In class, we constantly question why Jane would want Mr.
Rochester as her husband. We ask ourselves if we would want Mr. Rochester as
our own husband and usually there’s silence indicating no, but love is an important aspect within the novel. Jane indicates the importance of love right away in the
beginning when she talks about her doll that she loves. “Human beings must love
something, and, in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to
find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image” (35). This is
the love that she has as a young girl, and eventually she loves Mr. Rochester and he loves her.
I think it’s clear to see that Rochester wants genuine love, he doesn’t want to marry just because the girl likes his money. ‘“I would not-I could not-marry Miss Ingram. You-you
strange, you almost unearthly thing!-I love you as my own flesh. You-poor and
obscure, and small and plain as you are-I entreat to accept me as a husband”’
(294). So the question I have for Rochester is why? Why Jane? Is it because she is so plain and that’s what makes her special to him? Is it because of the way she challenges him? Is it because she loves him and he feels the need to love her back? Or does he just have an undeniable love for Jane that cannot be explained?
Neither Mr. Rochester nor Jane are considered beauties, so the love that
they hold is genuine for themselves. I’m not sure if the love they have for one another is because
they have never had a love for anyone else in their life or if they would truly
love each other given they had other opportunities at love. Do they believe
that being with each other is their last chance at love? Mr.
Rochester is married to Bertha, but she is dehumanized and described as an animal,
not as someone, not as an individual. Jane’s love for her doll was a love for an
object, and no one has ever seen her as a human, much less love her as Mr. Rochester has. Is their love a last ditch effort, or genuine and true?
When questioning whether Jane and Mr. Rochester marry for love or necessity, the actions of the two characters following Jane’s flight from Thornfield must be considered. For Rochester, his dedication to searching for Jane reaffirms the power of his feelings. For Jane, her denial of marriage to St. John Rivers proves her unyielding and passionate love for Rochester.
ReplyDeleteAfter Jane leaves Thornfield, Rochester desperately searches for her. As the novel describes,, “The country had been scoured far and wide… that she should be found is a become a matter of serious urgency; advertisements have been put in all the papers” (439). While he easily could have resorted to mistresses as he did following his unsatisfying marriage to Bertha Mason, he instead remains true at heart to the one woman he passionately loves.
Similar to how Rochester’s actions demonstrate his true love for Jane, Jane’s reactions to St. John’s marriage proposal reaffirm her devotion to Rochester. Although she considers St. John to be an honest and good man, his proposal based on the necessity of a “missionary wife” could never satisfy her, and she rejects him. For her, a marriage without love is unbearable, especially after she experienced a passionate love from Rochester. She demonstrates this while contemplating the match when she declares, “Can I receive from him the bridal ring, endure all the forms of love and know that the spirit was quite absent? Can I bear the consciousness that every endearment he bestows is a sacrifice made on principle? No: such a martyrdom would be monstrous” (467).