Brian Scherle
The prevalence of fire imagery and it's multitude of metaphoric uses
in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre
expresses two things that could
not be expressed openly in the Victorian Period, which are mainly
passion
and sexuality. Brontes writing was dictated by the morals of her
society,
but her ideas were not. Jane Eyre
was written with the Victorian
reader in mind. Bronte knew that if she were to write about these two
things
directly she would have to face possible rejection of her book. A
resolution
to this dilemma was to awaken the audience in a way that society deemed
not only respectable, but also acceptable. So Bronte creates Jane, and
Jane becomes the embodiment of these morals. She takes Victorian
psychology
of passion on as her own. The psychology of passion then becomes the
novel's
most dominant theme. Throughout Jane
Eyre, passion becomes centrally
focused on self-control, female sexuality, and its relationship to
Bertha's
insanity as images of fire.
Jane Eyre's images of fire bring to the forefront the contradictions that Victorian women faced in fulfilling their passionate needs and while maintaining self-control. Jane is confronted with the duality of freeing herself from the constraints of society and her fears of releasing the consuming energy of her sexuality. Jane keeps these feelings and passions in stringent check because she does not want to give in to the fires she feels inside, but is always struggling to do so. David Lodge says this eloquently, "the heat emanates from a source of passionate love, not of vengeance, and the possibility of being consumed by it is as seductive as it is terrifying" (128). Jane thus creates fire and uses this fire imagery to illustrate the way in which she depicts this struggle. This becomes the representations of letting the volatile forces of passion burn out of control. In this passage from the novel, Jane begins to understand what will become of her if she gives into the consuming passion that she often feels:
A ridge of lighted heath, alive, glancing, devouring, would have been a great 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. (69; ch. 4)
Bronte takes the fire and transforms it to illustrate the image of sexuality and passion. By doing this, she also proposes the way in which internalized feelings of opposing ideas give into self-depleting energy through the loss of self-control. Here, Jane has the fear of becoming like Mrs. Reed. She comes to the realization that if this is not what she wants to be like, then she must keep her passions under control. Otherwise, she could become "black and blasted after the flames have died." This is presented to embody what Victorian society believed to be true and is a fine example of everything that it despises, which is namely the expression of passion. The fulfillment of self becomes the foundation of society's views, on which the fears of women and their passionate behaviors are laid.
Indeed, fire and tumult are major themes within the novel, but these images also invade Victorian arguments pertaining to a women's place in society, and the possible consequences that could occur if a women were to overstep those boundaries. At this time, women were not allowed to let their sexual passions known to anyone, lest they wanted to be looked down upon. Anytime these feelings arise, the woman was supposed to ignore her feelings and squelch the fire in order to maintain control at all times. As a precursor to Jane's summary of how she feels in society, she states, "A tale my imagination created . . . quickened with all of incident, life, fire, feeling, that I desired and had not had in my actual existence" (141; ch. 12). Jane feels that all of these elements are inside her, but are not a part of her "actual existence" or reality. This connection of fire with women's desires is not just symbolic. Women at this time held back many of their feelings, because society's views and morals were pushing them to do so. The main problem with this solution was that the women, after many years of doing this, would explode realizing the pent up emotions they were hiding. Jane also falls into this pattern. Jane is accused of hiding her emotions that all come tumbling forth later. Mrs. Reed makes these accusations in Jane's earlier years at Gateshead. Mrs. Reed asks Jane, "'how for nine years you could be patient and quiescent under any treatment, and in the tenth break out all fire and violence" (267; ch. 21). In this passage, the implications of self-control and falling prisoner to passion are at odds. This is a prime example of how Jane holds onto and conceals her feelings from society in accord with social constraints. Ideas, as this one, enable Jane to carry around in her the grains of insanity through a loss of self-control by giving into her passionate feelings. Jane in the next line of the novel then goes on to refer to herself as "passionate" (267; ch. 21). As a passionate child, Jane becomes symbolic of something else Victorian society fears. She has not only been the passionate child, but she has also become the frenzied woman. This is the creation of, in Victorian psychology, a woman being consumed by her body's passionate feelings. Now Jane becomes a woman seen not to have any self-control, which gives her an image that contains fiery sexuality.
