Jane Eyre (Grades 9–1) York Notes

Charlotte Brontë uses the description of St John Rivers in this passage to highlight some of Jane’s attitudes towards religion and Christianity. As this passage comes towards the end of the novel, it demonstrates Jane’s growing maturity and confidence with her own attitudes and shows that she has developed her own clear ideas of what a good Christian is, and how she wants to live her own life.

The whole passage demonstrates that, for Jane, St John is leading a ‘Christian’ life in some respects, but not completely. He is described as self-sacrificing and devoted to his parishioners, but without any real soul. Her concern about whether he does this for ‘love or duty’ indicates that one is more important to her than the other. He is ‘reserved, abstracted and brooding’ with his sisters and with her, and she uses the word ‘zealous’ more as a criticism of his attitude towards his responsibilities than as a compliment. She compares his attitude to his home as lacking awareness of the ‘treasury of delight’ that his sisters clearly see. His beliefs don’t appear to bring him any happiness and he seems to be very cold and distant with her and with his sisters. Although he leads a ‘blameless’ life she describes it as empty and without any ‘reward’.

The passage clearly shows that Jane is starting to come to terms with her life and with her choices, and has recognised that for her, ‘mental serenity’ and ‘inward content’ are what she is looking for. She talks about the ‘peaceful delights’ of nature and seems to have come to terms with the idea that for her, religion means to value and respect the world you have been given and to treat it with care and kindness. The language used to describe St John seems to suggest restlessness and lack of peace; ‘zealous’, ‘flash’ and ‘changeful’. However, what Jane seems to admire in life contrasts with this and is shown through language such as ‘affection’, ‘soothing’ and ‘peaceful’.

St John is one of the characters who Brontë uses to help Jane learn about herself and her own values. In his own way he is as influential as Helen Burns and Mr Brocklehurst, who both represent different ways of being a Christian and different types of religious attitudes in that society. Although Jane admires and loves Helen, she sees her as an ‘angelic’ figure who she can try to be like but who is shown to be too fragile to survive. Mr Brocklehurst on the other hand is a symbol of religious hypocrisy who seems to believe that he is doing his Christian duty but is in fact cruel and selfish. The young Jane reacts very strongly to this, showing that even as a child she has a very clear sense of the difference between the right and wrong way of being a Christian. When she falls in love with Rochester, she is very tempted by the life that he offers her, because for the first time in her life she is valued and loved for herself. However, she still rejects this and walks away because she knows that to live ‘in sin’ would be immoral. This shows that Jane’s Christian beliefs are very strong indeed, as she would rather sacrifice her own happiness than go against God.

Ultimately, this passage shows that Jane is starting to come to terms with her own attitudes towards religion. She believes that it is important to lead a moral life and to do the right thing towards others. However, she also believes that it is important to be happy and to value the life that God has given you by appreciating your surroundings and the people that you love.