Children, Madness, and Freedom

A detailed Summary of Children, Madness, and Freedom

Positionings: Theoretical and Personal

In considering Charlotte Brontė's, Jane Eyre, I would like to first say a bit on the position we will be looking from, so to speak. The form in which this book is written, that of a fictional autobiography which is retrospective, and therefor confessional, is a form which grants considerable psychological freedom to an author. Freedom of this nature often affords an author a proxy whereby issues or desires to painful or personally controversial may be played out upon a more detached field. It is the opinion of this writer that in such cases (and of course others) one may view the plot of the story, its conflicts, and its characters, not only as "external" objects of the authors scrutinies but also as signifiers of aspects of the authors "internal" topography. The one view does not preclude the other.

This said let us look briefly at the principal conflicts within the drama of the text, which having a degree of subtly, and multisidedness, by no measure slight, it should be said, nearly evade delineation. The first of these, which could be seen to give form to some of the later, is what could be called, more or less, a body/mind conflict. This takes the shape of, among other things, a strugg

With the addition of Bertha Rochester we will complete our cast of characters and tie up what we have to tie up. First let us try to find her. For nearly the entire story at Thornfield she is concealed, by Mr Rochester (a character we are, on account of our limits neglecting except to occasionally quote him). Her character and its characterization are fascinating enough for a book of their own. She is repeatedly associated fire vis-a-vis the bed incident, the destruction of Thornfield, and Jane's second observation upon entering Bertha's cell. Here, so that we might begin to form her in our eyes, are some points used to describe her: "What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell..." (Ch.XXVI) "(it) growled like some strange wild animal..." (ibid.) "...intemperate and unchaste." (ibid.) This one is especially tasty given some of the derivations, "she is so cunning: it is not in mortal discretion to fathom her craft." (ibid.) In short then it would se!

'Heathens and savage tribes hold that doctrine; but Christians and civilized nations disown it.'" (Ch.VI)

When thus alone, I not unfrequently heard Grace Poole's laugh." (Ch.XII)

" 'But I feel this, Helen: I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me; I must resist those who punish me unjustly. It is as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to punishment when I feel it is deserved.'

Having touched on Helen we will move on, quite briefly, to Adele, or perhaps not so much Adele herself as a few points around her. The first of which is simply the structure of Adele and Jane's relations, namely that Jane is Adele's governess, which is to say that it is her role to manage and educate her. This structure in turn suggests a parallel with Jane's relations with the analogous (child/passion) parts of her own personality. Beyond the obvious similarity between the characters of them both being, functionally, orphans there is the far more obtuse sympathy when on their first meaning Adele recalls, "...a pond with beautiful birds in it, that I fed with crumbs." (Ch.XI) In addition to this (and central to the positioning of our inquiry) there is Jane's statement on the eve of her thwarted wedding, "She (Adele) seemed an emblem of my past life..." (Ch.XXV) While there are many interesting things we could muse over concerning Adele we will leave her as such.

All italics will be mine unless otherwise noted.

Jane Eyre is, throughout the book, characterized as passionate no less than five times. Once she directly says it of herself (Ch.XXI). She seems to mostly hold a middle path, "Sense would resist delirium: judgment would warm passion."

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre's, Thornfield Jane's, Analysis Symbols, Jane Adele's, ChIV Helen, Bertha Rochester, Lowood Helen, St John, IV Jane's, jane eyre, jane eyre's, throughout text, child jane eyre, child jane, helen burns, jane's statement, chapter iv, briefly adele, bertha rochester, jane's relations,

Approximate Word count = 1817
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels