The following work is a literary analysis written for a freshman intro class. It was the first long essay i wrote in the english department. The essay details reasoning behind why jane eyre is an unreliable narrator. It also shows where my skill were in terms of textual analysis and argument construction as a college freshman.
The Eyre of the Beholder
Jane Eyre is a novel written by Charlotte Brontë during the mid-nineteenth century. The story centers around Jane Eyre and follows her life from her troubled childhood to her complicated adulthood and relationship with her employer, Rochester. From the very beginning, Jane shares her thoughts and feelings with her audience, and the reader quickly realizes that the action and circumstances take a backseat; what Jane feels is where the focus will be. The entire novel is told in first-person, and that poses a question: is Jane a reliable narrator? There are instances of her blind-sidedness or naïveté that should be considered when reading the story.
Because the reader only has a single point of view, it becomes easy for the reader to be biased to Jane and internalize all of her emotions as well as her opinions of the people she interacts with. As a result, there is a call for caution and careful consideration when analyzing Jane’s story. There are several instances in which Jane’s judgement ought to be questioned such as when she described the abuse of her aunt and her one-dimensionally characterized siblings and when she described her romantic rival Miss Ingram as “very showy, but … not genuine … her mind was poor, her heart barren by nature” (239). Jane admitted a fair number of times that she allowed jealous feelings to fester in her heart. Was Miss Ingram really as dull as Jane says, or does Jane just let her pride get the better of her? The matter is left up to the reader to decide. Whilst Jane admitted that she is indeed a plain Jane, she does think very highly of herself when it comes to her intellect and her sophisticated way with words that existed even in her childhood and persisted into her adulthood. She also insisted that she had as much worth as anyone else despite her lack of credentials as seen when she rebuked Rochester and declared, “I have as much soul as you” (17). She often shined when she reproved those that treated her poorly or at any point had a poor view of her. Taking that into account, questions may be raised like: Could Jane have twisted the characters of others even slightly in order to satisfy her discontent with them? She states with pride, “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself” (102). It could be interpreted that Jane believes herself to be better than women of high society because of her past sufferings and her academic inclinations. Furthermore, the fact that Jane is the most dynamic and developed character of the entire story is certainly due to the fact that she intends her audience to identify and relate to her and mainly her on a deep emotional level.
Aside from the emotional bias, Jane Eyre acts not only as a compelling, controversial story, but also as Charlotte Brontë’s semi-autobiography. Many of the events that happened in Jane’s life are similar to or directly parallel events in Brontë’s own life. Thus, the story serves as an extension of Brontë’s emotions, opinions, struggles, and victories. While Brontë’s firsthand experiences are beneficial to her writing in terms of the genuine depth of Jane’s character and the emotional relatability, Brontë’s intent in writing the novel seems to be very self-fulfilling: a satisfying, romanticized version of her life experiences. Jane is objectively a good person, an ideal person, from her passion for academia to her humility. Her meekness is shown most obviously in her refutation of Rochester when he fawned over her and constantly called her his fairy or angel: “You are dreaming, sir—or you are sneering” (25). In addition to her graceful turn of phrase, Jane is admirable for her strong character and bright fire which was something not commonly found in women at the time. Jane stood as Brontë’s paradigm of what a woman ought to be; Jane is essentially—aside from her irrational infatuation for Rochester—a perfect, near faultless character. Because of the self-fulfilling nature of Jane’s character, Brontë may have sought to live through her and therefore tailored the story to work in Jane’s favor. Despite the problems that arise from Jane’s first-person perspective, it is apparent that Brontë never minded that her story was one-sided and missing the whole, impartial picture. Her key focus was Jane’s emotional state, her resilience in whatever circumstance, and her subversive views on women, social class, and love and marriage. When taking those factors into account, Jane Eyre’s point of view issues seem less crucial than it would be in other novels. Admittedly, Jane and Rochester’s relationship should be no one’s ideal, but as a historical piece as opposed to a life example, their story is rightly revered as incredibly remarkable.
In conclusion, Jane Eyre features a number of questionable moments because the reader receives the entire take in Jane’s first-person point of view. However, in light of the fact that Brontë’s underlying messages of equality of the sexes, marriage, and social class are the intended take-aways, the issues that arise from first-person storytelling enhance the experience of the novel rather than detract from it.
Works Cited
History.com Editors. “Charlotte Bronte Born.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Nov. 2009, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/charlotte-bronte-born.
Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte. Arcturus Publishing Limited, 2009.
Research and Ramblings 