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Jane Eyre takes the reader on a feminine adventure. The heroine’s task is to discover the art of self-mastery and to obtain wholeness. In the course of her journey, she meets a number of women who serve as role models. Each woman teaches Jane valuable information that helps her along the way of her heroic journey. In a patriarchy, women’s power is limited, usually to authority over children and other women. This is illustrated in the examples of Mrs. Reed, Miss Temple and Mrs. Fairfax.

Mrs. Reed is not a good mother figure for Jane. She favors her own children, particularly John Reed who will be the heir to the Reed fortune. Even though John is only a child, he is the patriarch of the Reed family and when he is older he will have authority over his mother and sister. Mrs. Reed’s nature is one of jealousy and cruelty. Jane’s observation to Mrs. Reed after the incident in the Red Room is, “What would Uncle Reed say to you if he were alive (Bronte 29).” Mrs. Reed is frightened, as though Mr. Reed’s spirit were, indeed, still present in the house watching her as she failed in her promise to him. Even in spirit form, Mr. Reed seems to have power over his wife. Clearly Mrs. Reed provided Jane with an example of womanhood which she must reject.

Ms. Temple is also a woman with limited power. She has power only in the absence of Mr. Brocklehurst. She is kind to the girls and appears to be serene and ladylike in the Victorian sense; but she has “repressed her own share of madness and rage (Gilbert 88).” She provides Jane with a more positive example than Mrs. Reed does. Jane learns refinement from Miss Temple; she learns to conceal her anger so that by the time she arrives at Thornfield she “appeared a disciplined and subdued character (Bronte 99).” But Jane never learns to master or channel her anger. Unlike Miss Temple or Helen Burns, Jane’s “way of confronting the world is still the Promethean way of fiery rebellion (Gilbert 89).” Jane learns to conceal her anger, but not to repress it. Perhaps it is good that Jane did not learn to repress her anger for, as we later see in the character of Bertha, repression leads to madness.

Helen Burns represents martyrdom. She teaches Jane about Christian duty and female servitude. Like her predecessors, she provides an example for Jane that her nature does not permit her to follow. Helen’s example is one of “self-renunciation, of all consuming (and consumptive) spirituality… One’s duty, Helen declares, is to submit to the injustices of this life, in expectation of the ultimate justice of the next…(89).” On the other hand, Jane is not a saint. She cannot accept as God’s will that she is “an orphan, friendless, and penniless (Rigby 45).” Instead she pleads with God for liberty. When liberty seems to much to ask, she entreats God to “grant me at least a new servitude (Bronte 88).” Like Miss Temple, Helen Burns is also a mother figure for Jane (Gilbert 89). Jane finds different aspects of each woman that she accepts or rejects.

Mrs. Fairfax is the head of the household at Thornfield, at least, in the absence of Mr. Rochester. It is she who hires Jane and treats her with the kindness of an equal. Mrs. Fairfax’s power in the household demonstrates the limitations of feminine authority in a patriarchy. She holds such a high position because she is Mr. Rochester’s relative. She is at once relative and employee.

The child Adele Varens is the mirror reflection of her mother Celine. “She longs for fashionable gowns rather than for love or freedom and, the way her mother Celine did, sings and dances for her supper as if she were a clockwork temptress invented by E.T.A. Hoffman (89).” This is an example plain Jane cannot follow.

Blanche Ingram, whose name implies her purity with regard to her station in society, provides and example of womanhood that is repugnant to Jane since her experience with Eliza and Georgiana Reed. Like Celine, Adele, and the Reed sisters, Blanche’s way is that of a pampered socialite. Blanche is beautiful and enjoys beautiful clothing and adornments. In spite of her social position, she lacks Jane’s intelligence and refinement. Her whiteness and purity contrasts with the darkness of Bertha. She is “worldly but, unlike Adele and Celine, has a respectable place in the world.” Through the charades acted during the party, Blanche teaches Jane that conventional marriage is a mystery and a prison. She teaches her that in “the game of marriage… even scheming women are doomed to lose.” None of the women at Thornfield possess Jane’s rage (89). None of them has experienced Jane’s trials and they have the experience of a higher social status than Jane does.

Grace Poole is closely associated with Bertha. Grace Poole is an alcoholic, which is arguably a form of insanity. “Grace is as companionless as Bertha or Jane herself… Women in Jane’s world, acting as agents for men, may be the keepers of other women. But both keepers and prisoners are bound by the same chains (90).” Jane fears Grace Poole. The mystery of Jane’s relationship to Mr. Rochester and her position at Thornfield are the questions of Jane’s relationship and position there. When Jane ponders the woman in the attic, it is really herself about whom she wonders.

Bertha and Grace Poole are associated in Jane’s mind as one person – one mad woman in the attic. Dark and mysterious Bertha is Jane’s unknown self. She is her “truest and darkest double; she is the angry aspect of the orphan child, the ferocious secret self Jane has been trying to repress ever since her days at Gateshead (91). The two pitiable, unamiable creatures, Bertha and Grace, provide Jane with an example to be avoided. In Bertha, Jane clearly sees the consequences of subordinating one’s self in a prison of conventional marriage. The result is madness and inevitably death.

Even if Jane never achieves liberty or never learns to assert her will completely, she achieves her victory. She learns to live independently and she gains a means to power through her inheritance. By the time the manor at Thornfield is destroyed and her dark double Bertha is dead, Jane’s anger is also subdued. She returns to her other half, Mr. Rochester, and rescues him from loneliness and misery. Thus, Jane claims her victory. But this is not only a victory for Jane, but for Charlotte Bronte, as well, since she has written what is perhaps the first women’s tale of heroic adventure.

Works Cited

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Buccaneer Books, Inc., 1976.

Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, Vol. 8, edited by Marie Lazzari. Gale Research Co., 1995.

Rigby, Elizabeth. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, Vol. 3, edited by Marie Lazzari. Gale Research Co., 1995.