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Example research essay topic: Helen Burns Jane Finds - 1,858 words

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Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre, skillfully reveals much of the sanctimony concerning women during the Victorian Era. Jane, the protagonist, has the qualities of endurance, valor, and vitality, yet she is refused self-contentment by the confined society in which she lives. Not only is this work a love story, but it is the tale of a young orphaned girl and her struggle for simpatico, for love and independence. Through the various environments Bronte provides, Jane oscillates between education and containment and also between freedom and servitude.

Beginning at Gateshead, Jane has her first experience of containment in dealing with the Reeds. John Reed blatantly smothers Jane's space by treating her like a slave, and Mrs. Reed enslaves her in every way. Mrs. Reed treats Jane as a stepchild instead of a niece and oftentimes sides with her children even if Jane is right.

For example, in the incident with John Reed, Jane is reading a book about birds and secretly wants to be able to fly away from all of the bad things at Gateshead. When John condemns Jane for reading "his" books, Mrs. Reed sends Jane to the Red Room even though Jane did not initiate the fight. The torturous experience for Jane becomes a type of containment in which she must obey her aunt and cousins, as a slave would obey his master. Jane feels then that she must resist everyone, Bessie, Miss Abbot, her cousins, and especially her aunt. She is urged by these same people to pray and repent and is locked yet again in an eerie room.

Jane encounters another character, Mr. Lloyd, who attempts to degrade her by making fun of her for crying. Her physical containment's, along with her mental ones, are coming to her one after another and take her to her limit. Jane deals with many emotions she feels by sorting them within herself but her meeting with Mr. Brocklehurst begins her break from servitude and containment into freedom and education. Mr.

Brocklehurst preaches to Jane about sin and the Bible but Jane refuses to say what he wants to hear. Her first taste of rebellion continues in her encounter with Mrs. Reed. Jane says, "I am glad you are no relation of mine. I will never call you aunt again as long as I live. I will never come to see you when I am grown up; and if anyone asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty" (Bronte 30).

Jane has the courage to stand up once and for all to her aunt. She has an unexplainable feeling inside, "the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph... it seemed as if an invisible bond had burst, " (Bronte 30), and this feeling is the cause of Jane's breaks from containment later on in the novel. Jane uses the last break away from her restraints at Gateshead and moves on to Lowood Academy.

Lowood is an "institution" that greets her with indigent conditions although she has escaped the wrath of her aunt. The routine of her life at Lowood in itself is a containing device in Jane's struggle with her lessons, hemming muslin for Mrs. Smith, and observing Miss Scatcherd's humiliation of Jane's friend Helen Burns. Helen tries to exert her influence on Jane but Jane, Helen's foil character, still refuses to submit to authority.

Mr. Brocklehurst forces Jane at one point to stand on a stool for a half hour for breaking her slate and he calls her a liar. This incident adds another instance of misery to Jane's growing list she begins at Gateshead. At Lowood, Jane begins to rebel in a calmer way than at Gateshead. She finds retribution for the stool punishment through a new role model, Miss Temple. Miss Temple publicly announces that Jane was falsely accused of being a liar.

In an indirect way, Jane challenges the restraints that Mr. Brocklehurst imposes upon her. The continuation of Jane's containment and confinement extends to the epidemic of typhus infiltrating Lowood. "Mr. Brocklehurst and his family never came near Lowood, " (Bronte 69) and this fact clearly shows Mr. Brocklehurst's hypocrisy and insensitivity. His attitude toward the orphaned girls creates a constraint wherein they are forced to live together in a deadly disease, but he is privileged enough to have the option to stay away from the threat.

Helen Burns dies from consumption and Jane has another indirect rebellion when she marks Helen's grave with "Resurgam. " Jane finds her way to a partial freedom when she becomes a teacher but she is still restricted by the strict superintendent and the governing board. She evaluates her feelings of discontent and restlessness and rebels by placing an advertisement in the Herald for a governess' position. Her freedom comes, or so she thinks it is her freedom, when she receives a reply from a Mrs. Fairfax in Thornfield. Thornfield Manor becomes the next stage in Jane's journey to freedom from her restraints and begins in a comfortable manner. Although it begins warm, Thornfield becomes a haven of boredom, restlessness, and discontent for Jane.

To free herself from the boredom, Jane goes out to mail a letter and unknowingly encounters Mr. Rochester. Jane finds that .".. the frown, the roughness of the traveler set me at my ease: " (Bronte 105).

