All of this occurs within the first two paragraphs of the passage, constantly beating against the spiritual defenses through emotional adjectives and artfully illustrating a still frame image of the girls in their sorry state. However, even as this miserable scene is unfolding, Jane’s spirit emerges strong and resilient and angry about the lack of proper care. As she lists the lack of clothing, “Our clothing was insufficient to protect us from the severe cold; we had no boots, the snow got into our shoes, and melted there; our ungloved hands became numbed and covered with chilblains, as were our feet” (63), one can almost see the anger rising, continuing to erupt in short bursts throughout the rest of this early description. Despite her lack of everything, she still “shared between two claimants the precious morsel of brown bread distributed at tea-time, and after relinquishing to a third half the contents of my mug of coffee, I have swallowed the remainder with an accompaniment of secret tears” (63). She refuses to allow the other girls to suffer if she can help it even as she swallows her own passionate reactions. Having established a general idea of the daily lifestyle of these girls, Bronte, as Jane, focuses in a little more upon the differences between the social value of women and the inner knowledge by describing Sunday activities. The one day of the week that is supposed to be full of enlightenment and spiritual contemplation is described in terms of absolute drudgery that removes any possibility of transcendent understanding. The institutional and automatic nature of these Sunday activities is conveyed in statements such as “our patron officiated”, “we became almost paralysed”, they were fed “an allowance of cold meat and bread” that were distributed in “penurious proportion”, indicating not only a stingy or miserly portion, but one that suggests images of penal groups or purgatory (64). The girls return home through “the bitter winter wind” that “almost flayed the skin from our faces” (64). Because of the reader’s understanding of Jane’s hopes and dreams upon setting out for the school, actually gaining an opportunity to learn and expand her thoughts, this bitterness is not simply an element of the physical outdoors, but is also a condition of Jane’s soul. “Nature, as embodied in the wind, figures this hunger for greater experience and fulfillment” (Taylor, 2002). Placing the exclamation point upon this uninspiring, unhealthy environment, Jane finishes the passage with a description of the almost rote recitation of the same Church Catechism and the tendency of the girls, particularly the younger ones, to become “overpowered” with sleep and then “propped up with the monitor’s high stools” (64-65), suggesting that they have become little more than rag-dolls who have become so spiritually worn down they can no longer remember their inner selves. Again, though, Jane continues to fight against the mind-numbing, physically draining environment and instead seeks to find new means of containing her passions within a socially acceptable mold. “In Jane Eyre, the verbal vignette serves as a narrative strategy for incorporating Jane’s potentially explosive passions, passions noted by many scholars as symptoms of Victorian restrictions on women’s ambitions and desires” (Taylor, 2002). Jane finds inspiration despite the best attempts of her surroundings rather than as a result of them in her teacher Miss Temple. “I can remember Miss Temple walking lightly and rapidly along our drooping line … and encouraging us, by precept and example, to keep up our spirits, and march forward, as she said, ‘like stalwart soldiers’” (64). And, like a soldier, Jane begins to seek reasons to celebrate life in her language through the remainder of the passage. She finds “solace” at tea-time “in the shape of a double ration of bread – a whole, instead of a half, slice – with the delicious addition of a thin scrape of butter” (64). However, within this quote, there is an element of double-speak in which Jane is able to convey two completely different ideas at once. While she recognizes the extra serving of bread as a treat and she attempts to ‘march on’ finding a reason to continue fighting, Jane’s passionate emotions of injustice remain just below the surface. Comments such as “a whole, instead of a half, slice” smack of sarcastic overtones, yet Jane continues to attempt talking herself into a more ‘stalwart’ disposition by describing this extra food as a “treat” and a “bounteous repast”, admitting all the girls looked forward to this time of the week. She also indicates the younger girls are “thrust forward” as a means of controlling them and forcing them to participate in the Sunday night catechism, and “propped up” when they became too tired, but such terms can also be seen to be bringing the younger girls further forward socially, perhaps in terms of individual recognition, education or empowerment in ways that were not available to the older girls. Through this type of language, Jane is able to express both pent-up frustrated, sarcastic social commentary, but also to express hope for the future and an indomitable spirit that refuses to allow such conventions to defeat her. Her vignette of her first winter days at Lowood paint a picture of want and need among the younger girls, a frustrated effort to learn and an indomitable will to learn and improve despite the conditions in which they are placed. This feeds in with the overall tone of the book in which Jane starts as an unwanted orphan and family nuisance and rises through her efforts and opportunities to finally attain exactly what she sought – status and autonomy within a loving and interdependent home. References Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1996. Taylor, Susan B. “Image and Text in Jane Eyre’s Avian Vignettes and Bewick’s History of British Birds.” Victorian Newsletter. Ward Hellstrom, 2002. Read More