Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

This study will analyze Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, focusing on the nature, degree and significance of Rochester's dependence on Jane. The study will argue that this dependence evolves gradually, becomes intensely powerful and obsessive, and finally serves as an important factor in the moral and/or spiritual evolution of both Jane and Rochester. In addition, there is a strongly feminist edge to the morality of the book, and this feminism is in large part expressed in the complete transformation of the relationship between Rochester and Jane Eyre.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Rochester does indeed become almost entirely dependent on Jane by the end of the book. He has been blinded in the effort to save his wife in the fire, and Jane's return to him gives both of them the opportunity to completely reverse the roles they fell into at the beginning of their relationship.

With respect to the end of the book and Rochester's undeniable dependence, Bronte writes:

Mr. Rochester continued blind the first two years of our union: perhaps it was that circumstance that drew us so very near---that knit us so very close: for I was then his vision, as I am still his right hand. Literally, I was (what he often called me) the apple of his eye. He saw nature---he saw books through me, and never did I weary of gazing for his behalf (Bronte 442).

Although Rochester's sight comes back somewhat, it is clear that Bronte means to have him remain largely dependent on Jane, and not mere

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inful in comparison. As Robert Martin writes in comparing the two characters and their moral natures and development, For all Jane's temptations, she is enabled to resist the worst of them through the conscience developed during her early experiences, and because she relies upon what she knows of divine law. Rochester's development, however, is from sin to repentance, passing from flagrant transgressions of the moral law, through the stage of a morality of expediency when he attempts to bend divine law to sanctify his own wishes, to the humility of repentance (Martin 94). Of course, it finally takes more than his growing dependence on Jane to push him over the edge into redemption. The action which finally gives him release from his guilty conscience is the fire which destroys Thornfield, kills his mad wife, and leaves him blind and completely dependent on Jane. As Rochester is enduring his great suffering (which saves him), Jane finally recognizes that she cannot deny her love for Rochester. As we read in Blom: Jane returns to Thornfield to find a blackened ruin and to hear that Rochester has been blinded and maimed in his fruitless attempt to save his wife who had escaped from her cell and had set fire to the house. Ro

Category: Literature - C