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Interwoven:
Charlotte Bronte’s Synthetization Feminist and Christian Ideals in Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë’s most popular novel Jane Eyre is widely debated in terms of feminism
and Christianity. For many critics it seems Christianity and feminism are ideas that stand at stark
opposition to one another. There is no overlap, they cannot coexist within the same sphere. Not
only did Charlotte Brontë shatter that stereotype by intertwining the two seemingly opposed
ideals into a mutually beneficial relationship, the product of that relationship was a level of
equality her audience couldn’t accurately conceptualize.
In her essay “Charlotte Brontë’s Religion: Faith, Feminism, and Jane Eyre” Emily
Griesinger discusses the Victorian Crisis of Faith and its effect on women. Specifically,
Griesinger narrows in on Evangelicals in the evolving Church of England, the church the Brontë
family would have been familiar with. In many different factions of Evangelicals, as Griesinger
writes, the woman’s role in the church was still second to the man’s. However, that did not limit
their participation as a gender group. Griesinger quotes historian Elisabeth Jay in describing
Victorian evangelicalism as a “religion of the heart” (Griesinger, 35). This depiction of an
openly emotional practice validated passionate responses from both men and women.
Evangelical worship helped overcome the societal stereotype that emotions were reserved only
for women and that, because of their association, any emotional response was therefore negated.
The idea that women’s emotional responses were validated instead of shunned provided
the opportunity for women to become bolder and more independent, especially when it came to
challenging traditional religious roles. Though women could be emotionally accepted in worship,
there was still a vast majority of the Evangelical population that saw the women’s primary duty
in the domestic sphere. Many women who still sought to, and did, share their evangelical talents
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outside the home. The question of a woman’s proper Christian role is part of a larger question
which loomed over Victorian England: the role of women in society.
The idea of womanhood in 19th century England was vocalized strongest by Conventry
Patmore’s idea of the “angel in the house”. In her essay “No Angels in the House: the Victorian
Myth and the Paget Women” M. Peterson writes that “the angel provided the home environment
that promoted her husband’s and children’s wellbeing in the world; she also provided a haven
from its worst pressures through her sound household management and sweetness of
temperament” (677). These Victorian angels permeated society and quickly became accepted as
the norm for female domestic life. The question must then be asked: what was the
contemporary Christian response to this angelic ideal and to those who disregarded it? Griesinger
suggests that to examine this relationship as it appears in Jane Eyre one must first examine how
the two coincided in Brontë’s own life, seeing as how Jane Eyre is widely accepted to be
partially autobiographical.
Being the daughter of an Anglican priest, Charlotte Brontë was exposed to religion at an
early age. The influence of her father, Methodist aunt, and her life at the Cowan Bridge School,
which was led by Carus Wilson, the inspiration for the character Mr. Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre,
culminated in a rather unique combination of religious beliefs. Through an examination of
personal letters exchanged between Brontë and her friend Ellen Nussey, Griesinger can conclude
certain claims about Brontë’s personal faith. “… evidence suggests that Charlotte spent an
unhealthy amount of time obsessing over her sins and hardly any time enjoying God’s
forgiveness, love, and grace” (Griesinger 42). Griesinger concludes Brontë followed some of her
father’s beliefs: both dismissed extreme Calvinistic beliefs and both believed salvation available
to everyone. Brontë’s personal theology empahsized Providence, “the idea that God has a
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purpose and plan, that God rewards obedience, if not in this life then in the next” (Griesinger 46).
Of course, personal details of Brontë’s relationship with God can never be fully known, but from
reading her correspondence and examining the community she was surrounded by, it is safe to
assume Brontë was religious, and some of her personal religion made it on to the pages of her
most famous novel, Jane Eyre.
The primary religious teachings in Jane Eyre come from male authority figures. The
first of these manifestations comes in the hypocritical figure of Mr. Brocklehurst, the leader of
Lowood School.. Kristi Sexton writes on Jane’s spiritual pilgrimage in her essay “Jane Eyre:
Jane’s Spiritual Coming of Age” where she quite adequately describes Mr. Brocklehurst as “the
embodiment of religious severity” (Sexton, 179). Mr. Brocklehurst is Jane’s first experience
with religious authority and the dissonance between the two characters is evident immediately
when they meet for an interview regarding Jane’s acceptance into Lowood School. Even the
physical description of Mr. Brocklehurst is one of condescending authority:
“… I looked up at – a black pillar! – such, at least, appeared to me, at first sight, the
straight narrow, sable-clad shape standing erect on the rug, the grim face at the top was
like a carved mask…He, for it was a man, with two inquisitive-looking grey eyes, which
twinkled under a pair of bushy eyebrows… his features were large, and they and all the
lines of his frame were equally harsh and prim… What a face he had… what a great
nose! what a great nose! and what a mouth! and what large prominent teeth!” (Newman,
44 – 45)
The strict lines and large features create the image of an overbearing and looming figure. Such is
Mr. Brocklehurst and even more so, his religious practices. While Mr. Brocklehurst does not
visit the school every day his presence is felt by students and teachers alike. The placement of
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Lowood School in a sunken valley automatically places Mr. Brocklehurst in his manor house,
above the inhabitants of the school.
