Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - English Jane Eyre1 Jane Eyre1 Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, is the story of Jane, an orphan girl with a harsh upbringing. During a time when women were condemned for learning more than custom pronounced necessary, Jane becomes educated intellectually, socially, and spiritually. In the course of growing up she travels to many places as she battles to learn more about herself and about the world. In the following paragraphs you’ll see how Bronte establishes that money and power do not make a person. Mrs. Reed, Mr. Rochester, and Mr. Brocklehurst all reflect this, they are not nice or perfectly content people. She demonstrates that general education is more important than wealth. The story begins at the Reed’s residence at Gateshead Hall. Jane is excluded from the Reed’s activities so she tries to educate herself by reading books. Soon enough though, John Reed finds her, takes away the book and strikes her with it. “You are like a slave-driver” (Bronte: 43), cries Jane. In this passage Jane compares John with a slave-driver because like one, John deprives her of her endeavor to educate herself and keeps her suppressed. In the boarding school for orphaned girls called Lowood, Jane sees that movement towards progress and knowledge is retained. Mr. Brocklehurst, the director of Lowood, wants the girls to “clothe themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with braided hair and costly apparel” (Bronte: 96). So he doesn’t allow for girls to be dressed neatly or with curls in their hair because to him that’s a sin of showing off. His goal it seems is not to truly educate this girls for their own improvement, but merely to educate them to serve the wealthy. In spite of many hardships, Jane manages to graduate and becomes a governess under Mr. Rochester’s employment. Mr. Brocklehurst’s influence on Jane to be plain, to be an underclass to serve becomes more apparent when Jane thinks, “is it likely he (Mr. Rochester) would waste a serious thought on this indigent and insignificant plebeian?” (Bronte: 191). Having no money or a house of her own, she considers herself inferior and unlikely that Mr. Rochester, being a man of power and class, would ever lay eyes on her. When Jane leaves Thornfield after she finds out that Mr. Rochester is married, she decides that it’s better to be a schoolmistress, honest and free, than to stay and become a slave full of remorse and shame. She loves Mr. Rochester deeply but is willing to sacrifice her love for her own righteous beliefs. Even a man powerful enough like M. Rochester with all the luxuries, can’t convince a plain, simple girl like Jane to stay with him. As she heads out into the world, alone and without any money, she knows that there are many things other than money that a person relies on, mainly education. Bronte further explores the benefits of education towards a moral character when she creates contrasts between the Rivers and the Reeds. While John Reed goes to waste and Georgiana Reed lives a completely worthless life as a showpiece to the rich, the Rivers spend their leisure time reading and learning. When both families end up lacking money, they also handled the lost differently. John Reed wastes his mother’s money and Georgiana Reed marries for money. On the other hand Diana and Mary Rivers become independent and find jobs. It is clear that Bronte is trying to emphasize that having wealth is not everything. Mrs. Reed, Mr. Rochester, and Mr. Brocklehurst share wealth in common but they also seem to share the unhappiness. Mrs. Reed is full of hatred, Mr. Brocklehurst hides his villainous motives behind the word of God, and finally Mr. Rochester is just a powerful unhappy men who life has treated unkindly but cannot find happiness even with all his riches. Mr. Rochester does develop in the novel though and becomes a truly happy man. Jane Eyre also certainly develops in the novel. At the beginning, she is a lonely dependent orphan girl, but she battles the constraints of her harsh upbringing and becomes generally educated. She develops into a strong, confident and independent woman. She doesn’t have to give up her beliefs or desires for love to be truly happy. Bibliography: Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre Word Count: 703
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