Jane Eyre: The Theme Of Painful Love

Pain, misery, and disappointment are all a significant part of this world’s concepts of both life and love. A prime example of this is displayed in Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, where the protagonist, Jane, suffers through a particularly difficult life; her love is constantly stripped from her the moment she is relishing it most. With Bronte’s introduction of Bertha Rochester, Jane’s never-ending cycle of disappointment and loss of love is continued.

Charlotte Bronte utilizes the character of Mrs. Rochester to interrupt Jane’s potential happy ending with Mr. Rochester with whom she met at Thornfield. Bertha is announced by Mr. Briggs as a way to stop the wedding and it also shows how hopeless Jane’s situation is. “That is my wife,” said he. ‘Such is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know such are the endearments which are to solace my leisure hours! And this is what I wished to have,’” and “’I wanted her just as a change after that fierce ragout,’” are quotes that express Mr. Rochester’s reasons for trying to remarry while he already has a wife, meanwhile showing his disposition towards her. If Mr. Briggs and Mr. Mason had not been at the ceremony, Jane may have lived happily in ignorance. Due to Bertha’s involvement, however, Jane could never truly call herself Mr. Rochester’s wife. She says, “’Sir, your wife is living: that is a fact acknowledged this morning by yourself. If I lived with you as you desire—I should then be your mistress: to say otherwise is sophistical—is false.’” This quote shows that because it is revealed to the reader, Jane refuses to marry Mr. Rochester. The influence that Bertha’s introduction had on Jane’s life was significant enough to make her doubt and ultimately end the relationship with Mr. Rochester. Bronte giving Jane all of these challenges just makes the reader feel sympathetic for Jane, nothing ever goes right for her and everything in her life goes from bad to worse. She has never had somewhere to call home until later on in life, a situation no child should be in, speaking of, the borderline abuse she suffered from her aunt and cousin at the start of the book really showed the readers the kind of life Jane would ultimately have. She was finally happy, after all of her devastating histories she is finally happy, that is the false sense of security the author wanted you to have before killing Janes happiness once again, just like she did with Helen, Jane finally finds someone who is kind to her and she is taken quite literally from under her nose.

However, this can link to “The Great Gatsby” as on one level, Gatsby knew Daisy was married, but every time he envisioned her, she was his girl, just as she was all those years ago when he first met her. Tom didn’t really exist in Jay’s imagination because he was not part of Jay’s obsession over the years. Gatsby is completely shocked at the sight of Daisy’s daughter, and Nick states, “I don’t think he had ever really believed in its existence before.” Jay is incapable of seeing Daisy for what she is, a careless, shallow, selfish person who tramples on people’s lives. He built her up in his imagination over the years. He loves her so much he can’t see any signs of deceit. Just like Jane doesn’t see any present red flags when it comes to Rochester, however, Jane wasn’t as invested in Rochester as Jay Gatsby was.

Jane Eyre’s life was nothing short of harsh, ever since childhood, she was constantly let down, by her aunt, someone who was meant to show her love and help her develop as a person, but who in reality was a cruel carer to the protagonist, even later in life when Jane tried to reconcile she was shunned away. At the age of 10 when she moved away she met one of the first people who was ever really nice to her, they formed a somewhat sisterly bond and I think Bronte’s aim with that relationship was to show Jane what love felt like, or what Jane thought love felt like, obviously Helen didn’t love Jane to the extent that Eyre loved her, but she was desperate for that kind of care. But Bronte’s execution if you will of the character just starts off the events that love is painful for Jane. Until the end, when she finds Rochester again and lives 10 wonderful years with him and even has a child, the majority of her life we see her fail but overcome, but the best moment is seeing her overcome all of her monsters and move on and live a happy ending life.

So yes, love is presented as painful in Jane Eyre, but not in every aspect, she is granted the feeling of love by many people, it does get taken away and she does face many blows, but it always finds its way back to the protagonist, and she does end happily. This contrasts with the ending of Gatsby where he is killed, but he is also happy as he has finally broken his obsession with Daisy.