Jane Eyre and the Price She Pays

Written by Charlotte Brontл “Jane Eyre”is hailed by many as the first work where a female character truly portrays a heroine. The novel is also seen as the perfect courtship work. It tells the highly clichй story of what happens of “boy meets girl.” While the novel also creates a woman who has been proclaimed a mold breaker by many, it does come with a dark side. The main character, Jane constantly asserts her independence, however it does not come cheap. Along with a secondary criticism, we will come to see Jane as an extremist, and by using the aid of “Wide Sargasso Sea” we will also discover that the cost of any obsession will inevitably consume it’s host leaving them as nothing more than a ghost of the being they strived so hard to be.

Jane is a young girl who is being brought up by a wealthy aunt, who does not particularly care for her ‘extra baggage.’ It is only through a lower class servant that Jane finds any sense of kindness while living with her cruel family member. One day, as punishment for fighting with her bullying cousin, Jane is imprisoned in a red-room, a room in which she is tortured by thoughts of her dead uncle (who is said to have died in the room). While inside Jane faints from the horror and awakens in the care of a kind woman who suggests Jane be sent away to school.

Once at school, Jane finds that her life is far from idyllic. The school’s headmaster turns out to be a cruel, hypocritical, and abusive man. Ironically, Jane grows to hate this environment just as much as her previous. Her feelings of loneliness grow, and then propel out of proportion when the one friend she makes dies suddenly.

As she grows older Jane yearns for new experiences, and escape from the life she has come to know. These sentiments are what cause her to accept a governess position at a manor called Thornfield. While heading there to teach a young girl Jane begins to encounter her employer. A dark, impassioned man named Rochester. What starts as interest slowly evolves into attract, as Jane finds herself falling secretly in love with him. Though she often denies