CHAPTER- II

PORTRAIT OF WOMEN IN THE NOVEL, JANE EYRE

Jane Eyre is unquestionably the best novel of Charlotte Bronte and is

warmly liked by its readers. The success of the novel was so great that it ensured

responsive audiences when it was played on the stage, cinema and television. It has

been read over the air and studied regularly at school and colleges. Till today it

invites numerous readers and continues to command popular attention. The first

person narrative, the brusque appeal of its larger than life hero, Mr. Rochester and

Cindrella like triumph of its plain, poor and little but passionate governess heroine

Jane Eyre compel the readers to like the novel. All this become possible because of

the story of the novel which is of surpassing interest, riveting the attention from the

very first chapter and sustaining it by copiousness of incidents rare indeed in the

modem school of novelists.

·The novel is ornamented by the portraits of the women who are sketched

with a vividness and each stroke has given rise to a creation. Charlotte has made her

minute observation work in each of her sketches and each woman stands forth as real

and living as is to be found in word painting. It seems that the artist has sat down

and limned their features and has painted them from within. As a child, the heroine

Jane Eyre is subjected to the chi dings of a nurse while clearly not a servant. She is

nevertheless in a sub-ordinate position, obliged to tolerate the young John Reed's

abuse because she is an impoverished dependent. Since she is a parentless infant.

she is taken to her maternal uncle's house where she has to face ostracism. She also

has to suffer physical inferiority, as she is very small in size. Her vulnerability is

85

a female, an orphan, a pauper and evidently unattractive. She is at every point disad­

vantaged. She is quite aware of her physical inferiority and gives the proof of it:

"I never liked long walks, specially on chilly afternoons. Dreadful to

me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes and a heart

saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse and humbled by the consciousness of

my physical inferiority to Eliza, John and Georgian Reed."1

Instead of the expected childish annoyance at having to stay indoors

Jane feels both phy_sical and emotional distress associated with such outings. She

derives a muted kind of happiness in reading Bewick's History of British Birds, a

text illustrated with wood cuts, depicting its subjects in wild and desolate sellings

dangerous to man. Her enjoyment of the gloomy work, her imaginative interpreta­

tion of its contents suggest that a lonely and unhappy child like Jane finds escape

from reality in the world of imagination.: The legitimacy of her unhappiness is es­

tablished whenever she is abused and instinctively she accepts the abuse as she her­

self describes that she is a humble girl. It is only after she has suffered both pain and

terror that this habitual passivity gives way to a violent sense of injustice. When her

brother hurls the book at her, she feels that the terror has passed its climax, other

feelings have succeeded and she automatically resists his brutal behaviour:

"Wicked and cruel boy ! You are like a murderer, you are like a slave

driver- you are like the Roman Emperors !"3 In a fit of anger she hits John Reed so

much that she is put in the Red Room.

86

The episode in the Red Room conveys both Jane's helplessness, rebel­

liousness and emotionalism which increases her suffering. Her strong and passion­

ate sense of injustice combined with her vivid supernatural imaginings create a con­

dition of hysteria which ends in her fainting. The red carpet, the red curtains, the red

table cloth, the red hangings set against the snowy white bed and chair cannot ebb

the sustaining embers of her rage. The life of the heart in the prison seems to present

only a choice between frozen wintriness and red passion. Yet the price of the kind of

life of the heart is underlined:

"A ridge oflighted heath, alive, glancing, devouring, would have been

a good emblem of my mind when I accused and menaced Mrs. Reed; the same ridge,

black and blasted after the flames are dead, would have represented as meetly my

subsequent condition. "4

Jane just cannot bear further her brother's tyrannies, her sisters' indif­

ference, her aunt's aversion and the servants' partiality. It disturbs her mind like a

dark deposit in a turbid well. Internally she bleeds. She cannot understand why she

is always suffering and brow beaten. Why she is accused and condemned? Why

cannot she please anyone and why cannot she win anyone's favour. She feels strongly

against general opprobrium.

"Unjust ! -unjust ! said my reason, forced by the agonising stimulus

into precocious though transitory power's and Resolve, equally wrought up, insti­

gated some strange expedient to achieve escape from unsupportable oppression - as

87

running away, or , if that could not be affected never eating or drinking more, and

letting myself die. "s

The Red room incident brings a tumult in Jane's brain. She fights her

mental battle in the darkness of the room and comes out with the decision that she

cannot tolerate any more. She endeavours to be firm. She is happy that she is called

an artful obnoxious child for now she can leave her aunt's household. It is not irk­

some to stay with an aunt who cannot love her. She does not want to be alien among

her own family group. She decides to leave the Reed household because she knows

that her character cannot match her situation. Her rebelliousness is declared as a

punishable offence but it does not add to her suffering. It has a positive aspect:

"Superstition was with me at that moment; but it was not yet her hour

for complete victory; my blood was still warm: the mood of the revolted slave was

still bracing me with its bitter vigour. "6

Though her first rebellion results only in bad feelings and she gets a

prompt punishment from Mrs. Reed but it momentarily troubles her. Her second

rebellion gives Jane the strongest sense of freedom, of triumph:

"You think that I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of

love, Kindness; but I cannot live so; and you have no pity. I shall remember how you

thrust me back into the red room and locked me up there, to my dying days, though

I was in agony; though I cried out, while suffocating with distress, Have Mercy !

88

Have mercy, aunt Reed ! ' and that punishment you made me suffer because your

Wicked boy struck me- knocked me down for nothing. I will tell any body who asks

me questions this exactable. People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard

hearted. You are deceitful!"7

Jane's triumph is however short lived compared with the poisonous

feelings of remorse. But the Red Room episode demonstrates the potential power of

the otherwise totally vulnerable protagonist. Jane's ability is not just to feel, but to

articulate. A sense of injustice constitute her only weapon against the world. In a

child's hand it is like a double edged sword, resulting in many self inflicted wound

but its power is real. Jane comes to know very well that she cannot live a life of a

normal child and that she has to deal her worldly affairs in a different way and

behave like a miniature adult, becoming the symbol of the greatest significance for

the subjective investigation of the self which can lead to a desolated life. Charlotte

has presented Jane as an isolated figure. Without family or friends she has no one

with whom she can really share her thoughts and feelings. The isolated portrait of

Jane endears her to herself only and not to others. Her situation, then incline her to

lonely introspection, encouraging a pre-occupation with her own feelings. But as

well as inducing self pity, this isolation from all those around her put her in a position

from which to criticise her own small world. Although her own experience is severaly

limited, her reading introduces her to a wider world and to an awareness of moral

issues which enable her to generalise from her own personal sufferings. 8 The life of

the imagination, foster a sense of social injustice, a sense of social, physical and

intellectual inferiority, an inferiority stated even by the servants. Unhappy and afraid

89

Jane has to lead her life. A sense of helplessness shake her nerves:

"Daylight began to forsake the red room; it was past four O'clock and

the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight. I heard the rain beating con­

tinuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the

halls & grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage sank. My habitual

mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my

decaying life. All said I was wicked and perhaps I might so; what thought had I been

but just conceiving of starving myself to death? That certainly was a crime: and was

I fit to die?'' 9

Oppressed, suffocated by the morbid suffering, Jane tastes vengeance

as an aromating wine and transforms herself from a wretched child to a developed

young girl. She gains the strength to dart retaliation at her antagonist and giving her

a piece of her mind, soothes down. A new man, Mr. Brocklehurst is presented in her

life and then a subjective portrait of Jane is placed in front of the readers. She learns

by examples from other people, also whom she meets, most of whom belong to one

specific phase of Jane's development carrying with them their most alient traits. Moral

and emotional growth enable to look at the brighter aspects oflife and she is more

inclined to find rational explanations. 10 When she is sent to Lowood as punishment

for her rebelliousness and anger, she is exposed to physical deprivation which make

long for acceptance and approval, and to learn how to deal with her own painful

emotions. She learns to control on her outspokenness and acquires discipline, so that

she is able to fulfil her role as a governess adequately. Helen Bruns and Miss. Temple