Mr. Brocklehurst is easily identifiable as a hypocrite. The lessons he enforces at the
school are those of denying oneself physical and material pleasures and living off the bare
minimum. His domestic life hardly reflects that as his wife and daughters, when they visit the
school, are elegantly and ornately dressed and appear to be fed routinely and sumptuously every
day. For a ten-year-old child with little religious experience, this isn’t the best introduction to
Christian spirituality Jane could receive.
Thankfully, a counter to Mr. Brocklehurst exists in the form of Lowood School
superintendent Miss Temple and Jane’s first friend, Helen Burns. Miss Temple is presented as a
foil to Mr. Brocklehurst almost immediately. She doesn’t seem to fit into the school’s mood and
instead shines like a beacon to which Jane is drawn. When the students of Lowood are expected
to eat a breakfast of burnt porridge Miss Temple makes up for the meal by providing bread and
cheese, luxuries to the malnourished girls. When Mr. Brocklehurst visits and spouts his demands
for improvement, Miss Temple “gazed straight before her, and her face, naturally as pale as
marble, appeared to be assuming also the coldness and fixity of that material; especially her
mouth closed as if it would have required a sculptor’s chisel to open it, and her brow settled
gradually into petrified severity” (Newman, 74). While Miss Temple says nothing to challenge
Mr. Brocklehurst directly, her body language, actions, and attitudes towards the residents of
Lowood School attempt to subvert Mr. Brocklehurst’s negligence and hypocrisy.
The most outright contrast to Mr. Brocklehurst is Helen Burns. To Jane, Helen is a
conundrum, a complete oddity. How can one suffer from outrageous injustice so quietly and with
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little complaint? What is important about Helen Burns’ theology isn’t the specifics of it, but the
idea that she has, in essence, made her own. Sexton writes:
Helen is not in conflict with Christianity; she is merely choosing parts of the New
Testament that she finds appealing and ignoring what she cannot or will not
acknowledge. For Helen, this belief in a non-punishing God becomes her way to survive
the misery of her situation. (181)
Interacting with someone who has subverted traditional patriarchal Christian doctrine influences
Jane in her own spiritual journey. In “Jane’s Crown of Thorns: Feminism and Christianity in
“Jane Eyre””, author Maria Lamonaca writes that “Helen models for Jane an independence of
thought on matters of theology and doctrine” (Lamonaca, 253). This model stays with Jane long
after Helen’s death and the idea that one could create their own doctrine provides the foundation
on which Jane will assume her autonomy.
While there is no direct narration for the eight years Jane spends at Lowood, her position
as a teacher and her continuing friendship with Miss Temple make it safe to assume that Jane
learned a great deal about her own spirituality and maturity. And it’s best that Jane grasped a
stronger connection to her faith because during her stay at Thornfield she faces the constant
temptation of Thornfield’s master, Edward Rochester.
Many critics have noted that even before Jane and Rochester’s relationship began, their
first encounter was surrounded by spiritual qualities. As Jane waits for a coming horse to pass
she thinks “all sorts of fancies bright and dark tenanted my mind: the memories of nursery
stories were there… I remembered certain of Bessie’s tales wherein figured a North-of-England
spirit” (Newman, 119 – 120). Brontë writes, “The man, the human being, broke the spell at
once” (Newman, 120) and later the reader learns that this moment is when the supernatural spell,
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broken for Jane, consumes Rochester. He later tells Jane this himself, still partially convinced
that Jane is some otherworldly creature. “Unlike Jane who recognizes that Rochester is flesh and
bone, Rochester refuse[s] to see Jane as anything other than his supernatural savior” (Sexton,
182). While this fanciful imagining seems harmless, even playful, at first, it quickly becomes
clear that Rochester’s supernatural image of Jane becomes the basis of Jane’s spiritual
temptation.
