Hanuman P. Durina
Honors English II B
Bringing It All Together
March 25, 2014
Why Is Jane Eyre an Orphan?
Oliver Twist,
Mary Lennox, Heathcliff, and Harry Potter; all of these memorable characters
are orphans, as are many main characters in both children’s and adult fiction. Orphans
have always been plentiful in literature, because they are often sympathetic and
memorable characters, but also because their unique situation allows them to
have experiences that most children, who have doting and protective parents,
could not have: “They are a manifestation of loneliness, but they also
represent the possibility for humans to reinvent themselves. Orphans begin with
a clean slate because they do not have parents to influence them either for
good or for evil” (Kimball, 559). In Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the titular
character was orphaned at a young age, and as a result she underwent many hardships.
She was abused, spurned, betrayed, humiliated, and belittled. Although she
eventually found happiness at the end of her journey through the book, it could
easily be argued that happiness would have come to her far easier had she not
been an orphan and had been protected and supported by her parents. Jane Eyre’s
parents’ death and her being raised as an orphan changed the course of her life
drastically and had a notable effect on her psychology—both for the worse.
Because of
her early orphanage, Jane went through many hardships, and her life was
completely upset by her parents’ deaths. Losing her parents resulted in her
being forced to live with her aunt, Mrs. Reed “and orphan heroines are often
cruelly treated by their female relations” (Kimball, 562). Her extended family
did not treat her as one of their own; instead she lived a life of
Cinderella-style servitude and artificially imposed poverty, as is the case
with many orphaned heroines, “Abbot says I
have less right to be here than a servant" (Bronte, 16). Jane would have been a far happier child if
she had parents, as she would have not been abused by her Aunt and cousins such
as when her cousin caught her reading a book;
You have no
business to take our books; you are a dependent, mama says; you have no money;
your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with
gentlemen's children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at
our mama's expense. Now, I'll teach you to rummage my bookshelves: for they ARE
mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by
the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows."
I did so, not
at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw him lift and poise the book
and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm:
not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking
my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp: my
terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded (Bronte, 4-5).
Her mistreatment never broke her spirit,
though; “"Unjust!--unjust!" said my
reason, forced by the agonizing stimulus into precocious though transitory
power: and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to
achieve escape from insupportable oppression--as running away, or, if that
could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die”
(Bronte, 9). Still, she probably would have grown into a happier adult
and lived a normal life apart from the heartbreak of her teenage years, as well
as being supported after retirement from Mr. Rochester’s estate. She also may
not have been sent to the same school and followed the same career path as a
governess, thereby not experiencing many of the great hardships she faced on
her journey. We might assume that Jane would have led a far happier life if she
had not been orphaned, although she may have never met Mr. Rochester, with whom
at the end of the book she achieves perfect marital bliss.
When an
Author makes the main character an orphan, such as in J.K. Rowling’s popular
Harry Potter series, he or she does so not only to enable certain plot points
to move forward, but also because of the way orphanhood affects the
psychological condition and inner psyche of the character. For Jane, the main
psychological effects are her pessimistic world view and her determination and
resilience. . She is resistant to change, and this is one of the reasons she
leaves Mr. Rochester and cancels her marriage with St. John. I think that much
of her personality was molded by all the hardships she went through, and though
it made her stronger, it made her sadder. She even tried to convince herself
that she should have no feelings for Mr. Rochester "You have nothing to do
with the master of Thornfield, further than to receive the salary he gives you
for teaching his protégée - He is not of your order: keep to your caste; and be
too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole heart, soul, and strength,
where such a gift is not wanted and would be despised" (Bronte, 84). Jane
would have been far happier if she had parents as a child and had not been confined
to the life presented by her family and had not become as defensive and
self-destructive a character. Her aunt was hateful and abusive, as were her cousins,
and it led to very strong defensive barriers. The nasty Reed family taught her
that poverty was synonymous was with degradation, and she thought that “Poverty
looks grim to grown people; still more so to children: they have not much idea
of industrious, working, respectable poverty-for me [it] was synonymous with degradation”
(Bronte, 63). This led to her early on having problems dealing with her own poverty
and happiness. We might assume that Jane would have led a far happier life if
she had not been orphaned, although she may have never met Mr. Rochester, with
whom at the end of the book she achieves perfect marital bliss, “He loved me so truly, that he knew no reluctance in
profiting by my attendance: he felt I loved him so fondly, that to yield that
attendance was to indulge my sweetest wishes” (Bronte, 432).
Jane Eyre was
a very free spirited woman, not only for the time in which she lived, but also today.
As Dave Astor writes in The Huffington Post, “Jane
has to mostly make her own way in the world” (Astor). Because of this she
would rather be happy and poor than sad and rich, but because she is an orphan,
she tries very hard to not hold onto things that may not last. This causes her
to have many problems with relationships and friendships, and she feels like
unless she can find somewhere she can be truly happy she cannot stay. She also
regrets many decisions she makes because she fears that they were the key to
her happiness and that she made the wrong decision. In the end of the book, she
claims to be truly happy, “My Edward and I, then, are happy” (Bronte, 433), so
maybe her difficult life brought her to a great reward, but I think she would
have found happiness sooner if she had not had to undergo such strife.
Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre:
Introduction by Joyce Carol Oates. Bantam Books, 1987. Print.
"Dave Astor: Orphans in
Literature." The Huffington Post. N.p., n.d. Web.
25 Mar. 2014.
Kimball, Melanie A. "From Folktales to Fiction: Orphan
Characters in Children’s Literature."Library Trends 47.3 (1999): 558-578. , Graduate School of Library and Information
Science, University of Illinois. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
<https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/8216/librarytrendsv47i3p_opt.pdf?sequence=1century>.
"Orphans - Childhood Studies - Oxford
Bibliographies -." Oxford Bibliographies - Your Best Research
Starts Here -. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
