ure-oriented relationship.The beautiful natural relationship between Jane and Rochester exists in the midst of confusion, fury, and denial, elements that the novel’s other characters create. A character that blazes with natural fury and scorches many of the other characters in the novel is Bertha Mason. Bertha represents the most harsh, cruel, and unattractive side of nature. Rochester feels that he must protect Bertha and keep her rage dormant. Rochester could never kill Bertha, though she is a torment to him, because she is a part of him, a part of nature. Bertha and Rochester’s complex relationship is typical of the interdependence often seen in nature. It is only appropriate that Bertha should die in fire, an element of nature that mirrors her own temperament. It is also fitting that Rochester is injured in the fire. Rochester’s wounds symbolize his connection with Bertha and illustrate how one organism in nature’s ecosystem always affects another. As true to her natural rage Bertha is, St.John is equally vehemenant in his opposition to nature. St.John restricts his feelings and denies himself happiness. Though St.John loves, as he can love, a beautiful, young, and wealthy lady named Rosamond, he does not pursue her because she does not seem practical enough for him. St.John never experiences true joy and never experiences honesty; he is constantly denying his natural impulses. Jane realizes Edwards 4St.John’s faults: “He is good and great, but severe; and for me, cold as an iceberg. He is not like you sir. I am not happy at his side, nor near him, nor with him” (425; Ch.37). Jane could never be happy with St.John because he, as she points out, is not her type – he is not natural. Nature plays a vital role in the events of Jane Eyre; nature is the force that allows Jane and Rochester to meet. Jane, on an afternoon walk, watches Rochester’s horse slip on a sheet of...
