Jane Eyre Theme Of Love Essay

Improved Essays
Love is one of the most overused words in society. It has become so warped from its original meaning that it is used to describe how one feels towards a person and how much he loves his favorite movie. The two extremes often leave one wondering what love really is. By observing examples in Jane Eyre of what love is not, what love is, and how Jane’s view of love changes all throughout the novel , one can see how beautiful the bond of love truly is. First, since the word love is misinterpreted, one must look and see how it has been wrongly portrayed. Love is not looking to please others. At the beginning of the novel Jane asks, “Why could I never please? Why was it useless to try to win anyone’s favor?”(Bronte 42) And the answer to her question is that love is not something to obtain or earn, but it is a gift! If someone tried to reach the standards that people set, they would never be good enough. Next, love is not fake. Jane felt the need to hide who she was internally with St. John because she did not think she would be given affection without conforming to his standards for her. Jane states, “he acquired a certain influence over me that took away my liberty of mind.”(Bronte 1468) She felt like her mind was a “rayless dungeon”(Bronte 1488), which she could not escape. Love is not a …show more content…
Love is not something that can be earned, but is freely given. Love is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty in all circumstances. And God is love, without Him love would not be possible. Clearly, the bond of love is something that is difficult to grasp, unless one has felt true love that comes from God. Jane said it best, “all my heart is yours: it belongs to you”(Bronte 1645), but that is only valid when one gives their heart fully to the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Love In The Castle The word “love” is tossed around constantly. It is a generic word used to express feelings ranging from respect all the way up to affection. No type of love is the same. One can love several people variously because every type of love is derived from other distinct feelings.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Love may be a puzzling concept that is complex to understand. Love is unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another. Love can be seen as a strong affection for another derived out of kinship or personal ties; however it can also be evident in the devotion to a person, or a way of life. In the short stories “Killings” and “A Rose for Emily” both demonstrate different forms of love, and the outcome of what love can lead too. Love of one's personal ideals impairs one's capacity to see their weaknesses and faults.…

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Love is binding, love is kind, love is selfless, love is everything that is needed to survive in this heartless world. In the books A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Bael and Night by Elie Wiesel the main characters had to use love to get through their trials and hardships in one piece mentally and physically. The feeling of love can join people together no matter what is going on around…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Love remains a frequent topic in literature because of the countless opportunities to explore emotions and to delve into the human psyche to ponder what truly causes someone to love another person. Furthermore, love is multifaceted, and Hawthorne focuses on a different aspect of love within a relationship in each of his two stories. Although “The Birth-Mark” and “The Minister’s Black Veil” both contain elements of Puritan society, delineate the relationship between a man and his partner, and consider how far love can drive a person, each story examines a different kind of love that a man and a woman have for each other. Georgiana unconditionally loves Aylmer in the same way that Mr. Hooper unconditionally loves Elizabeth, but both of their respective partners, Aylmer and Elizabeth, conditionally love them and fixate upon a single, minute detail, the birthmark and the veil, which they perceive…

    • 1747 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Temptation In Jane Eyre

