On the Formation of a Heroine

The narrative strand of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre hinges upon the reader’s ability to follow Jane as she grows up within Victorian society. From her formative years as a ward of the cruel Mrs. Reed, to her transformation in the Lowood charity school, Brontë’s narrator leads us to the ultimate test: Jane’s trials in Rochester’s Thornfield Hall. Jane Eyre is considered a bildungsroman – a word of German origin that is, essentially, a coming of age tale. The rise of adolescence was a major concern in Victorian novels; thus we start with Jane as a girl of violent passion and “the mood of the revolted slave,” one set apart from the temperaments of the other children in the household (72). From the foils of the other children in the household – the favorite boy John who can get away with any behavior, the beautiful Georgiana, and the clever Eliza – we behold Jane as a plain girl, eager to please yet continuously shunned due to her parentage. By the section’s close, we are certain of Jane’s identity as an outcast. We are certain that Jane must undergo a drastic change of circumstance.

When Jane is finally sent to school at Lowood, the catalyst for Jane’s transformation into a pious, quiet woman, she is set up against a new set of foils. Helen Burns, the lamb to Jane’s tiger, teaches her of patience and the values of martyrdom. Miss Temple teaches Jane of kindness and teaches her through example what kind of woman she should become. Much of Victorian literature at the time focused on the didactic in literature. In Jane Eyre, the same holds true. We are taught of the evils of deception, of hypocrisy, of the dangers of keeping secrets and the loss of innocence. Freed from the wrath of Mrs. Reed, Jane’s temper quells, and she becomes an outstanding young lady, educated in the ways of drawing, French, and the skills of being a teacher. Through the great epoch of Jane’s time in school, the identity of the heroine is solidified as the same woman who ventures to Thornfield Hall and faces trials that threaten her values.

Thornfield Hall is a labyrinthine space that Jane must navigate in order to prove her self-worth, much as a hero must do. Though there are no minotaurs or actual winding passages for the heroine to get lost in, there are phantom creatures, monstrosities, and a pervading darkness that Jane must face. Though one would like to believe that Jane is different from the savageness of the creature locked in the attic, there are moments in which Jane must struggle with the monster within herself. Jealousy at the impending marriage of Mr. Rochester and Miss Ingram is a force that Jane struggles with. Jane becomes a hunter, a warrior who’s sure that if the attempts of Miss Ingram were “shot by a surer hand,” than Mr. Rochester’s affections would be her own (265). Ultimately, this duality of personality can be seen in the two portraits Jane creates: the plain, drab one of herself, and beautiful portrait of Miss Ingram. In these, we see a portraiture not of two people, but of two halves of Jane’s own self – the pious, reserved side of herself, and the inner beauty and pride that longs to escape.

Whether or not Jane is a monster is a question that continues even when Rochester asks Jane to marry him. Though there is the possibility that Jane can finally rise above her status and position, the question of whether or not marriage will take away Jane’s identity as a woman pervades the rest of the novel. Jane’s struggles with forgiveness, with decision and indecision form the corridors that one must navigate in order to escape the maze’s end. When the reader learns about the secret locked away in the mansion’s top floors, one must question how Jane’s response, and subsequent actions, reflects upon her coming of age. Does Jane emerge victorious by the novel’s end? 

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