Through her past experiences, Jane knows how to deal aptly with Mr. Rochester and displays her skills in doing so in a conversation with him even when she knows who he is. "I don't think, sir, you have the right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience" (Bronte 125). In the comment Jane makes directly to Mr. Rochester, she is bold.

He is her employer but she refuses to be demeaned by him and her experiences at Gateshead and Lowood teach her to be firm but polite, a part of her move toward education and away from containment. Another example of Jane's rebellion comes from within her. She realizes that she is falling in love with Mr. Rochester and it is unacceptable because she is socially inferior to him. The love she holds is a rebellion in itself because she is impoverished and lower than him. Jane compares herself to the beautiful Blanche Ingram in order to sort her feelings.

She continues on with her rebellion when Mrs. Reed calls for her. Mrs. Reed is ill and, although she treats Jane badly at Gateshead, Jane goes to her side- in her refusal to let Mrs.

Reed overcome her. Jane slowly learns how to deal with the bad times life has handed her thus far. Mrs. Reed, still just as cold on her death bed as she has been in the past, continues to denounce Jane and has contempt for her. Mrs Reed proclaims, "The fever broke out there [Lowood], and many of the pupils died.

She [Jane], however, did not die: but I said she did-I wish she had died!" (Bronte 219). Even with such harsh comments thrown at Jane, she handles the situation with maturity and confidence and these are the very qualities that attribute to her quest for freedom from containment. As her Thornfield experience moves on, she discovers that Mr. Rochester already possesses a wife and she decides to run away, moving solely on her feelings of love. She then begins her next stage at Moor House. Jane arrives at Moor House, pleading and begging for food and shelter.

Yet again, she gets a bad deal because Hannah the housekeeper gives her a penny and attempts to turn her away. Jane is persistent and eventually enters the house. She meets St. John, Mary, and Diana and challenges Hannah at one point. Hannah believes that Jane is a beggar and Jane proves her wrong by answering her questions in a civil manner. Unlike her experiences at Gateshead and Lowood, Jane handles herself in a much more dignified manner.

Jane tells Hannah, .".. you have had the incivility to call me a beggar" (Bronte 326). Jane successfully becomes bold in her comments toward those who give her care and a place to live. Jane comes to know the Rivers family and goes on to be a schoolmistress in Morton. Although she feels she is moving in a positive direction, she is still unhappy and weeps, believing that she made the right decision to leave Thornfield and Mr. Rochester.

Once again she feels the containment imposed on her by her surroundings, even though she thinks she made the wisest choice. As her love for Mr. Rochester consumes her, Jane refuses St. John's hollow proposal. "I scorn your idea of love... I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer; yes, St. John, and I scorn you when you offer it" (Bronte 390).

Jane then has a spiritual, almost superstitious experience that leads her out of her containment at last. She hears a voice exclaiming, "'Jane! Jane! Jane!' -nothing more. " She then answers, "I am coming! Wait for me! Oh I will come!" She also realizes that, "It was my time to assume ascendancy.

My powers were in play and in force" (Bronte 401). In a final attempt to be true to herself, Jane decides that she must return to her one and only love, Mr. Rochester. Her containment is almost completely broken to pieces when she decides to return to Thornfield.

Jane returns to Thornfield, only to find the manor in a burned ruin. Once she hears that Bertha is dead and Rochester resides in Ferndean, she wastes no time and hurries to his side. Jane is somewhat shocked that her beloved Edward is blind in one eye and has only one arm. These impediments are not obstacles for Jane though and they eventually have a son together. Mr. Rochester's eyesight is partially restored so he does get a chance to see his son.

In Ferndean, all of Jane's dreams are a reality: she is married (legally) and she has a child with the man she has always loved. Jane proclaims, "I have now been married ten years. I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blessed-blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine" (Bronte 431). Jane's eloquent description of her feelings shows that she has encountered a change from the beginning of the novel when she is ten years old. Jane's journey begins in her containment and a type of servitude in every place she lives.

Each new setting brings on more challenges and more negative feelings to Jane. As she moves through these bad experiences, she learns how better to deal with them and ultimately, she is satisfied. In her arrival at Ferndean, her salvation, Jane finally breaks away from her restraints and has the freedom she has always wanted.


Free research essays on topics related to: miss temple, helen burns, jane finds, moor house, ten years

Research essay sample on Helen Burns Jane Finds

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