Reason sits firm

 

Robert McGuiness

"Reason sits firm and holds the reigns...I shall follow the guiding of that still small voice which interprets the dictates of conscience."


“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

I always thought it was Jane who made that first remark, but no, it's Rochester, describing Jane's character. Jane thoroughly impressed me as a young girl, and was always at the back of my mind as an example of true strength and beauty. Personally I don't think we can overestimate the value of a female protagonist who is described as "plain" yet is full of life, intelligence and inner strength. In an image-obsessed world, I find her unutterably refreshing. 


Rereading "Jane Eyre" after all these years I was struck by so many things. For me, the story seems to hinge on something Helen tells Jane when she has been wrongly accused - Jane has just said "I know I should think well of myself; but that is not enough: if others don't love me, I would rather die than live - I cannot bear to be solitary and hated..." to which Helen replies, "Hush, Jane! you think too much of the love of human beings; you are too impulsive, too vehement: the sovereign hand that created your frame, and put life into it, has provided you with other resources than your feeble self, or than creatures as feeble as you." And more, "If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends." It seems to me, that Jane heard Helen clearly that day, and the rest of the story is simply her living by those words. I can see it from then on. She already has an innate sense of justice, I think from having no one to stand up for her (except Helen and Miss Temple), but to that she adds a resolve almost never seen in "romantic" novels about women - she determines to put reason, conscience, and thereby "thinking well of herself" above feeling, above the approval of those she admires and even loves. This is such a strong-minded, incredible resolve - I don't know if its been matched in another novel since.

F. D. Bedford

 And even thinking well of herself she does with reason. When Rochester calls her "a very angel as my comforter", she laughs, "I am not an angel...and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself." Jane decimates our concept of self-esteem - just as Miss Temple told her, "We shall think you what you prove yourself to be." Jane gathers confidence from acting according to her reason and conscience. That's self-regard - the opposite of the idea that feeling good about ourselves leads to doing good. If that were truly so, Jane would not be a believable character. But she is. She rings true on every count.

Frederick Henry Townsend

And her resolve is tested twice. First, by Rochester, whom she loves, and who loves her - but loves her more than he loves doing right. This, strangely, though heart-rending, is not as difficult a test (in my opinion) as St. John is. After all, St. John is family - real family she has never had before. And he is living by his conscience. And he uses her belief in God to persuade her. He goes so far as to bully her. And she almost falls for it. Almost. She would have done everything he wanted, in fact, but that he made one mistake - he insisted she had to marry him to join in his missionary work. She couldn't take that. Her conscience told her that to marry a man she didn't love was to make a mockery of marriage, and of love itself.

The other thing that struck me about the novel was its continual contrast between false piety (or self-righteousness)and the full enjoyment and generosity of true love/belief. It's shown over and over again - in her Aunt, Mr. Brocklehurst, her cousin Eliza, and finally St. John, piety is depicted as merciless, power-hungry, cruel and unceasingly negative about humanity. Whereas Miss Temple, Mr. Rochester (in spite of his many faults), and Jane's cousins Diana and Mary, are compassionate, generous, willing to see their own failings, and full of encouragement and praise for others.