Analysis of Jane and Rochester’s Relationship in Bronte’s Jane Eyre

Throughout literature, authors have gotten the opportunity to create characters that serve as a role model for everything people should strive to be. In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre’s ability to stay true to her morals is a message that shined through literature. In this novel, Jane’s journey of self-discovery and willingness to stay true to herself is tracked, causing her to be a role model for all. Bronte characterizes Jane Eyre as a bildungsroman, as Jane starts from an unloved, isolated girl who questions her belonging, shaping her into a strong women, as she is able to overcome the many obstacles that come her way. Jane’s relationship with Rochester was one filled with both unknowing and passion, pushing her value of self-worth to the test. The moment that Jane realizes her self-worth, the plot is moved forward, causing the novel to revolve around her admirable qualities.

Rochester and Jane’s relationship had never been one of ease, but once they finally admitted their feelings for one another, they were able to move forward. However, when the wedding ceremony between Jane and Rochester is interrupted and Jane learns of Bertha’s existence, she makes the decision to no longer marry Rochester. This moment is significant because even if she was in love with Rochester, Jane has to respect herself and, because of her previous moral development, cannot marry someone who already has a wife. Jane is even willing to leave Thornfield and return to poverty, something she has tried so hard to escape. This moment brings together nearly all the aspects of a bildungsroman (love affair, loss, and moral development) and highlights Jane’s individuality, which is different from any women seen in this literary period. It is at this very moment when Jane cuts her marriage and develops more of a sense for her self-worth when the entire plot begin to unfold, causing her relationship with Rochester as well as her entire view and presence in Thornfield to change. It is at this very moment when her morals that she has stuck to her entire life are out to the test, and she truly develops into the person that she has worked her entire life to be.

Furthermore, Jane uses this pivotal moment of not marrying Rochester to serve as a stepping stone for all of her other decisions that she makes in her life. For instance, when St. John gives jane the option of traveling on a missions trip with him to India if she agreed to marry him, she thought about how much her faith steered her to this opportunity, “but as his wife — at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked — forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital — this would be unendurable”. Through her “failed” relationship with Rochester, Jane has a negative perception for marriage, one filled with loneliness and despair; anything but love. Just a while before this, Jane had turned down Rochester in an opposite situation, where her morals forced her to avoid the love she felt for him. Now, Jane is forgoing the duty she feels from her faith and choosing faith in this situation to benefit herself. Jane chooses self happiness over being called upon by a man, which is a very pivotal moment in both the novel and her life. Jane is beginning to make decisions entirely on her own that can stay in accordance with her own moral values above any man or social opportunity.

The situations that Jane was in regarding love, marriage, and sacrifice characterizes the entire novel into a bildungsroman, highlighting the obvious physiological and emotional changes that Jane undergoes throughout the novel that cause her to make certain choices later on in her journey. Overall, Jane is and always will be a role model for all women of then as well as now.