90

play a powerful role in her life and to some extent these two women play pivoted

roles in her life and in moulding her temperament: When she is in need Helen Bums

and Miss Temple are at her side to nurse her and her eight yars in their company pass

uniformly. She has the means of an excellent education. She is availed of the advan­

tages of being a teacher and she gets plenty of time to alter herself. Miss Temple,

after Helen Bums stand besides her as mother, governess and companion. She makes

the harmonious thoughts, the inmates of her mind. She gives allegiance to duty and

order. She is a quiet and content teenager with full discipline. 11 She becomes an

excellent teacher. However when she is appointed governess at Mr. Rochester's house

Jane's portrait as a woman is presented, a portrait of a conventional heroine but plain

and simple. Charlotte Bronte deliberately defies· the Romantic convention that all

heroines are beautiful:

"She once told her sisters that they were wrong-in making their hero­

ines beautiful as a matter of course. They replied that it was impossible to make a

heroine interesting on any other terms. Her answer was, 'I will show you a heroine as

plain and small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours. "12

Jane's Portrait as a woman finds its way when, she meets Mr. Roches­

ter. Mr. Rochester's encounter with her seems welcome for her and she is honoured

by a cordiality of reception which makes her feel possessed. She talks however

comparitively little as she herself declares in th novel. Love which is very natural for

an eighteen years old girl shoots spreading its roots in the heart of Jane. She falls in

91

love and falls in love passionately with Mr. Rochester who is equally plain man and

much older than her. But he is no more ugly when Jane looks at him. She is very

happy in his company:

"The case of his manner freed me from painful restraint; the friendly

frankness, as correct as cordial, with which he treated me, drew me to him. I felt at

times as if he were my relation, rather than may master; yet he was imperious some­

times still; but I did not mind that;I saw it was his way. So happy, so gratified did I

become with this new interest added to life, that I ceased to pine after kindred; My

thin crescent destiny seemed to enlarge, the blank of existence were filled up; my

bodily health improved; I gathered flesh and strength. "13

Jane Eyre is the epitome of courage and confronts her own passions

with intense courage. She is adventurous but in an intensely individualistic and wom­

anly way. When Mr. Rochester faces an attempt of murder, it is Jane who saves him

and in return she never feels that there is debt, benefit, burden, or obligation from her

side. She plays a typical role of a faithful lover. She is only relaxed that she has

succeeded in getting the love of Mr. Rochester. After the incident she becomes the

lover scud merrily rolling around and enjoying freedom. A freshening gale bears her

spirit triumphantly.

Jane Eyre occupies triumphantly the centre of the novel. She never

recedes into the role of mere reflector or observer. Nor is she ever seen ironically

with the author hovering just visibly beyond her hinting at her obtuseness and self-

92

deception. The reader of Jane Eyre at best keeps pace with the heroine, with her

understanding of events (it would be a safe assumption that every reader shares her

suspicions of Grace Poole) and of character, including her ownY Inspite of the

favourable circumstances at the Rochester house hold, Jane criticises herself as she

respects herself. In her modest ways, she makes the habit of keeping pace with her

own experiences. She is plain but charming and delicate. Her humility, pride and self

respect are always there. She knows how to discipline her emotions, how to check

them and not just flow with them. She believes that since she is an orphan, she can be

deprived of any luxuries. She tells herself:

"Listen, then Jane Eyre, to your sentence: tomorrow, place the glasss

before you, and draw in chalk your own picture, faithfully; without suffering one

defect: omit no harsh line, smooth away no displeasing irregularity; write under it,

'Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor and plain" 15

Inspite of her sensitivity to being Rochester's employee Jane grows to

love him and surrenders herself whenever he approaches her. Her flaming heart longs

for him which lead to intense passion and she desperately desires to be his wedded

wife. After gaining adulthood, she wants to love and be loved without loosing her

integrity and self respect. She wants an outlet in the world for her passions and

energies and in Rochester she finds everything which she needs. His sight only

germinate the seeds of pleasure in her. Her eyes are drawn involuntarily to his face:

"I could not keep their lids under control: they would rise and their

93

rides would fix on him. I looked, and had an acute pleasure in looking- a precious,

yet poignant pleasure like what the thirst perishing man might feel who knows the'

well to which he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draught

neverthless."

"I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I have wrought hard

to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now at the first

renewed views of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong! He made me

love him without looking at me." 16

Though much in love, Jane refuses to be trifled with. She is any man's

equal, not least Rochester's. She puts her case with all the pent-up intensity of some

one forced into a position of dependence and insignificance. Passionate and intelli­

gently rational Jane, when suffers aggression, rejection and humiliation from

Rochester's side and when she comes to know that Rochester is to marry the daz­

zling, Blanche Ingram, she bursts out:

"Do you think I am an automaton ? A machine without feelings ? And

can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living

water dosled from my cup ?"

"And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should

have made it as hard far you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not

talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities nor even of

94

mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit, just as if both had passed

through the grave, and we stood at God's feet equal -as we are !"17

Even during their courtship, Jane is aware of the dangers of Rochester's

lapses into sentimentality. At one point he calls her a very angel ,and she retorts:

"Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact any thing celestial

of me- for you will not get it, anymore than I shall get it ofyou."18

With her tough cormnon sense and the needle of repartee, Jane keeps

their relationship firmly rooted in reality. Strong willed Jane carmot give up her self

respect though her life is full of emotional crisis. She cancels her wedding with Mr.

Rochester when she comes to know that Mr. Rochester is already married The break­

up with him save her from marrying a bigamist. The quality of the love that each feel

for the other, fervent though it may be is unsatisfactory. When Jane comes to a full

awareness of what has happened, her thoughts return to God. The thought of God

throb life within her. It begets an unuttered prayer, which saves her from the con­

sciousness ofher 'life-lorn', 1ove-lost', 'her hope quenched' and her faith 'death struck':

"A Christmas frost had come at midsum; a white December storm had

whirled over June; ice glazed the ripe apples, drifts crushed the blowing rose; on hay

field and com field by a frozen shrewd; lances which last night blushed full of flow­

ers, today were pathless with untrodden snow and the woods which twelve hours

since waves leafy and fragrant as groves between the tropics, now spread waste. wild

95

and white as pine forests in wintry Norway. My hopes were all dead with a subtle

doom, such as, in one night, fell on my cherished wishes, yesterday so blooming and

glowing. They lay stark, chill, lived corpses, that could never revive. I looked at my

love: that feeling which was my master's which he had created; it shivered in my

heart, like a suffering child in a cold cradle; sickness and anguish had seized it, it

could not seek Mr. Rochester's arms - it could derive warmth from its breast. Oh

never more could it tum to him, for faith was blighted- confidence destroyed ! Mr.

Rochester was not to me what he had been, far he was not what I had thought him. I

would not ascribe nice to him; I would not say he had betrayed me: but the attribute

of stainless truth was gone from his idea and from his presence I must go: that I

perceived well. "19

Jane is bound by traditional and conventional piety. A moral woman as

she is, she is ready for self sacrifice. She leaves Mr. Rochester. Duty and conscience

overpower passion. There is a struggle between the dictates of reason and the prompt­

ing of instinct but an euphoric sense of freedom and power is released in Jane . When

she clashes with St. John Rivers, she cannot be dominated by him. She knows that

the kind oflove St. John offers is soulless, for all that it is dressed up as a religious

vocation:

"I scorn your idea of love ---- I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you

offer: yes St. John, and I scorn you when you offer it."20

And she does so because she knows he is incapable of loving her for

96

herself, with all her defects and because he implies that the love he offers is, a kind of

dutiful affection and of a higher kind. St. John is therefore the antithesis of Roches­

ter and it is to Rochester that Jane now returns. It is no accident that, at this point, ,

Jane imagines she hears Rochester's voice calling her. She is now financially strong

also and her instinct that Mr. Rochester is her true soul-mate has been borne out by

experience. She is ready to marry the crippled, stone blind man. She is ready to

serve a prop and guide of Rochester. Now she is not a temporary substitute but a

wife. Her love for Rochester blinds her to the promise of heavenly salvation, making

her believe in her dividing of this life, tempting her into idolatry:

"He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse

intervenes between man and bread sun. I could not in those days see God for his

creature: of whom I had made an idol. "21

Jane is bound by spiritual consciousness in her woman hood. The sense

of being barred from life accentuated by unattractiveness cannot dishearten her. She

gathers force, originality and interest as she fights the world and comes out success­

ful by her moral beauty. A plain, obscure and quakerish governess, regulating the

pulse of her own integrity, reaches the ground of happiness by her vigorous ability to

achieve the goal of love, to love and be loved.

Thus the portrait of Jane is at first of an unloved orphan girl who later

develops into an independent woman by her passionate intensity to resist. At the end.

the moral victory is hers: It is the first of several stages of her self-discovery. Cast in

97

a different mould with a possessed dignity Jane is much unlike other ladies and

hence she is extraordinary.

Helen Burns: Helen Burn's portrait is of a potential model with a feeble physique.

She plays an important role in Jane Eyre's development. She presents a different but

equally impossible ideal to Jane. She is an ideal of self-renunciation, of all consum­

ing spirituality. Her very introduction to the readers present her as a downtrodden

poor girl who thinks that it is the right of other people to punish her. The expressions

of her countenance never alter, inspite of the pain of the punishment. When Jane

challenges her goodness and points her weaknesses then she retorts:

"It is not violence that best overcomes hate - nor vengeance that most

certainly heals injury."

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you; do good to them that

hate you, despitefully use you." n

She is not bitter or envenomed. Instead she forgets the severity of

others in no time. She asserts to for give the crime of the sinner because life's span is

too short and hence it should be passed in benevolent acts without giving place to

animosity:

"Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity. We are,

and must be, one and all, burdened with faults in this world: but the time will soon

98

come when I trust, we shall put them off in putting off our corruptible bodies; when

debasement and sin will fall from us with this cumbrous frame of flesh, and only the

spark of the spirit will remain - the impalpable principle of life and thought, pure as

when it left the creator to inspire the creature: whence it came it will return; perhaps

again to be communicated to some being higher than man-perhaps to pass through

gradations of glory, from the pale soul to brighten to the seraph! Surely it will never,

on the contrary, be suffered to degenerate from man to fiend ? No; I cannot believe

that: I hold another creed; which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom men­

tion; but in which I delight, and to which I cling: for it extends hope to all: it makes

Eternity a rest - a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. "23

No one can believe that the very uttered words are of a girl who is not

at all experienced, who has seen only a few years of her life; a girl who can repress

her passionate emotions very easily and is determined to live by biblical percepts;

her self knowledge to use them in her life. She feels that since God loves his chil­

dren, she has no right to hate his children thus becoming a fairy Godmother in the

eyes of Jane. Her courage and fine intellect reflect the full brightness of the orb. Her

thin face, her sunken grey eyes reflect her similarity with an angel. Even Jane find

defects in her personal self but Helen is flawless. Cool and self disciplined, Helen

comprehends the doctrine of endurance, exalted spirituality and religious fervour.

When she is experiencing and suffering death, she wants to slow the value of friend­

ship and at the death bed instead of cursing her fate, she is happy of her self-renun­

ciation. She bums with an other worldly intensity.E ve n at the death bed she fixes

her eyes coolly on the end of earthly life, welcoming her early death as an escape

99

from suffering, from death and sin. She tells Jane not to grieve after her death:

"I am very happy Jane; and when you hear that I am dead, you must be

sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about. We all must die one day, and the

illness, which is removing me is not painful; it is gentle and gradual; my mind is at

rest. I leave no one to regret much: I have only a father; and he is lately married and

will not miss me. By dying I shall escape great sufferings. I had not qualities or

talents to make my way very well in the world: I should have been continually at

fault."

"But where are you to go Helen? Can you see? Do you know?"

"I believe; I have faith: I am going to God."

"Where is God ? What is God ?"

"My maker and yours, who will never destroy what he created. I rely

implicitly on his power and confide wholly in his goodness. I count the hours which

tell that eventful one arrives which shall reveal me to him, reveal him to me."

"You are sure then Helen, that there is such a place as heaven, and that

our souls can get to it when we die?"

"I am sure, there is a future state; 1 believe God is my father; God is my

100

'

friend: I love him. I believe he loves me."

"And shall I see you again, Helen when I die ?"

"You will come to the same region of happiness; by the same mighty,

universal parent, no doubt dear Jane." 24

Helen is the bright planet which is not of this world. She is the embodi­

ment of perfection. Her very name portrays her character. On the one hand 'Burns'

conveys the idea of fire, suggesting the passion which is so strong in Jane, and its

dangers. 25 Burns also means streams in Scotland as Helen tells Jane that her home is

near the border of Scotland. Helen stands for martyrdom and other worldliness. When

she smiles at Jane under going public humiliation, it is as if a martyr, a hero has

passed a slave or victim. Her smile is like a reflection from the aspect of an angel, a

divine consolation she reflects on her face. Her unique mind rouse posers within her.

They make, they kindle, they glow in the bright tint of her cheek which is pale and

bloodless and then they shine in the liquid lustre of her eyes which has beauty nei­

ther of fine colour nor long eyelash, not pencilled brow, but of meaning, of move­

ment, of radiance. She has a heart large enough, vigorous enough to hold the swell­

ing of pure, full and fervid eloquence. Her large, mild, intelligent and benign look­

ing forehead give the spectacle of her sad resignation. She believes that one has to

bear what is written in fate. Therefore she endures patiently any smart. The death in­

life attitude of Helen brings fortitude to her.

101

Thus Helen Burns's portrait is of a martyr who gains martyrdom un­

timely but the education which she gives of forbearance, courage and faith in God to

Jane is venerated by her through out her life.

Miss Temple: Miss Temple's portrait is presented by Charlotte Bronte as a simple,

amiable and coy tutor at the very beginning of the novel. She is tall with a fair

personage and smartly dressed. Her sight make her pupils look at her with admiring

awes. Her activities are reverred by her pupils, especially Jane. Her eyes are shapely,

brown with a benignant light in their irids, and a fine penciling oflong lashes round,

relieve the witness of her large front. On each of her temples, her hair, of a very dark

brown, is clustered in round curls, according to the fashion of those time, when

neither smooth bands nor long ringlets were in vogue. Her dress is also in the mode

of the day. Miss Temple's portrait is with refined features, a complexion, if pale is

clear, and a stately air and carriage. Her full name is Maria Temple.

The Superintendent of Lowood with her personal attractiveness, men­

tal and spiritual charm and strength is the cynosure of the pupils, specially of Jane

and Helen. Good but clever Miss Temple knows very well the condition of the school

and she is very unhappy at the situation of the pupils. She is of gentle birth, yet not a

snob. She cannot change the condition of the school controlled by a hollow male

figure Mr. Brocklehurst but being an efficient administrator, she can make life more

easy-going for its ill-fated pupils. She is articulate in handling the double-standards

of Mr. Brocklehurst who is a hypocrite, who represses and humiliates the young.

poor or orphaned women who come to his cruel shelter. The orphaned females come

102

to his institution for education so that they can be governesses in their later years.

Helen Bums regards Miss Temple from the bottom of her heart:

"Miss Temple is full of goodness: it pains her to be severe to anyone,

even the worst in the school: she sees my errors, and tells me of them gently; and if

I do anything worthy of praise, she gives me my need liberally. One strong proof of

my wretchedly defective nature is that even her expostulations are so mild, so ratio­

nal, have no influence to cure me of my faults: and even her praise, thought I value it

most highly, cannot stimulate me to continued care and foresight." z6

Miss Temple acquaintances the pupils with new thoughts every day.

