Saggio breve in inglese su Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

JANE EYRE: A COMING OF AGE STORY

Essay Topic 1

Jane Eyre: a coming of age story

The quest for a national identity and the positivity of the returns.

It's rather evident, already from the title "Jane Eyre", that this novel presents different

typical elements of the Bildungsroman: the lector, indeed, finds himself to follow the events of

the little Jane, accompanying her through the different stages of her life. At the beginning of

the novel, we come to know Jane as a ten years old child without, though, an identity, without

the ability of represent herself. "There was no possibility of taking a walk that a day. had

We

been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning;" (1) In the first

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sentences of the chapter one, the "I" doesn't exist, Jane is dissolved in the group. Jane's

childhood at Gateshead with that group of her relative, that we can consider the first stage of

her path, is thus mark out by a difficulty of speaking of herself and, in this situation, she's

certain that what others think about her overlap with how she really is. Defined also as an

animal, she was considered with a really bad opinion: "No; you are less than a servant, for you

do nothing for your keep. There, sit down, and think over your wickedness" (2). She was

passionate and will remain passionate even when she will grow up, like she admits at the

meeting with the aunt Mrs Reed, when Gateshead returns in her life for the second time: "My

disposition is not so bad as you think: I am passionate, but not vindictive" (3). But her child

behaviour was not appropriate with the society.

The unconsciousness that closes the second chapter shows a new little transition, of

which Jane recognised the culmination after the discussion with the aunt. This passage takes

shape with the transfer to the Lowood Institute, in which we can identify her second stage.

"Besides, school would be a complete change: it implied a long journey, an entire separation

from Gateshead, an entrance into a new life" (4), reflected Jane. The fact that her

consideration about the school is so, shows that the physical and spatial steps are basically

important for the ego formation: every Jane's passage's place marks a phase and every phase

(1) C. Brontë, Wordsworth Classics, (1847), 1992, p. 3

Jane Eyre,

(2) Ibid, p. 7

(3) Ibid, p. 211

(4) Ibid, p. 19 ! 1

JANE EYRE: A COMING OF AGE STORY

reflects a Jane's need. At Lowood Institute she finds relationships, affection and friends,

especially in Helen Burns and Miss Temple, and learns to control her emotions and

understand herself. "I resolved, in the depth of my heart, that I would be most moderate -

most correct; [...] my language was more subdued than it generally was when it developed

that sad theme; and mindful of Helen's warnings against the indulgence of resentment, I

infused into the narrative far less of gall and wormwood than ordinary" (5). Her tone turns

into a more calm tone and, now, she understands what Bessie meant telling her to be bold:

she becomes bold telling her story, but also things in general, with patience and only after

have reasoned; she is now able to find the poise to explain the injustices after a deliberation.

As a result, she has learnt to talk about herself, she changes and is conscious of this

improvement, getting closer to the social model of that age.

At the chapter ten, she makes us aware about a new feeling of change, she feels that the

Lowood phase is by now closes and describes this process calling her feelings with the word

"liberty"; she's now ready to know the world. Here we can see a third step, which will be

defined in a new place: Thornfield. The Thornfield's master, Mr Rochester, when he knows

Jane, recognises that "The Lowood constraint still clings to you somewhat; controlling your

features, muffling your voice, and restricting your limbs" [...] "I see at interval the glance of a

curious sort of bird through the close-set bar of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive is

there; were it but free, it would soar cloud-high" (6). But Jane uses the Lowood education to

dominate her nature, and she can deal with some difficult situations at Thornfield wisely. "I

will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad - as I am now" (7). In

this place, though, a mystery brings back Jane at the previous situation, when she was "a cold

solitary girl", showing us the element of the return that come over the novel.

Thanks to the return of some events, some already mentioned before, she compares

herself with the past and notices a transformation, a maturation. For this reason we can

consider these returns as positive returns, as James Buzard writes in his work "Disorienting

fiction: the autoethnographic work of Nineteen Century British novels", calling them

"productive returns", because she can understand, further the past events, also her nature and

the reason of her reactions. "It was also accompanied by her that I had, nearly nine years ago,

walked down the path I was now ascending" [...] "I still felt as a wandered on the face of the

earth; but I experienced firmer trust in myself and my own powers, and less withering dread

of oppression. The gaping wound of my wrongs, too, was now quite healed; and the flame of

(5) C. Brontë, Wordsworth Classics, (1847), 1992, p. 60

Jane Eyre, ! 2

(6) Ibid, p. 121

(7) Ibid, p. 280 JANE EYRE: A COMING OF AGE STORY

resentment extinguished" (8). From this, it can be inferred why the critic J. Buzard considers

"Jane Eyre" "the product of successive transformations of experience" (9).

The final stages, which always follow the places where Jane goes (from Thornfield to

Moor House and back), are a continuos awareness of her nature, that Jane can judiciously

conform to the social model required.

Following the Jane's identification's process with the social model, the lector can find the

confirmation of another Buzard's statement: "Jane Eyre" "describes a quest for a positive

national identity that will transcend other identities but not obliterate them" (10). How the

national identity can be defined as a positive one in the novel? And, above all, where the quest

for a national identity is especially evident? Firstly, we have to consider that the novel follows

the character improvements of Jane, and these positive changes occurred as the result of the

Jane's research for a character conformed to what society demanded. We can also comment

the word "positive" that Buzard used in his statement with a reference at the nature of Jane:

she becomes more controlled but she remains passionate anyway. She doesn't obliterated her

real nature, she just matures, and this is a positive thing, considering the historical period that

reserved a sever education for women, forcing them to not be themselves. The society of that

time imposed a lower condition for women in comparison of men; but Jane considers:

"Women are supposed to be very calm generally; but women feel just as men feel;" [..] "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" (11).

In a more specific way, we can find the first quest for a national identity in the novel

when Mr Rochester says "A wind fresh from Europe blew over the ocean and rushed through

the open casement" (12). In this part of the novel, for Mr Rochester the only solution was to

escape from that wrong marriage coming back to Europe, to Thornfield. He tries to restore

his happiness, his lost balance, recovering the national values. The character of his wife,

Bertha Mason, was a foreign figure, she belongs to another place with another culture that

couldn't conciliate with the European culture. She was too different from Mr Rochester.

Consequently, the lector can see that the national identity permeate the entire novel, it doesn't

involve just the main novel's character. Another part of the novel in which we can see the

comparison of the national culture with a foreign culture is at the fourth step of the Jane's life,

(8) C. Brontë, Wordsworth Classics, (1847), 1992, p. 200

Jane Eyre,

(9) J. Buzard, "The wild English girl: Jane Eyre", Disorienting Fiction: the autoethnographic work of Nineteen Century

2005, p. 200

British novels,

(10) Ibid, p. 200 ! 3

(11) C. Brontë, Wordsworth Classics, 1992, p. 95

Jane Eyre,

(12) Ibid, p. 273