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Jane Remains Strong Through Temptation In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the main character Jane, faces a situation in which she must choose whether she will succumb to her fleshly desires or remain loyal to her convictions. The handsome, charming, and wealthy, Rochester wants Jane to marry him. The problem, however, is that Rochester already has a wife. Albeit, an insane wife with no actual connection to the outside world.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Throughout the novel "Jane Eyre", the author creates the feelings of constraint and imprisonment the main character perceives. The author uses smiles, point of view, and imagery to convey these feelings to emphasize the characters emotion. The author utilizes imagery to depict scenes in the novel to function as clear images. The author states in line 5, "...a rain so penetrating..." to describe the motion in which the rain fell.…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The question of what makes a good marriage is not one that Jane Austen explores in Pride and Prejudice. Certainly, there are numerous references to finding happiness in matrimony but whether or not a good marriage is necessarily a happy marriage is a notion that can be debated. Married couples and their preceding experiences of courtship are described throughout the book and Austen’s depiction of each reveals a number of aspects and considerations in determining exactly what is and what is not enough to make a “good” marriage. In such a determination, it is clear that what may become apparent to the reader may not be as readily apparent to the characters involved. This essay examines the concepts of love and attraction, both of which have a number of different applications, and will explore the notion of compromise as a true indicator of what constitutes a good marriage in Austen’s novel, with particular reference to the main protagonists, Elizabeth and Darcy.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Robert Frost once said, “Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” This quote encapsulates a common human longing: to feel loved, to be understood by someone else. Everyone has experienced this feeling at some point, and this stays true for Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus. The desire for love is found in many of her characters. Characters either search for, have, or lose love, and they act and feel differently based on which experience they have.…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    We all poses emotions. Sometimes these emotions are good for us as they enable us to feel, while other times, these emotions hinder our ability to think clearly and rationally. One such emotion that can have such an effect on all humans is love. Love makes us feel special and provides us with a goal that we then strive towards. However, love can also cloud our judgment and not cee the entire truth.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    As humans, we’re almost all hardwired to search for love. Love is something that is said to be one of the most sought-after things in life. Love comes in the form of lovers, family, friends, and even self-love. To some, love is the saving grace by which people can find redemption. To others, love is a prison, something that creates weaknesses in people.…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind” (1.1234-35). Love is an irrational emotion, able to change as quickly and suddenly of the wind. People, in the name of love, are willing to overlook much in order to rationalize the actions and words of the subject of their affection. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare uses wild pansies, night, and dynamic relationships to portray differing definitions of romantic love as a passionate, sometimes, irrational force able to blind lovers to the reality of the world. The first definition of love given is love is the the conquered surrendering to the conqueror.…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    "Reader, I married him” (Bronte 517). These well known and short words are the first line we read in the closing chapter of Jane Eyre. As the reader we are addressed 37 times from the beginning of Chapter 11 to Chapter 38, Jane constantly addresses the reader to reassure us that she is not just blindly telling a story, but rather she is telling this story to a specific audience. As this story is about someone’s life, there is an essence of Jane telling us this story of her life in her old age, however, there is controversy around when and to whom she is telling this story to. Jane throughout the novel is confiding in the reader for why she made these decisions, which is why she is making an argument to the reader throughout the novel.…

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Oppression In Jane Eyre

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jane Eyre has never received love from her aunt, cousins or anybody to be specific. When going to Lowood School, Jane finds herself being accepted by someone else; Helen, her best friend who is dying. Jane Eyre desperately seeks affection by others which makes she says: “but that is enough; if others don’t love me, I would rather die” (Bronte 101) to show how unaccepted and unappreciated she has been feeling all her years. When Helen dies, Jane Eyre goes back to being alone and unloved. That is until she meets Mrs. Fairfax who is so nice to her which makes Jane think if that is all an act and she will later on become like Mrs. Reed.…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hero And Leander Analysis

    • 1346 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In literature, love has always been a concept of great debate, although, what exactly is love? Pamela C. Regan, from Los Angeles University, explains that “…A person who experiences sexual desire for another individual, along with other emotional or psychological events, may characterize his or her state as one of ‘being in love…’” (Regan 139). However, does this sexual desire always breed emotion? When one thinks of love, thoughts of tenderness, kindness, and romance often arise with it.…

    • 1346 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Gender Issues In Jane Eyre

    • 1955 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Jane’s nonconforming views towards love, marriage, and womanly independence in addition to her development of individual moral standards portrays Bronte’s cynicism towards the Victorian society. This topic appeals to me because Jane believes that she should be seen for her personal qualities and not for what society wants her to be as a woman. This was a prime example of someone who had an idea before their time, which is why the novel received various criticisms from conservative reviewers. Jane called for a strong social reform, and the changes that she wanted occurred much later. Although there are still instances of women’s repression in the workplace, on the playing field, or in the home, social attitudes and gender roles have modernized significantly since the 19th century.…

    • 1955 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays

Related Topics