She tells something which is newer than their own reflections. Her language is

agreeable to the pupils and the information she communicates is just what they wish

to gain. She serves Jane with her love and care she needs. Jane , when bitter and

truculent expresses passionately tlre desire to get the love of Miss Temple and Helen

Bums. She tells this to Helen:

" .... to gain some real affection from you or Miss Temple, or any other

whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or

let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse and let us hoof dash me at my

chest. "27

Miss Temple is constant inspiration for her pupils. She encourages

them by percepts and examples to keep their spirits. She is never dejected and does

103

the task of cheering her pupils faithfully. She reacts severely to Brocklehurst's repri­

mand on her provision of extra food. When Mr. Brocklehurst tells him that by put­

ting bread and cheese instead of burnt porridge into the children's mouth she is in­

deed feeding their vile bodies and starving their immortal souls, then Miss Temple

gazes straight before her, her face naturally pale and marble appear to be assuming

also the coldness and fixing of that material. Her mouth close as if it would have

required a sculptor's chisel to open it, and her brow settle gradually into petrified

severity. She. has certail). limitations on her part but she hardens herself in order to

stand against Mr. Brooklehurst's tyrannies. She has a concealed resentment against

Mr. Brocklehurst's treatment with the pupils and so she tries her best to derive the

mind of the pupils away from the cruelty of Mr. Brocklehurst.

Miss Temple has something of serenity in her air, of state in her mien,

of refined propriety in her language, which precludes deviation into the ardent, the

excited, the eager. She has something which chastens the pleasure of those who look

on her and listen to her by a controlling sense of awe. During her stay at Lowood

after Helen Bum's death Jane finds Miss Temple her best companion where she

outpours her emotions and passions which gather in her during her struggling stay in

the school. She passes eight years in Miss Temple's company and finds that her

character changes into a more matured shape in the company of Miss Temple. Miss

Temple serves the seminary as a superintendent continuously. To her instructions

Jane owes the best part of her acquirements. Her friendship and society has been her

continual solace. Miss Temple stands beside Jane in the stead of mother, governess

and latterly as companion. When Miss Temple is married and removes with her

104

husband, a clergyman and an excellent man to a distant country, she is consequently

lost to Jane:

"From the day she left I was no longer the same with her was gone

every settled felling, every association that had made Lowood in some degree a

home to me. I had imbibed from her something of her nature and much of her habits;

more harmonious thoughts: what seemed better regulated feelings had become the

inmates of my mind and had given an allegiance to duty and order; I was quiet; I

believed I was content: to the eyes of others usually even to my own, I appeared a

disciplined and subdued character." 28

When Miss Temple parts from Jane, she passes the whole day in soli­

tude as she is unable to bear the pangs of separation. She regrets the loss of Helen

Burns and Miss Temple. She becomes content that her minds has borrowed so many

tlungs from Miss Temple and thus has transformed her. She feels that Miss Temple

has taken with her the serene atmosphere which she had been breathing in her conti­

guity. Miss Temple leaves behind her an unchangeable impression. The milk of

kindness and love which she showers on her pupils becomes a store in the heart of

them. She is reconciled with positive, religious and spiritual qualities which add

fineness to her portrait.

Bessie: Though a minor one, Bessie's portrait is not only of a servant but also of a

kind gentle woman who loves Jane dearly. If Bessie would not have been there at the

Reed household, Jane Eyre would have run away from unsupportable oppression

105

long before, as the humiliation, unjustness, self suppression and abuses were intoler­

able for a small child to bear. When Jane is thrust and locked in the Red Room for

her naughty tricks, when life seems to Jane as a ceaseless reprimand and thankless

fagging, then it is Bessie who brings in front of her the China plate with delicate

pastry upon it. Jane is deemed unworthy of such privileges but Bessie is lady boun­

tiful and she makes the privileges possible for. She pleads Mrs. Reed not to lock

Jane in the Red Room but when Mrs. Reed pays no heed to her request, then Bessie

decides to sleep, along with another maid in the housemaid's apartment. She be­

comes very emotional:

"Sarah, come and sleep with me in the nursery; I darent for my life be

alone with the poor child tonight; she might die; it's such a strange thing she should

have the fit: I wonder if she saw anything. Misses was rather too hard." 29

After the Red Room Incident, Bessie becomes more sociable with Jane.

She addresses Jane every now and then a word of unwanted kindness. She chides

Jane sometimes for her harshness but her chi dings are just to protect Jane from get­

ting punishment from Mrs. Reed. Bessie is a very good story teller. In the evening

she narrates stories to Jane. Complaisant and Courteous as she is, Bessie never

denies Jane whenever she asks her to tell a story. Bessie has a sweet voice. She sings

very well. When she sings Jane forgets all her miseries. Jime deems it a treat to spend

the evenings quietly with Bessie. She brings her something by way of supper- a bun

or a cheese cake. Then she sits on the bed while Jane eats it and after tucking her

clothes, she kisses her before saying good night and Jane is at the top of the world by

106

her affectionate behaviour. Bessie's kind gesture removes for a moment from her

mind, the feeling that she is an abandoned orphan:

"When thus gentle, Bessie seemed to me the prettiest, kindest being in

the world; and I wished most intensely that she would always be some pleasant and

amiable, and never push me about, or scold, or task me unreasonably as she was too

often wont to do. Bessie Lee, must I think have been a girl of good natural capacity,

for she was smart in all she did and had a remarkable knack of narrative; so at least I

judge from the impression made on me by her nursery tales. "30

Bessie is a pretty woman. She is young and slim with dark eyes, very

nice features and a good complexion. Being a servant at the Gateshed Hall and

always running errands and standing on toes all the time make her temper sometimes

hasty and capricious but she has no meanness in her heart. Her concern is always for

Jane. She loves Jane very much and with penetrative eye notices every action of her.

Bessie's sound appearance, her amorous and hopeful disposition makes Jane's life

comparatively easy in the Reed household. Life has its gleams of sunshine then.

Bessie does the role of Jane's mother who had left her orphaned to repugn a harsh

world.

When Jane meets Bessie after a long gap of years then also Bessie is

the same, hospitable woman and a mother of three children. Sweet memories are

restored again. Bessie is also overwhelmed to see Jane. Jane remembers her meeting

with Bessie:

.107

"Old times crowded fast back on us as I watched the bustling about -

setting about the tray with her best China, cutting bread and butter, toasting a tea­

cake, and between whiles giving little Robert or me a tap or push, just as she used to

give me in former days. Bessie had retained her quick temper as well as her light

foot and good looks."31

Thus Bessie serves as a twig for the drowning. It is for Bessie only

that Jane lives to fight the world. Her portrait is of a benevolent woman with a heart

broad to accommodate an orphaned girl's miseries.

Sarah: Sarah's portrait is of a harsh servant of Reed house hold who always rebukes

Jane and reminds her of her inferiority. She is contrast of Bessie. She vanishes from

the novel very soon.

Mrs.Reed: Aunt of Jane Eyre Mrs. Reed's portrait is of a heartless, snobbish woman

who is always blind and deaf when Jane is abused by her wicked son John Reed.

Jane's father had been a poor clergyman. Her mother had married him against the

wishes of her friends who considered the match beneath her. Her grand father was

so irritated at her disobedience that he cut her off without a shilling. After Jane's

father and mother had been married a year, her father caught the typhus fever while

visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town where his curacy was situated

and where the disease was then prevalent. Her mother took infection from him and

both died within a month of each other. Thus orphaned Jane is left the to bear the

108

brutality of her aunt Mrs. Reed. Mrs. Reed is always unaware of her son's mischiefs.

She finds fault only in Jane and punishes her to any extent. To gall Jane and make

her realise all the time that she is a burden to the Reed household is Mrs. Reed's tact.

After the Red Room incident Mrs. Reed surveys Jane at times with a

severe eye. Instead of addressing her with some kind words, she draws a marked line

of separation between Jane and her own children. Jane is given a small closet to

sleep in all by herself She is allowed to take meals alone and pass all her time in the

nursery. Her very glance at Jane express an unsurpassable and rooted antipathy.

About her physique Jane writes:

"Mrs. Reed was a woman of robust frame, shouldered and strong limbed,

not tall, and though stout, not obese: she had a somewhat large face, the under jaw

being much developed and very solid, her brow was low, her chin large and promi­

nent, mouth and nose sufficiently regular under her light eye brows glimrned an eye

devoid of; her skin was dark and opaque, her hair nearly laxen, her constitution was

sound as a bell-illness never come near her; she was an exact clever manager, her

household and tenantry were thoroughly under her control, her children, only at

times defied her authority, and laughed it to scorn; she dressed well, and had a pres­

ence and port calculated to set off handsome attire. "31

Mrs. Reed's lack of sensibility and pitilessness make Jane dislike her

more. Mrs. Reed's freezing eyes are always fixed on Jane. Her austerity reaches an

extreme point when she decides malicously to send Jane to a boarding school. Jane

109

cannot bear her obnoxious behaviour. She retorts that she is going to disparage her

name. She can never love an aunt. She will never come to meet her when she grows

up. She will never forget how she had mortified her. She will never forget how she

had thrust her into the Red Room and Jane never forgets her cruelty. Mrs. Reed

however frightened by the retaliation of Jane becomes lachrymosed.

Mrs. Reed is a bad mother. She has no power of restraint upon her

children. By disgracing Jane she gives her son John another chance to misbehave

with her niece. Instead of censuring her child she blames Jane and thrusts her into

the Red Room. With her daughters also she is indifferent. She has nothing to do with

the discipline of her daughter. She is absolutely careless about them.

Mrs. Reed's portrait is however changed between chapter one and twenty

one. When Jane visits Gateshed again she finds Mrs. Read more sensible and col­

lected than she was. After nine years when Jane meets her again, she finds Mrs.

Reed with her face stem, relentless and peculiar. Her eyebrows are raised, domi­

neering and are of a tyrant. As usual even at the death bed she takes her hand away

from Jane's. Instead of greeting her she reproves her and then again in the next visit

she wants to ease her mind. She regrets what she has done. She discloses that she

has broken two promises. One promise was to bring up Jane as her own child and the

other was to lift Jane to prosperity. Jane's maternal uncle had written a letter to Mrs.

Reed that he wanted to adopt Jane as he is unmarried but Mrs. Reed out of shear

jealousy does not send the letter to Jane. The reason she tells Jane is really shocking:

110

"I tell you I could not forget it; and I took my revenge; for you to be

adopted by your uncle and placed in state of ease and comfort was what I could not

endure. I wrote to him. I said I was sorry for his disappointment but Jane Eyre was

dead; She had died·of typhus fever at Lowood. Now act as you please: write and

contradict my assertion- expose my false hood as soon as you like. You were born,

I think to be my torment: my last hour is racked by collection of a deep which but for

you. I should never have been tempted to commit." 33

At the death bed, the portrait ofMrs. Reed is of a poor suffering woman

but who cannot change her habitual frame of mind. Living she hated Jane - dying

she hates her still without knowing that actuated by self-interest she had made Jane's

childhood bitter and lonely. Jane cannot understand what rivalry Mrs. Reed had

against a poor orphaned child.

Eliza Reed: Eliza Reed's portrait in her early years oflife is of a cruel and shallow

member of Reed family, a complete picture of snobbery ridden self centered one.

She is also spitefully unjust to Jane. She is fond of reminding her always her physical

inferiority. Selfish and headstrong, she follows her Mama's footsteps in mortifying

Jane. She speaks very little to Jane- She is a money grubber. For her crave of it Jane

writes:

"She had a tum for traffic, and a marked propensity for saving; shown

not only in the vending of eggs and chickens, but also in driving hand bargains. With

the gardener about flower-roots, seeds and ships of plants, that functionary having

111

orders from Mrs. Reed to buy of this young lady all the products of her parterre she

wished to sell: and Eliza would have sold the hair off her head if she could have

made a handsome profit thereby. As to her money, she first secreted it in odd comers

wrapped up in a rag or an old curl paper but some of these hoards having been

discovered by the house maid, Eliza fearful of one day losing her valued treasure,

consented to entrust it to her mother, at an usurious rate of interest - fifty or sixty

percent; which interest, she exacted every quarter keeping her accounts in a little

book with anxious accuracy."34

When Jane meets Eliza after a span of eight years, her portrait is of a

tall and thin young lady with a sallow face and severe mien. There is an austere look

in her face. She tries to put on her self a nun like appearance. A string of elbony

beads and a crucifix make her look like a nun. She greets Jane in a steep voice

without a smile on her countenance. There is a severe indifferent attitude in her.

When Jane confronts her she is as cold as ice. The whole day she passes in sewing

reading or writing. She holds her tongue whenever she meets Jane. She seems to be

a busy bee but no body knows what she did. She divides the day into three halves. In

the first half of the day, she reads the prayer Book I. In the second half, she is busy

stitching with gold thread, the border of a large cloth, almost large enough of a

carpet. In the third half she works in the kitchen garden and regulates her accounts.

She is happy that she has coined money for her future as she knows that her brother

John can misuse it. She is calculative and has exactly reckoned her future plans.

After her mother's death she wishes to execute a long cherished project. She wishes

to seek retirement where punctual habits would be permanently secured from distur-

112

bance and place safe-barriers between herself and the paltry world. She wants to

take her own course in the world. She is punctilious in religious matters. No weather

ever prevents the punctual discharge of what she considers devotional duties. She

goes to church every Sunday in fair or foul weather. She visits the church on other

days of the week, if there are prayers.

After her mother's death she wants to execute her plans rigidly. She

wants to depart for some unknown destination. She makes her preparations. The

whole day she is busy filing her trunks, emptying the drawers, burning her papers.

Meanwhile she held no communication with any one. She tells Jane later:

"I am obliged to you for your valuable services and discreet conduct.

There is some difference between living with such a one as you and with Georgia.

You perform your own duties in life and burden no one. Tomorrow, I set out for the

continent. I shall take up my abode in a religious house, near Lisle - a nunnery you

would call it: there I shall devote myself for a time to the examination of the Roman

Catholic dogmas, and to a careful study of the workings of their system: lfi find it to

be, as I half suspect it is the one best calculated to ensure the doing of all things,

decently and in order, I shall embrace the tenets of Rome and probably take the veil." o·'

She takes the veil later and becomes superior of the convent, where she

passes the period of her novitiate, which she endows with her fortune. Her portrait is

limned by the author with a light brush as she vanishes from the novel without notic­

mg.

113

Georgina Reed: Georgina Reed's portrait in the early years oflife is of a girl who has

a spoiled temper, spitefully acrid and insolent carriage. Her pink cheeks and golden

curls which add to her beauty only try to indemnify her from her faults. Her simulation

of virtues reflect the blemishes of her character which she tries her best to conceal.

Her meeting with Jane after eight years also had not filled the barrier of

obligor and the obliged. She takes no notice of Jane and only chatters nonsense to her

canary bird. When Jane promises her that she would contribute a water colour drawing

then only she puts a confidential conversation with Jane in which she describes of the

brilliant winter which shi:! had spent in London two seasons ago. She discloses how she

had received the admiration and attention of others and how she had made the tilted

request. She also reveals how she had lead a fashionable life and passed her times

among her lovers and woes. It is strange she never averts either to her mother's illness,

or her brother's death or the gloomy state of her family prospects. Her mind seems

wholly taken up with reminiscences of past gaiety and aspirations.

Georgina spends most of her time in lying on the sofa, fretting about the

dullness of the house. She is waiting for her mother's death. Her sister Eliza takes no

notice of her sister's indolence and complaints about her thoughtlessness. According to

her Georgina is a humdrum. She is an incongruous woman whose birth on this earth is

a vain one. Instead of making her life a reasonable one she wants to live a parasitic life.

She is fat and plump and is always complaining of that she is being neglected by others.

She is sequacious but always wants to have sensuous enjoyment. She wants to induce

1ctivity only in enjoyment and fails to do anything creative in her life. She can fill her

114

vacant moments in doing some business and show her supremacy but instead she

wants to lead a slothful life. She suffers extreme mental imbecility but does not make

effort to come out of it. She knows that her sister is not going to look after and after

her mother's death she has to face the harsh world but she is not so able to combat

with it. She knows that her sister had defamed her in front of Lord Edwin Vere and

ruined her prospects but she is still not ready to mend her ways. She has nothing to

do with her future. She knows only the present and wants to become only a cynosure

of the ballroom.

Thus Georgina like her sister Eliza is sketched with a light brush who

has very little to do anything in the world but who also leaves lesson for Jane. Jane

make herself more strong and her willpower increases more.

Miss Miller: Miss Miller's portrait is of an ordinary under teacher ofLowood School.

Ruddy in complexion with a care-worn countenance. Miss Miller is always at haste

making the pupils run round the clock. She herself also works round the clock, checking

the lesson books of the pupils, addressing the assembly, taking care of the girls and

so on. She looks purple, weather beaten and overworked. She looks so defected that

she cannot gain the capacity to cheer the pupils who are suffering the tyrannies of

Mr. Brocklehurst. Sullen and gloomy, she also bears the injustice of Mr. Brocklehurst.

It seems that she tries her best to distract her eyes from the injustice done on the

pupils and hence makes herself busy in the daily routine. When the pupils complain

of the poor breakfast and blame Mr. Brocklehurst, then she also shares in their indig­

nation against him.

115

Thus Miss Miller's portrait reveals that there are many people in this

world who have intense endurance to bear the unfairness and live along with it.

Miss Scatchered: Miss Scatchered's portrait is of an ordinary under teacher who is

severe and irritating. She teaches History at Lowood School and is famous for rough­

ness with the students. She treats the student most strictly and punishes them for

their minor faults. Her height is short and she is dark with some what dismal appear­

ance. She finds happiness in crying in a fierce manner specially at Helen Bums

whom perhaps she dislikes. Though Helen answers her questions on the lesson very

easily but instead of praising her she gives a harsh rebuke for just not cleaning her

nails. Her behaviour with Helen is very unjust. She goes to any extreme of punish­

ment with Helen. She is boisterous and unkind. With Helen Bums once she crosses

the limit of punishment. Helen Bums is once careless and keeps her article untidily.

Mrs. Scatcherd, emotionless as she is writes on a piece of pasteboard the word 'Slat­

tern' and binds it like phylactery round Helen's large fore-head. Her whimsical way

of disciplining her students and making them punctual reveals her own lack of disci­

pline. Miss Scatcherd's snarling tone make the pupils fear her too much. Whenever

she is taking her periods they sit stiff on their benches with fearful expressions on

their face.

Thus Miss Scatchered's portrait is helpful in making Jane love Helen

more dearly who is marred by the circumstances but whose deep emotionalism help

Jane mould her own behaviour.

116

Bertha Mason : Bertha Mason has been portrayed as a lunatic first wife of Mr.

Rochester whom Jane Eyre loves passionately and wants to marry. Bertha Mason's

identity is disclosed very late when Mr. Rochester is about to marry Jane. Mr. Ma­

son, Bertha's brother appear as a villain and disclose the identity of Bertha Mason.

Mr. Rochester is horrified but he controls himself and coolly he clarifies the reason

for his marriage with Jane Eyre:

"Bigamy is an ugly word ! I meant however to be a bigamist: but fate

has out maneuvered me; or Providence has checked me-perhaps the last. I am little

better than a devil at this moment, and as my pastor there would tell me, deserve no

doubt the sternest judgments of God - even to the quenchless fine and deathless

worm. Gentleman, my plan is broken up ! What this lawyer and his client say is true:

I have been married: and the woman to whom I was married lives! You say you

never heard of a Mrs. Rochester at the house up yonder, wood: but dare say you have

many a time inclined your car to gossip about the mysterious lunatic kept there under

watch and ward. Some have whispered to you that she is my bastard half-sister:

some, my cast off mistress; I now inform you that she is my wife, whom I married

fifteen years ago- Bertha Mason by name; sister of this resolute personage, who is

now, with his quivering limbs and white cheeks, showing you what a stout heart men

may bear. Cheer up Dick ! - never fear me ! -- I'd almost strike a woman as you.

Bertha Mason is mad; and she came from a mad family; -idiots and maniacs through

three generations ! Her mother, the Creole, was both a mad woman and a drunkard !

-as I found out after l had the daughter; for they were silent on family secrets before.

Bertha, like a dutiful child, copied her parent in both points. I had a charming partner

117

Bertha, like a dutiful child, copied her parent in both points. I had a charming partner

-pure, wise, modest: you can fancy I was a happy man- I went through rich scenes!

Oh! My experience has been heavenly, if you only knew it! But I owe you no further

explanation. Briggs, Wood, Mason -I invite you all to come up to the house and visit

Mrs. Poole's patient and my wife - You shall see what sort of a being I was cheated

into espousing, and judge whether or not I had a right to break the compact, and seek

sympathy with something at least h~an." 36

Bertha Mason whom it is offensive even to think of as Bertha Roches­

ter is the incubus of Thornfield who can be called a portrait made in a vignette style

until Mr. Rochester reveals her history. When she finally comes out of the veil and is

exposed does not astonish anyone unexpectedly, though her existence is disgusting.

She is an acme of uncontrollable passion. Her coming out ofthe shell is an explosion

in the life of Mr. Rochester as well as Jane. Her unprognostic appearance bring an

end to the love story of Jane and Rochester who are at the threshold of for marriage

but their dreams smash into smithereens. Her laugh which sounds mysterious in the

night is understood by others as Grace Poole's laugh. She is however not to be blamed

for her lunacy as she is unaware of it but her parents are definitely to be blamed for

their offence which they did knowingly. Bertha the hapless creature does not even

know that what she is doing insanely.

Bertha's lunacy is in its extreme. She is no less than an animal covered

with clothing. The way she gre·~.otls, rumbles, snatches, no one can believe that is a

wealthy man's wife. She is a big woman in stature almost equaling her husband and

118

he is the one only who can only control her amidst her hostile, high pitched shouts

and convulsive plunges. The chilling portrait of mad Mrs. Rochester who is locked

away in the attic haunts the place. She could have been a fair wife of a wealthy man

but the mind having lost its balance, she has to be unrevealed from normal people.

Her death however brings an end to her tyrannies but her husband Mr. Rochester has

to suffer a tremendous set-back in his life due to her. Her is denied from the heavenly

bliss which he is to share with his lover Jane Eyre.

Blanche Ingram : In portraying Blanche Ingram Charlotte Bronte has used the third

woman triangle sketch. She is most beautiful, but a haughty aristocrat who thinks

Rochester an ideal catch. She is tall, handsome, well born and has a respectable

place in the world. She is the daughter of Baroness Ingram of Ingram Park Her large

and black eyes reflect the pride. Her head is fine with raven - black hair, seemingly

arranged; a crown of thick plaits behind and in front, the longest glossiest curls hung.

She sings delightfully and the performance of musical composition is remarkably

good. She is the most triumphant and accomplished bachelor in the neighborhood.

She is always attired in oriental fashion. Her grand and stylish form and feature, her

texture and appearance of skin, her general mien suggest the idea of some lsraelitish

princess of the patriarchal days. She is Mr. Rochester's guest whom Jane loves

without the knowledge of the person whom she loves. Blanche's domineering eyes

sometimes fall on Jane and try to read something. She eyes Jane narrowly with

disgust and scorn. Jane of course pardons her contemptuous look. Jane is not jealous

of her because she is too inferior to excite that feeling. According to Jane:

"She was too showy, but she was not genuine, she had a fine person.

