Feminism is constantly showcased through the liberating choices Jane makes on her terms as a woman living in 19th-century Victorian England. She consistently seeks independence and a life that is created by herself in an honest and morally integral manner.
After spending nearly 8 years at Lowood Institution she expresses in chapter 10 how she desires liberty and desperately prays for god to grant her a new servitude. This moment marks how her servitude at Lowood has come to an end and she realizes that her mind and spirit are constrained by the routine and isolation of the place she has lived at for nearly a decade, she now craves a soul that experiences the profound depths of companionship, adventure, new choices, and love. She wants to create a transformation in her life- from passive servitude at Lowood to active selfhood that can be given to her through exploration of a new perspective experience. Hence, she uses her education to advertise herself and embarks on a journey to become a governess to her pupil Adele Varens at the lavish Thornfield Hall.
There too, she is faced by many dilemmas that she tackles by exercising her autonomy and freedom of choice. Jane becomes especially aware of her needs and desires and her sense of morality as she chooses to flee Thornfield, leaving Rochester behind after she learns that he is already married. She finds no comfort in being a mistress, although it would be the easier decision, she refuses to sacrifice herself and instead 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 built on her terms and enables her virtues as a self-respecting woman and a moralistic Christian.
This event in the novel marks a profound feminist act taken by Jane. She believes that she deserves more than being the mistress of a man who has been dishonest with her. Although she loves Rochester, she refuses to sacrifice her dignity and the love she believes she is in full right of receiving. Victorian England was a society that often expected women to be submissive to patriarchal power, especially to a man with economic and class-related power who was willing to provide for a woman. In this dynamic, Rochester is at a position of authority as her employer and is wealthy. He can give Jane the luxuries that she has been deprived of as a poor orphan, however, she refuses to be owned and become his possession. She says to Rochester “I am no bird, and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will which I now exert to leave you”.
Further, Jane rejects the Victorian norm that a woman’s worth is tied to her beauty and status. She says to Rochester “Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings?... Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?”. Jane only returns to Rochester after he is free of his previous marriage with Bertha Maison and Jane has inherited a fortune from her Uncle. This allows her to go back to the dynamic with a sense of equality between Jane and Rochester not only in terms of financial status but also in terms of morality. Rochester has paid his price or even Karmic debt for locking Bertha Maison in the attic and deceiving those around him- especially Jane. For this act he committed, he loses an eye and a limb in a fire which also causes him to lose the Thornfield Hall mansion. Only after this incident is he able to attain the moral clarity and integrity necessary to becoming worthy of marrying someone like Jane, who has always remained true to her principles and true to herself.
The novel ends with Janes closing tribute to St John who poses as a rigid and patriarchal figure in the novel. Jane's rejection of him is not just personal and because she is in love with another man, but she also rejects the rigid Christian worldview that he presents. St John’s religious mission can be seen as a tool for male dominance and it seems unfair for St John to impose his individual beliefs on to Jane and expect her to sacrifice her desires for love to become his companion on a mission in a foreign land. He tells her “God and nature intended you for a missionary’s wife. It is not personal but mental endowments they have given you; you are formed for labor, not love. A missionary’s wife you must—shall be. You shall be mine; I claim you—not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s service.” His neglect of Jane’s individuality is demeaning as he implies that her values and needs lie in her usefulness to his goals reinstating the patriarchal view set by men in the Victorian era.
Further, Jane approaches the idea of marriage with introspection by critically questioning the character of the man she is to marry rather than merely conforming to the societal expectation of marriage. For example Jane writes- “St. John was a good man; but I began to feel he had spoken truth of himself when he said he was hard and cold. The humanities and amenities of life had no attraction for him…he would never rest, nor approve of others resting round him…I comprehended, all at once, that he would hardly make a good husband; that it would be a trying thing to be his wife”. Here she is viewing St John not as a potential suitor but as a human who could impact her happiness and desires profoundly.
In a time when women were denied their right to shape their own futures, Jane took a stand for herself and refused the reduction of herself to an instrument of male purpose.
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