Anti-Christianity And Religion In John Bronte's Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is a novel whose main theme could be debated as being religion. The statement that the novel is an “anti-Christian novel” has a good basis as there are clearly anti-Christian sentiments expressed at various points in the novel primarily through the characters like Jane and Helen, Brocklehurst, and Mrs Temple.
Jane herself, the protagonist within the novel, is the character that seems to hold the most anti-Christian philosophy and resentment for those who are followers of the religion. Bronte uses the writing method of an autobiography in order to create Jane and allow her to express these sentiments.
She goes against the majority of religious views during the time the novel was written therefore this caused a large amount of controversy, the main controversial view being her lack of faith; Jane has great doubt in those who are believers of religion as shown during the death of Helen, who is the antithesis of Jane. She questions Helen’s faith in God and asks her “Where Is God?” and “What is God?”. …show more content…
Brocklehurst had planned to render the students as “hardy, patient, self-denying.” These are all traits that are expressed within the Bible as those of a good Christian and therefore Bronte is saying that the awful conditions of the school such as starvation, disease, and even death are all the fault of religion. Bronte experienced the same tragic conditions that Jane did when she attended a religious school during her childhood and even lost two of her siblings due to tuberculosis caused by the schools conditions and therefore Bronte may be using Mr Brocklehurst, a character based on Reverend Carus Wilson, the minister who ran the school, as a way of expressing her hatred towards those who follow the Christian