(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

The Father Figure In Jane Eyre

            Rochester: The Father Figure in Jane Eyre.
             The immortal love Jane feels for Rochester is a substitution for the lack of fatherly love in her life. Jane has been deprived of parental affection from the beginning of her childhood. The only "motherly" association she has had was a negative experience with her bitter Aunt Reed. Jane strives throughout the novel to receive the loving touch she has yearned for since her days of innocence. However, Jane's effort to find the love she is seeking remains fruitless until she meets Rochester. He is a man twenty years her senior whom gives her the attention she has long desired. Jane's passion for Rochester is a result of the Oedipus complex she failed to overcome as a child due to the absence of a father figure.
             Jane's first impression of Rochester is neither romantic nor sentimental. He is the first male figure she meets while at Thornfield and is thrilled by the fact that her help had been "needed and claimed" when he had fallen off his horse. She describes Rochester, as "dark, strong, and stern" yet never mentions any kind of physical attraction towards him. Jane's perception of him is as an older man whom seems intriguing. She does however mention that the image of his face is with her for the rest of the day. Jane is not used to being around males and made a special connection with Rochester because his masculinity is something new to her and aroused her curiosity. She realizes that their acquaintance is significant and "marked with change one single hour of a monotonous life" (122).
             Rochester tends to refer to Jane as he does Adele, a child. Upon the night of his arrival he asks Jane if she is as "unsophisticated as Adele: she demands a "cadeau" the moment she sees me" (127). Rochester has automatically assumed the role of a father figure. He treats Jane as a schoolgirl and even questions her knowledge. He quizzes her about books she has read, her family, and her time at Lowood.


Essays Related to The Father Figure In Jane Eyre

1. Jane Eyre as Cinderella

Jane Eyre as Cinderella In charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, there are several paradigms that are used throughout the story; one of the most obvious is the Cinderella template. ... Jane Eyre is the orphan child, which symbolizes Cinderella. ... Her father then died leaving the stepfamily to care for her. ... The fairy godmother characteristic is also seen repeatedly in Jane Eyre. ... To Jane and the other children at Lowood, Miss Temple was a fairy godmother figure because she gave them the love and compassion noone else had ever given them. ...

  • Word Count: 546
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

2. The Importance of Family in Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre shows the condition of an orphan with regard to the home as she has no home and no sense of belonging (Tabosa, 2008, p. 348). ... Reed's family and Jane, particularly when children are gathered around "Mamma" figure in the painting room and Jane hears their mother calling the children "darlings" while Jane is excluded. ... Jane found comfort with Bessie at Gateshead Hall; she cares for Jane as a motherly figure by telling her stories. ... Hence, Helen is like a sisterly figure for Jane because she comforts her, feeds her and embraces her. ... Although, Helen represents an angel ...

  • Word Count: 2175
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Gender and Sexism in Jane Eyre

Gender roles are a theme which is explored in a number of ways in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre." ... Jane Eyre deals with the entrapment of women, both physically and emotionally; and the links between sex and power, and the possibilities of women's sexuality being repressed for a subliminal fear of women gaining power in a male-dominated society. ... For the majority of Jane Eyre this is true of the male and female protagonists, Jane and Mr Rochester. ... His attempts to render the girls sexless in order to ameliorate his own position as a powerful masculine authoritative figure m...

  • Word Count: 1797
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte as Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte is the author of the novel Jane Eyre. ... Jane Eyre is not an exception. ... "I sometimes wished to have rosy cheeks, a straight nose, and small cherry mouth; I desired to be tall, stately, and finely developed in figure; I felt it a misfortune that I was so little, so pale, and had features so irregular and so marked (Jane Eyre, 100)." ... There are some more similarities with Bronte's home life and as with Jane. " my father had been a poor clergyman (Jane Eyre, 25)." Jane's father is a clergyman along wi...

  • Word Count: 1450
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Compare the childhood of Jane Eyre and Scout Finch

To Kill a Mockingbird has a different social and historical context than Jane Eyre. ... This differs from Jane Eyre because in Jane Eyre, a class system exists where everyone is divided into a class and everyone is segregated which is accepted by society. ... This experience, as well as her father being a lawyer, allowed her to develop an extensive knowledge of legal vocabulary, which is very much evident in the novel. ... This reflects Harper Lee because her father was a lawyer and she studied law at university. ... In Jane Eyre, there are many events that are described such as John hi...

  • Word Count: 5125
  • Approx Pages: 21
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Feminist Mores in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a feminist bildungsroman set in the early 1800s. ... In Jane Eyre, Jane refuses to accept the conventions of the Victorian woman and makes a name for herself by her own means-through fiction. In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Bronte uses Jane as a figure of strength and op-position in order to criticize the social prejudice that women of the Victorian era. Jane Eyre is particularly about the narrow social sphere of British governesses and Jane's challenges and adventures are somewhat parallel to Charlotte Bronte's own life, making it a semi...

  • Word Count: 1259
  • Approx Pages: 5

7. Jane Eyre

In the novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, a young woman's passionate search for a better life did not come easy. ... Jane never had a father figure in her life. ... Rochester is similarly described in Jane Eyre as having granite-hewn features (Berg 58). ... Rochester then proposed a question to Jane: "You examine me, Miss Eyre, do you think me handsome?... Not caught up in the fact that he is "old enough to be her father-; Rochester is still falling for Jane (Moglen 119). ...

  • Word Count: 2108
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

8. jane eyre and woman warrior

Kingston once told her Hawaiian teacher, "We Chinese can't sing "land where our fathers died." ... In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Jane's childhood lacks love and the experiences necessary in order to maintain healthy relationships, therefore causing her to go on a search for her identity. ... During the era in which Jane Eyre was published, women were steered away from independence, confidence, and self-fulfillment and guided toward an existence of submission, dependence, and ignorance. ... However, Jane is marrying for love. ... Similarly, throughout the novel Jane Eyre, ther...

  • Word Count: 1110
  • Approx Pages: 4

9. Comparing The Bronte Sisters

Charlotte's Jane Eyre received immediate success upon its publication bringing her notoriety and acclaim. ... Similarities can be seen in the Reed family of Jane Eyre and Hindley in Wuthering Heights. ... Hindley hates Heathcliff because his own father revered Heathcliff more than him. ... Heathcliff, the central figure in Wuthering Heights, has none of the redeeming qualities Jane has. ... In Jane Eyre, education proves to be a saving grace for Jane. ...

  • Word Count: 2660
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Grade Level: High School

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question