Jane Eyre compares, contrasts, and blends two extremes, hedonism and asceticism, to promote a more temperate approach to life. This is seen very clearly during Jane's return to Gateshead. There she meets ascetic Eliza, indulgent Georgiana, and where she hears more fully the consequences of hedonistic John's lifestyle and demise (256-57, 260; ch. 21). Eliza is pictured negatively, as cold, fastidious, and rigid (263). She ends up in a nunnery in the Roman Catholic Church (269-70; ch. 22). Georgiana is also portrayed negatively. She is seen as "indolent," shallow, and without self-control (263-64; ch. 21). She marries a wealthy, fashionable man (270; ch. 22). John's gambling and pleasure seeking ruins the family and is spoken of unfavorably as well (260-61; ch. 21). The two Misses Reed are found too extreme. Of them Jane says:
True, generous feeling is made small account of by some; but here were two natures rendered, the one intolerably acrid, the other despicably savourless, for the want of it. Feeling without judgement is a washy draught indeed; but judgement untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition. (263; ch. 21)These extremes are merely symptoms of the lifestyle of asceticism on the one hand and luxury and self-indulgence on the other. Of the four who grew up at Gateshead, Jane is the only one who achieves a successful and positive life. Even Eliza and Georgiana must admit that she is respectable. They commend her, Georgiana, for her understanding and sympathy; Eliza, for her work ethic (269; ch. 22). She seems to have avoided the vices of each of her cousins. This is because she is moderate, neither radically ascetic, nor uncontrollably self-indulgent.
The process in which Jane comes to this lifestyle is chronicled and contrasted with others in her four living quarters. At Gateshead, Jane is denied luxuries, though others around her enjoy them. At Lowood, everyone lives in enforced asceticism, though she sees luxury during the Brocklehurst family visits. At Lowood, Jane becomes acquainted with the religious views of asceticism and luxury. She rejects the ascetic lifestyle, while accepting the importance of self-control. At Thornfield Hall, she is introduced to pleasures and luxuries she never knew before. As she progresses in her life, Jane learns to assert her needs for pleasure, love, happiness, and joy, while tempering them with a moderate form of self-denial. This is similar to Quaker simplicity which still allows space for worldly joy. At Marsh End, she is given the chance to choose the asceticism of her earlier life or the luxury she has seen, and rejects them both. She rejects extreme self-denial when she chooses not to share St. John Rivers' life with him, for it is too rigid, stern, and unrewarding (377-78; ch. 30). Marriage to him would be the same (431; ch. 34). She also rejects luxury when she obtains a large inheritance and chooses to share it evenly with her cousins, leaving her with a modest sum of money (409, 412; ch. 33). Her story ends in a moderate position between hedonism and asceticism. She marries the man she loves, who, though she must take care of him because he is blind and maimed, brings her great delight and pleasure (461; ch. 37). Though it seems like a sacrifice to care for an older, dependent husband, Jane assures Mr. Rochester that it is no sacrifice to be with the one she loves and who loves her with both body and soul (471; ch. 37). But, Jane declares, if it is, "then certainly I delight in sacrifice" (470; ch. 37). Her life is a mixture of two extremes, a balance between denial and pleasure.