Middle Of The Night Jane Eyre Essay - 2,472 words

... toner person. The punishment Jane receives by Mr. Brocklehurst is a major visual presentation of herself.


She had a superior position on the stool and all the "ladies" underneath her looked ridiculous. Berg commented that Jane's bird eye view alters her perspective psychologically and she surprises herself by being so self-controlled. " I mastered the rising hysteria, lifted up my head, and took a firm stand on the stool" (99). Jane is metaphorically "propped up" by the sympathetic glances of her fellow pupils. Here Jane learns another valuable lesson from Helen. "If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, whole your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends" (101), says Helen. From this she learns that being dubbed a liar doesn't make her one. Berg exclaims that whatever label is pinned on her, her soul remains her own.


To me it's no wonder Helen Burns dies in the story. She seems to me to resemble the martyr in Jane's life. Helen is Jane's Jesus. The consequence of being called a liar was being called innocent. Miss Temple believed her as did her fellow pupils.


This was a turning point in her life because it gave her self worth having the approval of the majority of the school. Yet Jane was not satisfied with her view. She had expanded her self-awareness to such a great degree that the school was hindering her from expanding. The first encounter of self-awareness Jane experienced at Thornfield is when the gypsy tells her she has "resigned to a feeling less universe because she won't admit to her aspirations." The oracle seems to tell Jane more than she is prepared to acknowledge. She does although declare herself capable of realizing her fantasies and creating her own reality.


Jane receives a summons from her dying aunt. Surprisingly, she returns. Berg believes this is because Jane senses that she must go back into her past to go forward into her future. Jane is willing to abide to the "sympathetic communication" that the oracle speaks about. I realized how much Jane grew in her self-identification by thinking about and contrasting what Jane would " ve done had she not transgressed in the manner that she did.


She would have no sympathy and would not give her aunt the time of day had she not learned the life lessons about herself that she did. She learned the art of kindness and sympathy from for example Helen. When Rochester tells Jane that he is to marry Blanch, Jane feels as if her whole world had crumbled. All her self-confidence she had gained and the new foundation she built for herself was torn down. But her self-awareness lessons through all her doubts away and gave her an even stronger self-confidence: "the vehemence of emotion, stirred by grief and love within me, was claiming mastery, and struggling for full sway and asserting a right to predominate, to overcome, to live, rise, and reign at last: yes-and to speak" (280 - 81).


What Jane says is an absolute denial of her previous portrait of herself as "disconnected, poor, plain. " She now recognizes that although she doesn't have Blanche's external features, she has something of much greater value "beneath the surface. " Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? -a machine without feelings? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! -I have as much soul as you-and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal-as we are! (281) Jane soon sees herself in great peril.


Her husband was becoming her whole world, everything she new. My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world; almost my hope of heaven. He stood between mea and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for His creature: of whom I had made an idol. (302) Jane is even afraid to look herself in the mirror. She no longer knows herself.


Again she must become a stronger person and reflect on all that she learned about herself. She must leave Rochester. She needed this break in order to move farther in her addictive quest for her self. Once she was able to achieve integrity, and a sense of individual status, she realized that she was only truly a full person with Rochester. Charlotte Bronte was a woman of strong beliefs; this cannot be stressed enough for it is too prominent in her novels to ignore. Often she would incorporate the modern view of society towards something and in her own way satirize it through her novels.


An example is the oppressed status of women that Charlotte was a victim of in her own time. She declared that "a good woman can't live without self-respect. " 'Who in the world cares for you? Or who will be injured by what you do?' pleads Rochester. 'I care for myself' answers Jane. 'The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself... ' (Ch. 27) It is clear that Charlotte herself must have gone through Jane's life lessons because the lessons and the form in which they appeared in Jane's life seem too realistic and justifiable. The depiction of the model of a woman who undergoes self-awareness and identity is Jane Eyre, a woman who goes from believing herself plain and common to a strong-willed female who has her new found integrity, no boundaries, but most significantly, no limitations. The role nature played in Jane Eyre's life parallels itself in many people's lives. I cannot count the many instances that I was having a terrible day and the weather outside was absolutely dreary.


Often, days began as sunny but turned cloudy and my mood coincided along with it. Nature constantly spoke to Jane; it reaffirmed thoughts and feelings for Jane and it also gave an insight to the reader about characters. As a little girl, Jane was treated harshly. Mrs. Reed cared little for Jane and this feeling was often reflected in her actions.


Instead of punishing her own troublesome children, Mrs. Reed cast all punishment on Jane. One day Jane was placed in the red-room, so she curled up with a book. While slowly browsing through Bewick's History of British Birds Jane took a special notice of "the solitary rocks and promontories. " (Bronte 2) The reader comprehended Miss Eyre's feelings of desolation and loneliness. After spending a sleepless night in the room, Jane looked out upon daylight to find "rain still beating continuously on the staircase window. " Her "habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, and forlorn depression" were deepened by such gloomy weather. (Bronte 9 - ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

Continue READING the FULL Essay by clicking HERE

Essay Tags: lowood institution, thornfield hall, jane eyre, life lessons, middle of the night

This is an Essay sample / Research paper, you can use it for your research of: Middle Of The Night Jane Eyre