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If you’re reading this, it’s probably safe to assume that you’re not only a book lover, but one who is familiar with classic literature. And if you’re familiar with the classics, then you have heard of - if not read many times - the works of Charlotte Bronte. I have enjoyed all of her books, and each has resonated with me on some level, but none more so than Jane Eyre. It’s probably safe to say that I learned how to prize the connection between soul and mind, strength and passion from Bronte’s unassuming heroine.
As Jane prepares to leave Thornfield after discovering the existence of Mrs. Rochester, Mr. Rochester begs that she will stay and become his mistress. Jane struggles internally as she considers her love for Rochester, and the reader will no doubt sympathize with the difficult choice she must make. Should she stay with the man she loves but experience a violation of her principles, or flee and be miserable while keeping the very essences of herself intact? When Jane tells the reader, “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man”, she asserts her independence and guides her destiny at that moment. She refuses to allow someone, even the man she loves, to take anything from her that will cause her to lose respect or value for herself. This, I believe, is the true message of empowerment that Charlotte Bronte gifted to her readers, and seems to be Bronte’s most eager objective in her writing. Perhaps it relates to the dilemma she herself faced when she fell in love with her married headmaster at the Belgian school where she taught for a time. Although the love was unreciprocated, Charlotte surely indulged in the “what-ifs” should the headmaster return her love.
Maybe Jane Eyre is the result of those deliberations and fantasies? Surely Charlotte, who so obviously prized the inner life of women, considered what the fulfilment of a forbidden romance could do to her own soul. Would she be satisfied and happy compromising the values which are deeply entwined with her personality? We will never know for certain the choice Charlotte would have made had she been faced with it, but I think we can reasonably guess it would have mirrored that of her heroine (who bears many resemblances to the author) in her response to Mr. Rochester’s pleas for her to stay with him in an illicit relationship: “I felt, at the moment, powerless as stubble exposed to the draught and glow of a furnace: mentally, I still possessed my soul, and with it the certainty of ultimate safety.”
Written by Shelbi Adams, @thenobbylife
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