However, it is not only as a woman that Jane has this stigma attached to her. As a child, she experiences society's norms and values as well. The Victorians feared the passion that children possessed and therefore stifled it with strict guards, so that the children would not grow up with the passions that were seen as a sickness in adults. The children now were taking on the attributes of adults who were seen to be on the outskirts of the Victorian social norms. As a child, Jane poses the same dilemma that she has had to deal with in her adult life. Throughout the novel this problem exists. Jane displays these passions as conflict; however, she does not grow in her ability to handle these episodes. Instead, they become just repetitive events in the novel. On the day Miss Temple is married, this idea is expressed when Jane states, "I was left in my natural element; and beginning to feel the stirring of old emotions" (116; ch. 10). That natural element is fire, and the stirring of emotions are what Jane feels inside. These feelings are reminiscent of her days at the Reeds, when Jane suffered through a punishment and was told by Bessie not to cry. Jane replies with, "she might as well have said to the fire, 'Don't burn!''' (54; ch. 3). Jane has a history of returning to similar events and situations that become a series of recurring themes.
Jane's reaction to Miss Temple's wedding is one of the events that deals with her passionate feelings, but Jane also sees the destruction of Helen Burns as another form of consuming passion. Helen's death became a consumption of self. This manifests itself by Helen’s lack of outwardly passion in any form. Helen's death is explained by the Victorian ideas of repressing passion and sexuality. In this passage, Jane talks to Helen regarding the chastising she received from Mr. Brocklehurst, and they discuss how she should deal with it. This is clear when Helen says that these feelings will "ere long appear so much the more evident for the temporary suppression" (101; ch. 8). This reveals that Helen believes in keeping those passionate outbursts hidden and tells Jane to do the same. As a result of these feelings, she turns her passionate desires inward causing the flames to consume her. Helen, in this way, achieves her goal of wanting to become a bodiless being, which burns in the fires that would essentially purify her soul. The major characters in this novel are connected by this idea and embodiment of the consuming force of sexuality. For instance, Bertha is Helen's antithesis because she is unable to be consumed by the fires of her sexuality. This leads to her destruction because she jumps to her death while Thornfield burns to the ground.
Bertha is not only symbolic of the repression of female sexuality, but she is also representative of the Victorian repression of instinctual female sexuality. Victorian society thought that women could be sexual; however, when they were sexual a label was placed on them. Included in this label was the belief that when women were sexual they became more susceptible to fits of insanity. Victorian society had pre-established notions of what it was to be rebellious and what it was to conform. Jane's character is a contrast to traditional Victorian norms, and this is what gives Jane depth in the novel. She becomes the epitomization of self-development, which is contrasted by the fears that she might lose all self-control. This brings into question whether the ideas of rebellion and conformity are one in the same. This is the connection between Jane and Bertha.
Bertha's bed burning episode is contradictory to Jane's burning desire, which she cannot show. Bertha and her outbursts can be connected with Jane and her insistence on self-control, in this way. In this episode, Bronte implies that this passage is an expression of Jane's inhibited sexuality. For example, Bronte describes, "Tongues of flames darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the midst of blaze and vapour, Mr. Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep" (179; ch. 15). In turn, this enables the development of tension in Jane's character. As Rochester lay enveloped in "tongues of flames, "Jane goes to his side and tries to wake him. Jane now becomes the aggressor in this act of passion. After this attempt fails, Jane fills a water-jug and extinguishes the flames. In doing this, Jane has relieved Rochester's sexual desires by putting out his fire using her water-jug, which broke during this event. Jane says, "the breakage of the pitcher I had flung from my hand when I had emptied it . . . roused Mr. Rochester at last" (179; ch.15). In this episode, Jane takes the role of aggressor and it arouses her sexuality. In this way, Jane is paralleled with Bertha's bed burning actions by being the recipient of the passion that Bertha's rebellion symbolizes. There are several other time that Jane and are linked in the novel: Jane's fires and Bertha's blood, the red room and the attic, and Jane being referred to as a "mad," the way that Bertha acts throughout the novel. The same way that Jane is able to hide her feelings of passion inside is also the reason that Bertha is assumed to be insane because she is not able to do this. The issues of self-control and the lack thereof are the blatant point of comparison between Jane and Bertha.
