LOVE AND THE REJECTION OF LOVE IN JANE EYRE Jane Eyre states at the beginning of Chapter 2, "I resisted all the way". It was this attitude, this declaration of a unique female rebelliousness, which sets the perfect note for the entire novel. That a woman will "resist" the terms of her destiny (social or spiritual) is not a new concept in English literature up to the publication of Jane Eyre in 1847. We have after all …
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showed last 75 words of 3295 total
…orphan, the governess, the small, plain, and "Quaker-like" virgin? The novel ends with a curious aside to St. John Rivers away in India "laboring for his race" and anticipating with a martyr's greed, his "incorruptible crown." It is St. John's grim and exultant language that closes the story, however ironically "'Amen; even so, come, Lord Jesus!'" But those who have love have no need for this particular Lord Jesus as Jane Eyre undoubtedly proves.