119

many brilliant attainments; but her mind was poor, her heart barron by nature: nothing

bloomed spontaneously on that soil; no enforced natural fruit delighted by its freshness.

She was not good: she was not original she used to repeat sounding phrases from books:

she never offered, nor had an opinion of her own. She advocated a high tone of senti­

ment; but she did not know the sensations of sympathy and pity; tenderness and truth

were not in her. Too often, she betrayed, by the undue vent she gave to a spiteful antipa­

thy she had conceived against little Adele; pushing her away with some contumelious

epithet if she happened to approach her, sometimes ordering her from the room and

always treating her with coldness and acrimony."37

Blanche Ingram's coldness really cannot win the love of Rochester. Mr.

Rochester wants to join Blanche in wedlock for political reasons. Only her rank and

connections suit him. She is not a good woman or endowed with force, fervour, kind­

ness and sense. Her eyes are as brilliant as her jewels but her satirical laugh, her arched

and haughty lip along with her nature give her a mocking air which she uses to lash. Jane

in particular and governess in general. Hence she fails in fascinating Mr. Rochester.

The arrow oflove from her side glances off from Mr. Rochester's breast and falls harm­

less at his feet. lfthey would have been short by a purer hand, they would have quivered

keen in his proud heart, would have called love into his stem eye and softness into his

sardonic face or better still, without weapons a silent quest might have been won but she

cannot influence Mr. Rochester because her love is farce. She cannot like him with true

affection. She coins her smiles lavishly which reflect her falsehood. She flashes her

glances so unremittingly, manufacture airs, so collaborate graces so multitudinous. All

these she does because she wants to make him her prey. She exerts baneful and wasteful

120

influence upon him to cool her ardent desires.

The residents of Thornfield also believe that Mr. Rochester intends

to many Blanche. Though she is unable to charm him but her shallowness make

her easily belie':that she would be married to Mr. Rochester put to test her love for

him. Mr. Rochester spreads a rum our that his fortune is no more a third of what

was supposed. He then presents himself to see the results. Blanche, ambitious as

she is at once draws from the contract. She and her mother both give sign of

coldness in involving with Mr. Rochester. Hence Blanche Ingram, a beautiful but

a snobbish and pompous woman gets her reward. Providence always gives reward

to the right, the wrong is always deceived. Jane Eyre, a plain and indigent woman

who had never thought that she could be a wife of such a wealthy man gets his

love and marriage proposal in no time.

Mrs. Fairfax: Mrs. Fairfax's verbal portrait as drawn by Charlotte Bronte is of a

kind, neatest imaginable house keeper who performs her duties perfectly and gives

no chance for armoyance for her master. She is a model of elderly English re­

spectability. She is a worthy lady with a pleasant smile always on her dainty lips.

She is an acme of goodness, softness and hospitality. Though she is a distant

relative of Mr. Rochester but she never takes undue advantage of it. She never

boasts about her connection with him and feels quite light being an ordinary house­

keeper of Mr. Rochester's house. She always keeps the room ready and in good

order. She is quite deft in handling the house. She is a placid tempered. kind

natured woman of competent education and average intelligence. She is not a

dashing person but of sound intellect. She is thankful to Jane who has accepted the

121

job of governess to look after Mr. Rochester's french ward Adele. She has a regard

for Jane and deals with her very politely. She is however astonished when Jane de­

cides to marry Mr. Rochester. The very sight of Mr. Rochester and Jane locked up in

a room makes the widow pale, grave and dumb but she cannot accept the whole

affair easily. She has serious tete-a-tete with Jane on this matter. She warns Jane for

marrying her master:

"I feel so astonished, I hardly know what to say to you, Miss. Eyre. I

have surely not been surely not been dreaming have I ? Sometimes I half fall asleep

when I am sitting alone and fancy things that have never happened. It has seemed to

me more than once when I have been in a doze, that my dear husband, who died

fifteen years since has come in and sat down beside me, and that I have even heard

him' call me by my name Alice, as he used to do. Now can you tell me whether it is

actually true that Mr. Rochester has asked you to marry him? Don't's laugh at me.

But I really thought he came in here five minutes ago and said, that in a month you

would be his wife."

"He has said the same thing to me."

"He has ! Do you believe him ? Have you accepted him ?"

"Yes.,,

"I could never have thought it. He is a proud man: all the Rochesters

were proud: and his father, at least liked money. He to, has always been called care-

122

ful. He means to many you?"

"He tells me so. "38

Mrs. Fairfax's experienced eye cannot be deceived. Her penetrating

glances at Jane make her understand that the old maid is unable to digest the whole

affair so easily. She warns Jane again of her difference in age with Rochester. She

reminds her that Mr. Rochester is like her father. She is sorry to grieve Jane by her

severity and incredulous attitude but she finds it necessary to do so. She warns her of

the unfaithfulness of men. All that glitters cannot be gold, she explains. She advises

Jane to distrust Mr. Rochester and keep him at a distance because a person like Mr.

Rochester is not used to marry governesses. She is worried that what is impossible is

impossible. She loves Jane and does not want her to suffer after marrying a rich and

old man. What Jane is going to do is erroneous and Mrs. Fairfax is stubborn to make

her understand the consequences. She cannot consent to what Jane is going to do as

she cannot accept the blunder. She is a lady who cannot easily be duped.

Thus Mrs. Fairfax's portrait is of a woman who can easily announce

the time for the ebb and flow of the tide so that it may not wash the shores off and

leave to repent for the harm it has done.

Grace Poole : Grace Poole's portrait is wrapped up in mystery. She is an inmate of

Thornfield Hall who is paid heavily for her unknown duty. She is a woman between

thirty and forty. She is a normal woman with a normal plain face and there is no

supernatural appearance on her face but her weird behaviour really makes her spooky.

123

Grace Poole's activities are of a handmaid. She sews well and is always engaged in

that work when she is free. She is taciturn, steady and sober, Jane however suspects

her. She thinks she is the murderer of Mr. Rochester and wants to seize his property

after killing him. Grace Poole also does not want to disclose anything to Jane. She as

a faithful maid maintains the secrecy of the house. Hence she is always busy doing

something. Her aloofness make her a puzzling person.

Jane is unaware of the truth of the household and so believes that Grace

Poole has involved in the hideous attempt ofhis master's murder. But she is surprised

that her master instead of questioning her pays no heed to her lecherous act. Grace

Poole's daily routine more surprises Jane. She descends to the kitchen once a day and

after eating her dinner smokes a moderate pipe on the hearth and goes back to the

third story carrying her pot of porter with her. In the twenty four hours she passes

only one hour downstairs and the twenty three hours she spends in the haunted chamber

of the third story.

Grace Poole's mystery is made known when Mr. Rochester is about to

marry and Mr. Mason reveals the whole matter. Jane becomes a ferret and tries her

best to dig out the truth but she fails. Mr. Mason, Bertha Mason's brother declares in

front of every one that Mr. Rochester is already married. The mask is lifted and

Grace Poole's authenticity also comes to light. It is revealed that Grace Poole is the

most trustworthy employee who successfully has drawn the veil and has never tried

to bare the horrifying truth. She manages the frantic woman dextrously. She main­

tains her course soundly and judiciously and handles the situation. She is sacrificing

124

as she has alienated herself from the outer world and lives in the world of a lunatic.

It is really surprising that she is able to be in her sober senses inspite of living with a

mad woman for so many years.

Thus Grace Poole's portrait is of a strong and courageous servant who

serves her master sincerely and truthfully. It is for her that Mr. Rochester is able to

conceal the identify of the mad woman in the attic who is his wedded wife.

Adele Varens : Jane's pupil at Thornfield Adele Varens's portrait is of a pretty frivo­

lous little fairy whose parentage by the past history is revealed to be of an opera girl.