In the novel, self-control is based on the different ways to conceal conflict. Both internal and external conflict are the categories that need to be concealed. These contrasting issues of control make up Jane's character. Jane's idea of abandoning self-control could only happen if she were to give into the idea of becoming what she fears most, which is Bertha. Bertha emerges from her attic space each time that Jane begins to let her passions for Rochester show. The passage where Jane finds Rochester burning in his bed is one of these times. The other most obvious time is when Jane and Rochester's desires become verbalized in the scene where Rochester is disguised as a gypsy and Mason is attacked. Each time that Jane looses a sense of self-control, she is faced with the conflict of what she wants in opposition to what she feels is the right thing to do. This is the reason that Jane leaves Rochester, thereby giving into the principles of Victorian society.
While on the one hand Rochester brought out Jane’s passions, St. John forces Jane to confront the two forces at play inside her, which are her self-control and the ability to express her sexuality. This becomes the balancing assertions of sexual growth within the plot (Maynard 143). As St. John proposes marriage to Jane, a feeling of denying herself and her sexuality become important. She expresses this by saying, "whereas I am hot, and fire dissolves ice" (409; ch. 33). Jane realizes that they are extreme opposites and that he does not awaken her sexual passions. Jane fears that in giving into the contract of marriage—in terms of a legal contract as opposed to the spirit marriage--she would be forced to keep the fire of her nature continually low. For instance, Jane says that she must "compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital--this would be unendurable" (433; ch. 34). This passage becomes reminiscent of how she felt when she first acknowledged her love for Rochester. This is also a great example of Victorian views. Victorian society expects women to obey the norms and ideals, but by hiding the feelings needed to express feelings results in a good formula for insanity. Jane's term "torturing love" exemplifies the way women are tortured by the passions that they feel. However, St. John ultimately gives her power by letting her decide what she wants. This power is an awakening to her conflict with self-control and sexuality.
Jane's last rise to power is through the mutilation of Rochester and the destruction of Bertha in the burning down of Thornfield. The burning down of Thornfield Hall sets Rochester free so that he can finally unite with Jane. Rochester's injuries from the fire were caused by his returning to the fire to save Bertha. The maiming of Rochester in the last part of the novel creates more equality between Jane and himself and they are in a situation where they can help each other out with their conflicts. The roles are reversed, and Jane is now the person with the control. Rochester in this passage says, "I have hated to be helped - to be led: henceforth, I feel I shall hate it no more" (470; ch. 37). He now gives Jane the control to help him without, while to her this is a complete sense of self and outward expression of her passion for him. Rochester, blind and mutilated, needs to depend on Jane for everything. Jane finds herself in Rochester. By seeing herself as Rochester would, she finds an indirect way toward self-control through interpretation. Throughout the novel Jane is looking for the Victorian ideal--self-control. Jane begins this journey for fulfillment of self-control at the Reeds, but she ends this crusade with Rochester. Jane's search for self-control ends up with an interpretation of herself through Rochester's eyes. Through the destruction of Bertha, Jane is able to come to terms with her idea of self-consuming passion. Berth's death was the liberating factor for Jane. It was the release of the suppressed passions that were dwelling inside her. The fires that Jane speaks after the reuniting of her and Rochester are of warmth and happiness. Jane says: "Can you tell when there is a good fire?," which is telling of the fact that she feels the fires inside are of a good nature now.
The fires that represent the passions of the characters in the novel have great significance in Victorian society. Bronte knew this and added to it social commentary on passion and sexuality in one of the most ingenious books of its time, Jane Eyre.
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