Charlotte Bronte uses the contrast between art which is a tool for inner expression and creativity, and artifice which is used as a mask for social survival to narrate the extensive nature of Jane's integrity and honesty.
Jane is seen constantly rejecting societal artifice and she refuses to play roles that deny her self-hood. Jane does not want to perform and instead aims to assert her truth even when no one is watching. This is seen especially within her art that she creates from a very young age despite having no audience to show. Creating art is not only a hobby for Jane but also a medium that allows her to express herself in a way that may seem unacceptable in traditional Victorian society. Her sketches are not romantic landscapes with a conventional backstory or a Romeo and Juliet trope, her images are surreal, and symbolic and often depict a sense of melancholy and loneliness. For example, Jane draws a shipwreck with a drowned corpse “Foregrounded was the mast of a ship wrecked in stormy seas. A corpse, hair streaming, was bound to the mast. A giant arm emerged from a cloud above, holding a shroud ready to enwrap the dead figure.” The shipwreck may represent despair and emotional drowning, while the giant arm with a shroud may represent divine intervention and judgment which are religious frameworks that encompass Janes's own faith in god. Jane’s work mirrors her soul, where art is used as a language of truth and forthrightness to manifest her own narratives and beliefs into physical abstraction.
Jane is seen criticising the artifice of Victorian social norms especially those imposed on women such as Blanche Ingram. Blanche is beautiful fashionable and witty, she performs the roles of an ideal Victorian woman. However, beneath her cultivated charms lies cruelty, vanity, and calculated moves made to capture a position in society. She is inauthentic and wears a mask of elegance to impress people and lure a wealthy husband like Rochester. She even uses forms of art for purposes different from Janes. She has musical abilities but uses them not as a form of self-expression but rather as a means to attract male validation.
Similarly, Mr Brocklehurst is a symbol or moral artifice, he preaches Christian humility to the girls at Lowood by forbidding them to dress up and have curls in their hair, not out of piety but to assert control. He is not virtuous, he simply tries to manipulate the appearance of young girls as a way to feel powerful and dominant. His hypocrisy and moral questionability become glaringly evident when his own wife and daughter arrive at the school adorned with extravagant clothing and hairstyles. This reveals the double standards and self-serving nature of his moral grandstanding.
Even Rochester’s entire relationship with Jane is based on a concealed truth: the existence of his wife Bertha Mason. He attempts to dress Jane in fine clothes and gift her with luxuries, however, Jane recognises that these are not acts of love. Rochester's subtle attempt at moulding Jane into a more “proper” looking lady suitable for him to marry represents the artifice that he imposes upon Jane. Jane stays authentic here too by refusing a comfortable and lavish lifestyle with a wealthy man like Rochester even when deeply in love. She finds no comfort in being a mistress, although it would be the easier decision, she chooses her self-respect, she says “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. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad—as I am now”. Leaving behind physical and transient comfort, Jane seeks a path that is authentic and built on her terms. She knows love without truth is a form of spiritual death.
What sets Jane apart from her surroundings is her unwavering commitment to emotional and moral truth. Even as a child, she stands for herself against Mrs Reed when faced with injustice. She declares to Mrs Reed “You are deceitful”. Her honesty is dangerous in a world that punishes women for speaking too boldly, yet Jane never retreats into passivity, false performance, and artifice.
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