Eyes: Perspective

In 1803, William Blake wrote, “The eye altering alters all.” Everything depends on perspective. If perspective changes, everything changes. Throughout Jane Eyre thus far, Jane seems to be a trustworthy storyteller as she narrates her life. While this may be the case, Charlotte Brontë constantly reminds the reader that we are hearing the story from Jane’s perspective. Brontë does this by having Jane continually describe eyes.

        

Eyes convey different perspectives. When John Reed throws a book at Jane, Mrs. Reed falsely accuses Jane of being violent. Jane acknowledges her perspective as she says, “I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely looked on me as a…mean spirit and dangerous duplicity” (75). For Jane, eyes also often act as windows into the soul. Jane explains, “the soul, fortunately, has an interpreter –often an unconscious, but still a truthful interpreter –the eye” (409). Jane warns Mr. Rochester that “what you express with that organ” is easily interpreted “as language” (207). At Gateshead, Mrs. Reed is frequently cruel towards Jane. As Mrs. Reed yells, Jane describes her “eyes of ice” (95). The description of Mrs. Reed’s eyes depicts her as being a cold person. Similarly, as Mr. Brocklehurst inspects Jane, his eyes are described as being “dark, irate, and piercing” (190).

Brontë emphasizes the importance of perspective by comparing eyes to the human soul. At Gateshead, Jane is punished and put in the “red-room.” After she initially calms herself and stops crying, Jane notices her reflection in a mirror: “the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit” (71). Jane not only uses eyes as a window into a person’s soul but she views them as actually representing a person’s soul.

Imagination is a constantly reoccurring theme in the book. Imagination is illustrated as a distinct perspective. Jane walks “along the corridor of the third story, backwards and forwards, safe in silence and solitude” and she “allow[s] [her] mind’s eye to dwell on whatever bright visions rose before it” (178). Imagination is the mind’s eyes. Our mind has its own perspective. This is seen as Jane struggles to decide whether or not to leave Mr. Rochester. Jane has feelings for him and does not want to “send him into recklessness following on despair,” yet her mind tells her she “must keep the law given by God” (408). In the end, this perspective overpowers Jane’s emotions and determines her actions.  

As we continue to read Jane Eyre, we may put our trust in the hands of Jane to tell her story, but we must also be able to recognize the importance of different perspectives. As Jane explains, “beauty is in the eye of the gazer” (252). As a reader, we must absorb multiple perspectives in order to get the most out of the story.