Over the course of their time together, Rochester opens up about his spiritual state to
Jane. At one of their first meetings Rochester declares “remorse is the poison of life” (Newman,
120). When Jane responds that repentance could cure the poison, Rochester continues “It is not
its cure. Reformation may be its cure; and I could reform…but where is the use of thinking of it,
hampered, burdened, cursed as I am?” (Newman 142 – 143). Rochester’s acts of vulnerability
place Jane into a theological purgatory, paralleling her in-between status as a governess at
Thornfield. Much like a governess is above a servant but below the idea of suitable company,
Jane finds herself straddled between being Rochester’s savior or his sin. “Rochester… puts upon
Jane’s shoulders the responsibility of his moral rebirth” (Lamonaca, 249). In Victorian society,
women, namely wives, were meant to be angels in the home, but even then, angels are not the
ones that lead souls to salvation. his calls into question, as well, that of the Evangelical woman’s
place in sharing salvation. Women preachers were shunned from public Christian society, but
what of in private, in the home, where, it was said numerous times, a woman’s reign was?
Griesinger writes “one of the most important lessons Jane learns is that women and men cannot
save each other” (Griesinger, 49). She continues, “… Brontë gives this biblical truth a feminist
twist by having Jane reject the role of Redeemer where Rochester is concerned. Early on she
quips that she is “no angel” and he needn’t expect her to sacrifice her self for him” (Griesinger,
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49). Jane tells Rochester multiple times that it is God and God alone that can redeem Rochester
from his previous errors, whatever they may be.
Advancing from the role of redeemer, Rochester then tempts Jane with his love. Even
with the secret of Rochester’s marriage to Bertha still hidden, Jane’s impending marriage to
Rochester would have halted Jane in her spiritual pilgrimage. “While Jane admonishes
[Rochester] for his intemperate lifestyle, she is still inexplicably drawn to him; so much so he
eventually becomes her idol and therefore a hindrance to her spiritual growth” (Sexton, 182).
This idolization continues even after Jane and Rochester are properly engaged. In a sense,
perhaps Bertha Mason is not a villain, but a vehicle used to further Jane’s spiritual growth. After
the revelation that Rochester is already married, he presents Jane with an alternative: to stay
with him as his mistress. “There are two good reasons Jane cannot finally agree to Rochester’s
proposal… The first is God’s law; the second is her own integrity and self-respect” (Griesinger,
49). Though the only option Jane sees for herself, fleeing Thornfield and its inherent
temptations, is one she knows would cause her pain, she continues to develop spiritually and
chooses the flight.
In leaving Thornfield Jane places her spiritual beliefs above her physical desires. This
rings more than true as after she flees Thornfield Jane is bombarded with physical struggle after
physical struggle. Everything from an inability to find work, and thus provide for herself
physically, to natural storms plague Jane outside the comfort of Thornfield. Still, at the peak of
her suffering, it is to God that Jane turns. John G. Peters notes this, writing, “Christianity is not
merely a socially conventional background but instead appears at significant junctures in the
narrative and is the absolute to which [Jane] appeals in times of trouble” (Peters, 58). When all
else fails, Jane turns to God, knowing and praying that He won’t fail as well.
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Jane’s prayer while stranded on the moors leads to the next, and arguably, greatest
spiritual temptation: St. John Rivers. Along with his sisters, Mary and Diana, St. John shelters
Jane while she regains her bearings, so to speak. The temptation St. John presents to Jane is one
of spiritual coercion. His proposal to Jane is not romantic, it comes from a sense of duty. St.
John believes it to be God’s will for Jane to join him on a mission to India. This ideology plays
into traditional Christian beliefs at the time where a woman had to turn to men, whether a
husband, father, or preacher, to discern God’s will for their lives. For a while, Jane is captivated
by St. John’s words; they make sense to her, his doctrine and creed seem logical. Thus, a
reversal takes place. “Before, she was tempted to put love for a man, Edward Rochester, before
love for God… Here temptation is quite similar, to surrender her own identity and allow a man,
St. John Rivers, to control her access to God or to speak to her for God” (Griesinger, 51). In her
spiritual journey to find her own doctrine, Jane becomes so consumed with the idea of finding a
doctrine, that she forgets it must be her own. Perhaps the events at Thornfield scared Jane from
forsaking Christian beliefs for her own desires; she now swings to the other end of the spectrum.
Jane must return to that middle ground where she can balance beliefs and desires and
thereby create her own Christian doctrine. This return is set into action by what Lamonaca calls a
“salvific moment… of direct supernatural intervention” (Lamonaca, 251). When Jane is
teetering on the edge of accepting St. John’s proposal, she hears Rochester’s voice calling her
name. Later, the reader finds out that the same evening Jane heard the voice, Rochester was
indeed, calling out Jane’s name as a prayer. This intervention was not written as a deus ex
machina to return two longing souls back to each other but “… a remarkable (for Brontë’s day)
assertion of women’s spiritual authority and an equally memorable rejection of the idea… that
women must always be “under” the spiritual authority of men” (Griesinger, 53). In terms of
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Jane’s spiritual journey, after this revelation, Jane finds the strength to turn down St. John’s
proposal. Hearing Rochester’s voice convinced Jane she knew, and only she, God’s will for her
life. Bronte writes “I broke from St. John; who had followed, and would have detained me. It
was my time to assume ascendancy. My powers were in play, and in force” (Newman, 406). This
spiritual revelation, combined with the financial advancement Jane acquired a few chapters
earlier at the death of her unknown uncle, allows Jane to step into a fully autonomous role, where
she can return to Rochester as his equal.
