the construction of romance , in jane eyre
“Key
Love fueled by intellectual and spiritual affinity
the description of rochesters passion and jealousy is metophorically imagined by him as “a craggy pass of the channel” and is compared to the “calmer current” he is borne on now. this allusion to a calm current suggests his reluctance to enter into the pain and torment of feverish passion, and he further comments to jane during this conversation that “she may refresh him”
rochesters desciptions of both celine and bertha become even more suggestive when juxtaposed with his references to Jane; Jane is “elfin”, “angelic” and “otherworldly”. the cerebral, elusive qualities jane possesses achiece ascendency here- sets her up in opposition to the more passionate women he has known
rochester sees jane ina spiritual rather than a sexual life
because janes sexuality is unambiguously joined to romantic love and to the higher sphere of spiritual affinity, her feelings are differentiated from the women whoese apetites are both excessive and unrelated to love
rochesters clash between his vision of jane beautiful in silk and the jane who is his loyal confidante is subtle, but it exists as does the clash between his stated desires for intellectual affinity and the reality of his romantic past
the beauty of women in jane eyre is always seperated from intelligence and goodness specifically when the women are set up in relation to rochester - bronte sets up this dichotomy deliberately to present janes plainess in a more positive light
bronte through the way in which she contrasts the female charachters,challeneges the idea that beauty alone should generate romantic attraction
jane is contrasted with the beautiful but amoral celine verens, the crazy bertha and money hungry blache ingram- allows victorian audience who are used to sweet and beautiful, female fictional chsrachters to see jane ina more sympathetic light
spiritual connection:”it is if i had a string somehwere under my left ribs,tightly and intextricably knotted to a similar string situated in a corresponding quater of your little frame”
this explanation of romantic love may also have its roots in the polarities of experience and emotion that dominate the novel
polarity between warmth and deprivation begins early in the novel and is consistantly reflected throughout story in both janes experiences and such metophorical allusions as seasonal change
jane who has experiences so much deprivation and coldness needs love
janes desire for love: “do you think i can stay and beome nothing to you? do you think i am an automaton— a machine without feelings?And can bear to have my morsol of bread snatched from my lipd,and my drop of living water dashed from my cup?”
speech illuminates something very powerful about janes psyche and history which rochester seems unaware of. Surprising as her words may have been, her speech is a logical followup to the dichotomy of emotions that have dominated the novel
oppositions so powerful in the novel are resolved in relationship with rochester- in him she finds the warmth she has been seekng and it is her perceptiom that has also experienced intellectual growth through her relationship with him
rochester also experiences oppositions: conflict between sexual dissipation and spiritually satisfying love
he is drawn to berthas beauty “tall,dark and majestic” - her looks dazzled and stimulated him and in his inexperience he mistakes his feelings for love
Critics
“jane eyre is the first defiantly intellectual heroine in all of british literature” (meyer 168)
hunt claims that in seeking to avoid sterotypes and conventions which dominate the era, charlotte bronte turns to “counter ideals”- these are idealized carachters who modify or change tradiotional ideas of feminity
“though in one sense Jane and Rochester begins their relationship as master and servant prince and cinderella, Mr B and Pamela in another way they begin as spiritual equals”-gilbert : bronte is both suberting the more standard love story and beginning the explanation for her charachterslove story
feministds have criticized the novel and central romanitc relationship between rochester and jane, commenting that in choosing love, jane has given up on the vision and development that have been so important to her -not true romantic love is oftenseen as transgressing the finite boundaries of the self, jane speaks explicitly of her sense of widening possiblities as her relationship with rochester takes flight.
context
idea that jane may help to rescue him spiritually would not be an uncommon way for a victorion male to view romantic love
bronte never compares jane to the model of victorian womenhood, she questions the vision of feminity
in other victorian novels, the romantic hero meets his potential lover is struck by her physicsl graces and is if not smitten instantly at least moved by the womens beauty
the nakedness of janes emotion in her confession is atypical for a female in victorion society
federico in her exploration of fictional male charachters in victorion novels explains that “the victorion sense of masculinity is constructed from contradictions, most of which evolve from a social attitude toward sexuality that is manifestly confused and insecure”
she further suggests that the severity og sexual repression resulted in the polarised idea of women either as madonnas or magdalenes