and cleansed, with a very angel as my comforter.” The second time she saves him, at the end of the novel, is when he has learned the error of his ways and proclaims his new closeness to God. At this point he learns through Jane not to tempt the ways of God. Bigamy is a grave sin in the Anglican Church, and it is seen as deceit before the very altar of God. By the end of the novel, when Jane begins to see herself in the role of the saviour, she can fully assume her role as an angel.In Rochester’s conversion and salvation, Jane recognizes herself as the humble instrument of divine providence. Thus the solitary heroine, yearning for freedom and action ends by playing the role prescribed for women in family and society, that of moral guide and angel of the home. Yet it is not until Jane has completed her education through becoming a more rational, domestic, financially independent, and able to see herself in the role of the saviour, that she can truly become the middle-class angel figure.Although the Victorian concept of the angel was de-sexualized, it is important to note that Jane is not a prude merely because she subscribes to the angel mythology of that day. Even though she is a chaste and English woman, she is also a human being with wants and desires. It would be a contradiction in ideology for her to be frigid because a woman is the mother figure of the household and is designed to produce heirs. Bronte understands this and acknowledges the attraction and duty a woman should have towards the man she wishes to be her husband.Bronte is not disapproving of sexual attraction between Jane and Rochester, but she realizes that it must be tempered. This is why she does not let Jane become Rochester’s mistress. It is not until he can legitimately marry her that any sort of sexual union can be achieved. When Jane understands his plans to whisk her off to the south of France, she emphatically declares, “I do...