She is a child of eight years. Slightly built, with a small featured face and a redundancy

of hairy falling in curls to her waist. She can only speak French because she is the

child of a French mother. She is lucky that Mr. Rochester has brought home the child

abandoned by her mother who had run away to Italy with a musician. The illegiti­

mate offspring of a French-opera girl Adele gets a home and a father to look after her.

Adele is the sweetest pupil which Jane has found. Her innocence, her lively spirit

make Jane more cling to her.

Adele is sometimes unmanageable. When she is engaged in childish

chatter then no body can control her. She takes the freedom to play as long as she

wishes and sometimes becomes childishly self-willed and perverse but when Jane

controls her she soon forgets her vagaries and surrenders to her will. She loves her

governess very much and many times expresses her gratitude by kissing her.

125

Adele is a good student. She learns whatever she is taught. She learns

English very easily though her mother tongue is French. She is ready to go to school

but her guardian Mr. Rochester is not ready to send her. She takes her lessons seri­

ously from Jane and never neglects her studies. She loves visitors also at home.

When Mr. Rochester's acquaintances come at home, she tries to be very friendly with

them. She is reprimanded for her over friendless but she cares not as she is an artless,

good and obedient child.

Thus Adele's portrait has a significance because it is for her only that

Jane gets a job of governess and a·home.

Mrs. Eshton, Louisa Eshton and Amy Eshton: The portraits of these three women

reveal aristocracy and sophistication. Amy is amusingly simple with her childlike

manners and face. Louisa is tall, fashionable and refined. Both the sisters have lily

like fairness. Their mother is handsome as she is able to preserve her beauty.

Lady Lynn : Loaded with gems and dressed richly with satin, Lady Lynn is one of

the ladies of an aristocratic society. Her black hair shines glossily under the shade of

the blue feathers.

Mrs. Colonel Dent: Mr. Colonel Dent's portrait is again of a rich lady who is able to

impress others by her slight figure, gentle but pale face and fair hair.

Mrs. Gryce: Mrs. Gryce's portrait is of an under teacher at Lowood school. She

126

shares her room with Jane but she unables to fascinate her. She snores when she

sleeps and it has higher pitched sound.

Lady Ingram, Mary Ingram : Lady Ingram and her daughter Mary Ingram are of

sophisticated birth but snobbery is in their behaviour.

Mary Ann Wilson: Friend of Jane and fellow pupil of Lowood school Mary Ann's

portrait is of an indeed true well-wisher of Jane and Helen Bums.

Mrs. Harden : Mrs. Harden's portrait is of iron housekeeper of Mr. Brecklehurst.

She is as merciless and unyielding as her master.

Barbara : Barbara's portrait is of a neutral servant of Lowood school. She tries to

supply food to the poor girls who are poor and have to take refuge at a charitable

school.

Celine Varens : Celine Varens's portrait is of a french opera girl by whose beauty

Mr. Rochester was infatuated. She is a lewd woman who became the mistress of Mr.

Rochester only for money.

Giacinta and Clara : Italian Giacinta's and German Clara's portraits are of also

fallen women. They are the mistresses of Mr. Rochester. With beauty in perfection

they live with him only for a couple of months and then vanish from his life. Giacinta

is impetuous and without principles. Clara is fat. unintelligent and unimpressive.

127

Mr. Rochester is glad to give her a sufficient amount to set up her in a line of business

and decently gets rid of her.

Rosalind Oliver : Rosalind Oliver's portrait is of a blooming belle glowing with

freshness. The only daughter of a rich man, Rosalind Oliver is an acme of perfect

beauty. With distinctive features and exclusive manners, Rosalind is regarded with

awe in the neighbourhood. Her beauty is a kind of solace to Jane when she is suffer­

ing the torments of separation from her lover Mr. Rochester. She is always in her

joyous spirits. She is open-hearted, good-humoured and humble. She is the richest

woman in her neighbourhood but is devoid of pride. She is frank, innocent and

artless. She is munificent. She has prodigous nature, always enjoying life to the full.

Rosalind Oliver's portrait has some minute defects. She is unimpressive and uninter­

esting. She is childish and inquisitive and is mostly engaged in childish pranks .

Later she is married to one of the best connected and most estimable person.

Diana Rivers : Diana River's handsome portrait is really incredible because she

serves as an anchor to Jane when she is emotionally shattered. During Jane's acute

mental crisis she does the task of balm. There is a joyous attitude in her ways. She is

well read and knows German very well. She teaches Jane German and is a good

teacher. She also follows the Christian doctrines sincerely. Lover of moors, Diana

takes a chance everyday to spend few hours in the moors.

Thus Diana River's portrait is Palely sketched but offers to be an im-

portant one.

128

Mary Rivers: Sister of Diana Mary's portrait is somewhat ashy but she is the epitome

of endurance. She is a parentless child and hence like her sister wants to lead her life

with the evangelical beliefs. She likes reading and enjoys the classics. She is also a

lover of moors and gives ample time to them.

Thus as Diana's sister Mary also helps Jane to come out of her mental

disbalance. It is revealed that Diana and Mary are her real nieces. Due to this discov­

ery Jane again finds gleams of sunshine in her life.

Hannah : Hannah's portrait is of a unsophisticated but a kind servant of the Rivers

Household She is the most faithful and honest servant who is there in the Rivers

household for more than thirty years. Hannah is fond of talking. She gives moral

support to Jane when she leaves Thornfield.

Thus the portfolio of sketches of women in the novel ,Jane Eyre is

fairly big and each and every portrait stands out of its own. Charlotte Bronte has

painted full length each portrait and has handled them with her skillful hands. In

sketching and limning the women Charlotte has used her ornamental art of verbal

painting.Being a creator of memorable and colourful portraits, Charlotte Bronte has

made her novel'Jane Eyre' tum out to be an exquisite specimen of living creations.

She bestows love and vitality on each of her portraits and thus makes them real. The

mark of her genius also lies in augmenting the value of women in front of her read­

ers. Vivid portraits of women leap from every page and draw the attention of the

readers.

129

REFERENCES I. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.l.

2. Robert Martin, The Accents of Persuasion : Charlotte Bronte's Novels (Faber,

1966), P. 64.

3. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation,New Yo~k),P.2.

4. Quoted in the novel,Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation,New York),P.7.

5. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.ll.

6. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.14.

7. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.37.

8. Jeannette King, Jane Eyre; Open Guides to Literature (Open Unviersity Press,

Milton Keynes. Philadelphia, 1986), P. 7.

9. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.12.

lO.Karen Chase, Eros and Psyche: The Representation of Personality in Charlotte

Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot (New York, Methuen, 1984), P.51.

11. Ian Gregor, The place oflove in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in The

Brontes (Prentice Hall, 1970), P.80.

12. Charlotte Bronte in her preface to Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New

York), P.II.

13. Quoted in the novel,Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.168.

14. Mary Ward, The Brontes: The Critical Heritage: Introduction to Haworth

edition of Jane Eyre, edited by Miriam ABott (Routledge and Kegan Paul),

P.174,P.449.

15. Quoted in the novel, Ja11e Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.l84.

16. Quoted in the novel, Ja11e Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.213.

130

16. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.213.

17. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York),P.221.

18. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York),

P.345.

19. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York),

P.360.

20. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf ofWestern Corporation, New York), P.480.

21. Quoted in the novel,Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York),

P.390.

22. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.62.

23. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.63.

24. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.91.

25. Jeannette King, Jane Eyre: Open guides to Literature (Open University Press,

Milton Keynes, Philadelphia, 1986), P.22.

26. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.60.

27. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.80,

28. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P. 94.

29. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.l6.

30. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.28.

31. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.263.

32. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.2.

33. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York),

P.277.

34. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York), P.28.

131

35. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York),

P.281.

36. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation, New York),

P.381.

37. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf of Western Corporation,New York),

P. 214.

38. Quoted in the novel, Jane Eyre (Gulf ofWestem Corporation,New York), P. 308

132