Jane Eyre's inner struggle
Young Jane has a job as governess to Adèle, the ward of Mr Rochester, owner of Thornfield Hall. It is a beautiful, remote place and she has everything she could want, yet here, in this contemplative moment, she confides in the reader her feelings of longing for something beyond this placid world…
…Now and then, when I took a walk by myself in the grounds; when I went down to the gates and looked through them along the road; or when, while Adèle played with her nurse, and Mrs. Fairfax made jellies in the storeroom, I climbed the three staircases, raised the trap-door of the attic, and having reached the leads, looked out afar over sequestered field and hill, and along dim sky-line—that then I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen—that then I desired more of practical experience than I possessed; more of intercourse with my kind, of acquaintance with variety of character, than was here within my reach. I valued what was good in Mrs. Fairfax, and what was good in Adèle; but I believed in the existence of other and more vivid kinds of goodness, and what I believed in I wished to behold.
Who blames me? Many, no doubt; and I shall be called discontented. I could not help it: the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes. Then my sole relief was to walk along the corridor of the third storey, backwards and forwards, safe in the silence and solitude of the spot, and allow my mind’s eye to dwell on whatever bright visions rose before it—and, certainly, they were many and glowing; to let my heart be heaved by the exultant movement, which, while it swelled it in trouble, expanded it with life; and, best of all, to open my inward ear to a tale that was never ended—a tale my imagination created, and narrated continuously; quickened with all of incident, life, fire, feeling, that I desired and had not in my actual existence.
It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.
What we love about this passage...
Jane’s ruminations start out as very specifically about herself, and they show the enormous self-discipline she has had to muster throughout her short life in order to contain the feelings of ‘desire,’ ‘fire,’ ‘passion,’ ‘restlessness,’ ‘agitation’—words that appear throughout her narrative in describing her character. And though she opens her observations out to describe humans more generally, her concluding thoughts focus just on women—a powerful rhetorical move that fills the final paragraph with rage and presents an overwhelming indictment of ‘custom’ in confining women’s roles.
About the author
Charlotte Brontë (1816-55) grew up storytelling with her siblings, Emily, Anne, and Branwell, each encouraging the others in their literary pursuits. You can read more about them here. Charlotte survived a few years more after her siblings succumbed to tuberculosis. Jane Eyre was published under the pen name ‘Currer Bell’ in 1847.
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