Assessment of Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is a sophisticated and renowned Gothic romance novel. Its plot has many unconventional twists and turns and, although the novel has been widely accepted and appreciated in the world of classic literature, it has also had its share of controversy. From the beginning of the novel, it becomes clear that it does not perhaps preach the same religious values as other books written during its time (the 1800s), and some have taken the view that this aspect of the book is wrong and will poison the mind of every young, susceptible person who reads it.
Some of this has to do with the fact that the novel centers around the growing love affair between a sardonic, brooding gentleman named Mr. Rochester and his governess and the main character of the book, Jane Eyre. The possible objections people might make to the novel are the differences in rank, connections and wealth between Mr. Rochester and Jane, not to mention the difference in age (Mr. Rochester is 20 years Jane’s senior). Even more objectionable; however, is the fact that Mr.
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Rochester proposes to Jane even though he is already married to a madwoman (his wife had a heritable condition that made her savage and insane), and is keeping her safeguarded in a room upstairs in the very house in which he met Jane. These objections are expressed succinctly in a criticism against the book found on a pro-book-banning website: “Readers of Jane Eyre often see Edward Rochester as a dashing, romantic hero–and therein lies the problem. Rochester is already married when he woos Jane, and he has locked his mentally ill wife into an attic.
What kind of a person would do this, and do we really want impressionable teenage girls idolizing such a person as a romantic hero? ” (CC2K 1). The website also states that it finds Jane Eyre to promote adultery and the abuse of the mentally ill. It’s all well and good for someone on a website to say that certain circumstances of the novel were socially or ethically immoral (especially when the circumstances were taken out of context and generalized), but one of the main reasons that the book was banned in some parts of England in the mid to late 1800’s (Jane Eyre was first published in 1847) was the fact that it was written by a woman.
Charlotte Bronte first used the pen name of Currer Bell to avoid the prejudice against female writers, but it was eventually found out that she was a woman and certain readers found it disturbing “that a woman had written such a passionate novel and seemed so knowing sexually” (Brooklyn. cuny. edu 1). Some of the harsher reviews of the book state the reasons it was thought unfit to be read: “Jane Eyre is, indeed, one of the coarsest books which we ever perused.
It is not that the professed sentiments of the writer are absolutely wrong or forbidding, or that the odd sort of religious notions which she puts forth are much worse than is usual in popular tales. It is rather that there is a tendency to relapse into that class of ideas, expressions, and circumstances, which is most connected with the grosser and more animal portion of our nature; and that the detestable morality of the most prominent character in the story is accompanied with every sort of palliation short of unblushing justification (1848)” (Brooklyn. cuny. edu 2).
Fortunately for the world; however, the voices of these critics were drowned out by the majority of the supportive and positive criticism of the novel. Personally, I found the novel to be a refreshing upheaval of many popular conventions that existed in the 19th century and that still exist in some places today. It is a story about two people who ignored the rigid vice that society had placed upon them and did what they truly felt to be right. The novel doesn’t ignore or refute morals, rather, it shows the reader the things that are truly important in life; some of the things we tend to forget.
For example, neither Jane Eyre nor Mr. Rochester is considered physically attractive by their peers. Jane is considered plain and almost child-like (she is 18 when she becomes Mr. Rochester’s governess and has a small, slight frame) and Mr. Rochester is a dark, brooding, erratic 38-year-old man, so unlike his daintier male counterparts of the time. This is such an understated phenomenon that the two main characters in a romance were considered ugly. It means, for once, that beauty doesn’t mean everything; in fact, it means absolutely nothing at all. Jane and Mr.
Rochester end up loving each other more strongly and completely than almost any other romance ever heard of. As for preaching immoral practices and ways of life, Jane Eyre exhibits the merits of strong will and self respect that people, and women in particular, may never have known was an option for them. Women were allowed few rights in the 1800s and when Jane refuses to marry Mr. Rochester because she has discovered that he is already married to a woman who has gone insane (and therefore divorce is not an option) and she makes both herself and the man she loves absolutely miserable in the process, what bad message is a reader to find?
Jane refused to give up her self respect, she refused to do what she thought was morally wrong, even though it was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do in her life. Some reviews of the novel clearly express the feminism it exhibits: “the story is very much about the nature of human freedom and equality, and if Jane was seen as something of a renegade in nineteenth-century England, it is because her story is that of a woman who struggles for self-definition and determination in a society that too often denies her that right” (EBooks 1). When Jane and Mr.
Rochester do end up together at the end of the novel, it is only after his wife has accidentally died in a house fire (she jumped off of the roof and committed suicide) and Mr. Rochester had lost both an eye and a hand in the process. This signifies to the reader that Mr. Rochester couldn’t get away scot-free after trying to trick Jane into a false second marriage. He had to pay for some of his “sins” before he could be happy again, showing that those who act wrongly (even if they have good motives) do not profit from it. In the end, one of the most novel aspects of the book is the fact that Jane Eyre and Mr.
Rochester are not brought together by worldly or material concerns. They are brought together by a true love and a desire to make themselves and each other happy. One of the reasons the novel was banned is also one of its greatest strengths; Charlotte Bronte’s use of love and passion in the novel allows the reader to connect to the characters and it causes the story to have meaning. This is expressed by one review of the novel in which it was highly praised: “This is not merely a work of great promise; it is one of absolute performance.
It is one of the most powerful domestic romances which have been published for many years. It has little or nothing of the old conventional stamp upon it … but it is full of youthful vigor, of freshness and originality, of nervous diction and concentrated interest. The incidents are sometimes melo-dramatic, and, it might be added, improbable; but these incidents, though striking, are subordinate to the main purpose of the piece, which is a tale of passion, not of intensity which is most sublime. It is a book to make the pulses gallop and the heart beat, and to fill the eyes with tears (1847)” Brooklyn. cuny. edu 1). Jane Eyre is necessarily eccentric in its values and after reading it, one is convinced that if all of its values were adopted by the rest of the world, we would all live in a much better place. Given the above evidence, one could say that it is almost a sin in itself to ban the novel to young readers. Jane Eyre uses descriptive and sophisticated language, so it is probably ideal for a young adult or adolescent’s eyes, but a reader of any age may benefit from it by being exposed to new thoughts, principles and ways of life.
Charlotte Bronte managed to support rights for women, marriage for love, self-respect and the false value of beauty all in one novel. Jane Eyre is eccentric and one of a kind and should not be restricted from the world, but shared with it. Works Cited “Charlotte Bronte ‘Jane Eyre. ’” Brooklyn. cuny. edu. n. p. , 29 March, 2005. Web. 2 Feb, 2013. “Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. ” Ebooks. n. p. , 18 Dec, 2010. Web. 2 Feb, 2013. Woodward, Beth. “Let’s Ban All the Books: An Argument for Book Banning. ” CC2K. n. p. , 3 Oct, 2010. Web. 3 Feb, 2013.