For Lauren Owsley, spiritual development has nothing to do with Jane’s eventual
achievement of autonomy, it all comes down to finances and Jane finding ways to maneuver the
lack of working opportunities for middle-class women. Owsley argues the “prerequisite to
personal subjectivity… is financial agency” (Owsley, 54). For Jane’s entire life she has been the
dependent of one man; the ward of Mr. Reed who dies, though whose wife carries on housing
Jane in his memory, student of Mr. Brocklehurst, governess to Rochester, and house-mate to St.
John. In each of these situations, Jane had no means to escape and live as she would please, since
she is always the dependent of a man, she is always subject to their approval and their ideas. The
inheritance Jane receives at the end of the novel is the one thing that guarantees her freedom
from dependence. According to Owsley, “… financial independence has given [Jane] the luxury
of choice, and lack of need provides clear insight for her to what is essential to her happiness”
(Owsley, 64). Finally free of restrictions, Jane makes the choice to return to her vision of
happiness: a life with Rochester.
The reunion between Jane and Rochester has left many feminist critics wanting, as the
idea that Jane’s narrative ends with her assuming the traditionally feminine role seems to subvert
her earlier feminist choices. The choice to leave Lowood School to seek other employment for
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her own personal satisfaction would have been nearly unheard of in Victorian society. Her
decision to leave Thornfield without any connections readily available to her, to risk losing
everything, would have shocked Bronte’s readers. Some feminist critics then, refuse to call Jane
Eyre a feminist novel precisely because of the subversive ending. Some view Jane’s religious
beliefs as something to overcome; her religion is the final link in the chain that keeps her from
experiencing true feminist freedom. In combining the ideas of religious chains and dependency,
Lamonaca writes “Rochester… becomes spiritually, as well as physically dependent on Jane.
Jane, by taking the role of intermediary for Rochester, ironically, renounces spiritual autonomy
for reciprocal dependence” (Lamonaca, 257).
Peters explains the flaw in these criticisms: “… viewing Jane Eyre as a feminist
manifesto does not fully explain the kind of equality Charlotte Brontë advocates” (56). Brontë’s
novel doesn’t only focus on gender, class, or labor inequalities but on all human inequality. This
concern for general human equality can be traced to Brontë’s religious views, that all are created
equal before God and, therefore, all suffer from inequalities. In this sense, Brontë’s view of
feminism was far more advanced than her contemporaries; the calling of justice and equality for
all, no matter different signifying characteristics, is a tone attributed to feminism in today’s
society. Jane Eyre’s feminism, then, is not one created through secular independence. Rather it is
one where personal theology and a determination for autonomy work together to achieve a more
modern and inclusive equality.
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Works Cited
Griesinger, Emily. “Charlotte Brontë’s Religion: Faith, Feminism, and Jane Eyre” Christianity
and Literature 58.1 (2008): 29-59. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials [EBSCO].
Web. 01. Nov. 2015
Lamonaca, Maria. “Jane’s Crown of Thorns: Feminism and Christianity in “Jane Eyre”” Studies
in the Novel, University of North Texas 34.3 (2002): 254-63. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 01
Nov. 2015
Newman, Beth, and Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre: Complete, Authoritative Text with
Biographical, Historical, and Cultural Contexts; Critical History; and Essays from
Contemporary Critical Perspectives N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Owsley, Lauren. “Charlotte Brontë’s Circumvention of Patriarchy; Gender, Labour and Financial
Agency in Jane Eyre.” Brontë Stud. Brontë Studies 38.1 (2013): 54-65. Web. 01 Nov.
2015.
Peters, John G. "'We Stood at God's Feet, Equal': Equality, Subversion, and Religion in Jane
Eyre." Bronte Studies 29 (2004): 53-64. Print.
Peterson, M. Jeanne. “No Angels in the House: The Victorian Myth and the Paget Women” The
American Historical Review 89.3 (1984): 677-708. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
Sexton, Kristi. "Jane Eyre : Jane’s Spiritual Coming of Age." Brontë Studies 39.3
(2014): 178-86. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.