Keywords: jane eyre narrative, jane eyre essay
Jane Eyre is written from the first person standpoint. So how exactly does this impact our judgement of the protagonist Jane?
Jane Eyre is narrated by its subject character and so reveals us with a tale from a exclusive perspective. When the book was first posted it included the subtitle, 'An Autobiography, ' thus drawing further attention to its narration by one individual very much associated with the storyline to be told. The nature of the narrator and their romance with the audience has a great result how we judge their personality, and Jane Eyre is no exception. Jane Eyre provides us with a narration of situations and dialogue, as well as a merchant account of her thoughts and thoughts.
The novel can be categorised as a bildungsroman, as it charts the growth of Jane from a kid into a young woman. This particular genre of the book capitalises on the first person narrator and therefore creates a story that is extremely sympathetic to the plight of the protagonist. As a child at the start of the book, Jane utters to herself the words 'Unjust! - unjust!' (p17) which is impossible for the reader never to constantly recall these words as Jane suffers at the hands of her cousins and later at Lowood College. By reading a merchant account from a first person narrator our company is privy to not only a narration of situations, but also of internalised thoughts. In this esteem, it is easy for this type of narration to be biased and extremely subjective. We're able to understand how Jane seems, but must count on her conception as it pertains to the thoughts of others.
It holds true that Jane's narration is an extremely personal bank account and therefore is often selective, with Jane recounting experiences that stay in her storage, 'I remember well the distracting irritability I endured from the reason every nighttime' (p62). However, because of the way Bronte characterises Jane - of good moral nature and of continuous character - we allow her as a credible narrator. Our sympathy and bias towards her cause is aided by the fact that people are given an perception into Jane's life right from her childhood. Which means that we can relate with her and sympathise with her situation, knowing where she has come from and what drives her.
There is not a illusion shown in the book that people are reading an unbiased version of happenings. In fact, the narrator of Jane Eyre makes the relationship between reader and herself clear, frequently bringing attention to the our position as audience 'True, reader, and I understood and experienced this' (p79). The energy of the narrator becomes clear as the novel progresses, with Jane Eyre often speculating on her behalf role as narrator, 'A new section in a book is something like a new field in a play; and when I draft the curtain this time, reader - you must fancy you visit a room in the George Inn at Millcote' (p95). She attracts the reader in to the tale and in doing this identifies the audience as someone akin to a associate or good friend. Again, this tone of narration enables us to hook up and empathise with the narrator. We experience events as Jane remembers them, and are given explanations at the same point in the story as she'd have obtained them.
Jane relies seriously on dialect and story-telling as a means of expressing herself, this is clear from the start of the book when our first view of her comes while she actually is reading a book, 'Each picture informed a tale; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect thoughts, yet ever profoundly interesting' (p10-11). In turn she becomes a great storyteller of her life. This is also consequently of being confined as a kid; she is hardly ever given the opportunity to describe herself, 'Be seated anywhere, and until you can speak pleasantly, continue to be silent' (p39). Therefore, Jane tends to develop an affinity with those who take to storytelling like Bessie, and is repelled by those who do not, like St John. When communicating of Mary Ann Wilson, the value she grants communicative romantic relationships becomes clearer:
'She possessed a convert for narrative, I for analysis; she prefer to inform, I to question; so we received on swimmingly jointly, deriving much entertainment, if not much improvement, from our common intercourse' (109).
This attitude allows the reader to accept Jane as a personality telling a story as truthfully as she can through her own eye, and also very alert to the entertainment value of a story.
This limited knowledge of events may become problematic in regards to to our judgement of Jane when it comes to the treating Bertha. Bronte experienced an unquestioning belief in the assumptions of imperialism, a belief that would certainly colour her views and sympathies for heroes such as Bertha, as seen through the sight of Jane Eyre. Subsequently the focal people of the book become Jane and Mr Rochester, forcing Bertha in to the peripheral role of obstacle to the desired matrimony. This pro-imperialist position means that Jane consistently refers to the type of Bertha as bestial, irrational and violent:
'What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, initially sight let: it grovelled, relatively on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild pet: but it was protected with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled locks, wild as a mane, hid its mind and face. ' P291
Such a personality fits flawlessly into a gothic book and her demonstration succeeds in having us nearer and sense more empathy for the plight of Jane and Rochester. It is extremely easy to sideline the type of Bertha and give her little thought apart from as another hardship in the life of Jane. We see her in relation to Jane and not as a persona in herself. Indeed, she is frequently addressed as it, and we are given little understanding into her life before Thornfield Hall. Whenever we do obtain information about her, it is largely biased towards Rochester. For instance, the take action of delivering Bertha back again to Britain is portrayed as an action of duty to God and mankind. As a identity in love with Rochester, Jane can narrate his behaviour and actions in a positive light.
Jean Rhys tackles the problem of Jane Eyre's subjectivity and treatment of Bertha in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys disputes Bronte's British assumptions about colonial otherness by writing Bertha into the story, but this time with more than a trivial role. As explained by Jean Rhys in the booklet Jean Rhys and the book as women's text message:
'why should she think Creole women are lunatics and everything that? What a shame to make Rochester's first partner, Bertha, the awful madwoman, and I immediately thought I'd write the report as it might genuinely have been. She looked such poor ghost, I thought I'd make an effort to write her a life. '( p128)
By focusing on the story of Bertha (given the name of Antoinette) Rhys can justify her behavior and present her a history and figure of her own unrelated to Jane Eyre. Because of this we're able to place Jane and Rochester into a dilemna, as opposed to reading them through blinkered eyesight.
By shifting sympathy to the character of Antoinette, it appears that Rhys is suggesting that she was previously misrepresented by Bronte. However, given enough time that Bronte was writing in and the actual fact that she actually is presenting the views and thoughts of one female identity, this seems just a little unfair. Bronte was focusing on providing a tone to Jane Eyre, not to the Creole female in the attic. Being a nineteenth female writer, Bronte was - like Bertha - constrained by circumstances and what could not be achieved in life ran parallel using what could not be written. This supposed that Bronte wouldn't normally have been in a position to question a woman's role without writing against the grain of modern-day religious values and societal convention (basically influenced at that time by imperialism). Bronte's novel is really as much a sign of the changing times as an individual narrative.
Communication is of great importance to Jane throughout the book, to the extent that she frequently judges other people on their narrative capacity, granting favour to those who show good narrators. Just as we give favour to Jane Eyre for her position as a credible narrator. There will always be gaps in a tale, be these knowledge gaps or picked omissions which is particularly the case as it pertains to first person narrations. But as Jane notes with regards to Mary Ann Wilson, there's always one individual who narrates and another who analyses; person who informs and another who questions. Regarding Jane Eyre, it is still left to the reader to analyse and question after they have browse the novel, definitely not judging the character of Jane, but considering the issues it raises.
Bibliography
Bronte, Charlotte, Jane Eyre (Penguin, 1994)
Harrison, Nancy, Jean Rhys and the novel as women's text (College or university of NEW YORK Press, 1988
