Jane Eyre - Character Development

2206 Words9 Pages
Lindsay Sorensen English 201 Research Paper – Jane Eyre Character Development In the novel Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, the main character Jane embarks on a journey of self-discovery and truly develops as a character. There are many characters in the novel, Jane Eyre, that impact Jane’s life and allow the reader to see the transformation and character development that Jane undergoes. The ideals and perspectives of each of these characters help Jane to form her own personal views on religion and her views on the role of women contribute to her character development as she seeks self-discovery. Several characters influence and help form Jane’s own personal religious views. Jane is introduced to two major perspectives and as she interacts with Mr. Broklehurst, Mr. St. John Rivers, and Helen Burns, she discovers her own take on religion. Jane is first introduced to Mr. Broklehurst, who has an evangelical perspective towards religion, at Gateshead. He is the headmaster at Gateshead and expresses his religious perspectives in a harsh way. Evangelists focus on personal conversion and emphasize that God works certain changes in an individual. Mr. Broklehurst, who is highly self-righteous, criticizes Jane, “That proves you have a wicked heart; and you must pray to God to change it: to give you a new and clean one” (Bronte, 32) when she expresses her dislike for the book of Psalms. He represents and shows the cruelty that Christianity can take. . One critic, Jeffery Franklin, describes Mr. Brocklehurst as, “that Brocklehurst represents a stingy God, a ‘repressive sanctimoniousness, entirely at odds with the service of a God of Love,’ and that what is most immediately egregious about Brocklehurst is that he ‘sees accountability not … as emanating from self-examination but in terms of regulation the lives of others’ (Franklin, 10). Mr. Brocklehurst justifies

More about Jane Eyre - Character Development

Open Document