Jane Eyre challenges the widespread Victorian concept of woman as the domestic goddess. However, upon closer inspection the novel upholds this belief, which is demonstrated by the heroine who conforms to this role by the end of the novel. Jane presents a problem in the beginning of the novel because she cannot fit into this narrow model. The domestic woman is a middle-class belief and Jane is by birth of this class, but she does not possess the monetary means to assume her place in it. She is rebellious and temperamental in her youth and is financially dependant on others throughout most of the novel.
It is only through her continuing education from other women in the novel, such as Miss Temple and the Rivers sisters, and eventual financial independence that she comes to embody the middle-class ideal of a domestic angel. Prior to the Victorian era, in the English literary tradition, writers like Milton and Shakespeare depicted angels as heroic male characters. Throughout Paradise Lost and Shakespeare’s major plays, angels were shown as having a definite purpose, which usually involved performing some heavenly errand like delivering a message from God.
In the nineteenth century this began to change as the notion of a domestic goddess came to life. The domestic goddess was to provide a comfortable sanctuary for her husband after his long day of work. As a result, the woman became transformed into the guiding light of the family sphere. Jane, however, is not yet the angelic middle-class wife. She is financially dependant on her employment by Mr. Rochester. Although her birth status is middle-class, she does not possess the monetary requirements to technically be of that class.
In the first half of the novel, she is not on a comparable social footing with Mr. Rochester. This is the barrier she must overcome to fully assume the role of angel of the house. Even if Jane is not conscious that she is not yet an angel, Mr. Rochester certainly seems to be. During her life at Thornfield Hall, Rochester continually likens Jane to many non-angelic things. In their first formal encounter, he accuses her of causing his horse to fall. Rochester says to her, “When you came on me in Hay Lane last night, I thought unaccountably of fairy tales, and had half a mind to demand whether you had bewitched my horse: I am not sure yet.
He, at first, cannot see her for the angel she will become, for this can only happen after she becomes financially independent. This freedom is brought about during Jane’s stay with the two other angel figures in the novel, Diana and Mary Rivers. These women turn out to be Jane’s long lost relatives. It is their brother whom discovers the family connection and Jane’s subsequent inheritance. It is significant that it is these good angels who take Jane in just as she is on the verge of death.
These women are instrumental in Jane’s education of prudence and the pleasures of domesticity. Jane explains that she idolizes them and attempts to emulate their behaviour: “I liked to read what they liked to read: what they enjoyed, delighted me; what they approved I reverenced. They loved their sequestered home. ” Although the Rivers sisters are not married, their brother serves as the domestic equal of a husband, and together they form a household. Through them, Jane is provided with a well-rounded version of angels of the house with which to model herself after.
Eventually, she gains enough inheritance to make herself a gentlewoman. Therefore, she goes to Rochester on an equal social level. Jane exhibits a middle-class mentality that is consistent with the domestic goddess when she decides to take care of Adele at the end of the novel. Jane decides to remove Adele from the boarding school in order to educate her at home: “I meant to become her governess once more, but I soon found this impractical; my time and cares were now required by another – my husband needed them all.
Jane becomes the guiding light and support of her family. She now takes care of Rochester’s needs and truly becomes his angel. She no longer works in the care of others; instead, all her time and efforts are spent on her husband, which is the middle-class role of the angel in the house. Jane began her education in rationality thereby taming her rebellious spirit with Miss Temple at Lowood School. Jane’s teacher’s name is especially significant because she represents all the angelic piety and peace of mind that Jane would like to possess.
She is the ideal model of the angel of the house or of the guiding inspirational light of her family (in this case, a family of girls). Jane also learns from Miss Temple that a woman eventually needs a husband in order to fulfill the role of the angel in the house. For instance, Jane states, “destiny, in the shape of Rev. Mr. Nasmyth, came between me and Miss Temple” . Miss Temple’s marriage is significant because this is what ends her relationship with Jane. The angel in the house not only acts in the domestic sphere, but she functions in the spiritual as well.
She becomes elevated almost to the level of an icon, like a Mary figure to worship. Due to the fact that religion cannot necessarily be counted on to support people in times of need, many transferred these religious feelings onto other objects. Many men chose to direct this worship onto women. Thus, in one sense, the woman became the man’s ideal to love and worship. This form of love is the kind Rochester develops for Jane, and she fulfills it by symbolically redeeming twice in the novel. The first time occurs when she agrees to marry him.
Rochester declares, “Ten years since, I flew through Europe half-mad: with disgust, hate, and rage as my companions; now I shall visit it healed and cleansed, with a very angel as my comforter. ” The second time she saves him, at the end of the novel, is when he has learned the error of his ways and proclaims his new closeness to God. At this point he learns through Jane not to tempt the ways of God. Bigamy is a grave sin in the Anglican Church, and it is seen as deceit before the very altar of God. By the end of the novel, when Jane begins to see herself in the role of the saviour, she can fully assume her role as an angel.
In Rochester’s conversion and salvation, Jane recognizes herself as the humble instrument of divine providence. Thus the solitary heroine, yearning for freedom and action ends by playing the role prescribed for women in family and society, that of moral guide and angel of the home. Yet it is not until Jane has completed her education through becoming a more rational, domestic, financially independent, and able to see herself in the role of the saviour, that she can truly become the middle-class angel figure.
Although the Victorian concept of the angel was de-sexualized, it is important to note that Jane is not a prude merely because she subscribes to the angel mythology of that day. Even though she is a chaste and English woman, she is also a human being with wants and desires. It would be a contradiction in ideology for her to be frigid because a woman is the mother figure of the household and is designed to produce heirs. Bronte understands this and acknowledges the attraction and duty a woman should have towards the man she wishes to be her husband.
Bronte is not disapproving of sexual attraction between Jane and Rochester, but she realizes that it must be tempered. This is why she does not let Jane become Rochester’s mistress. It is not until he can legitimately marry her that any sort of sexual union can be achieved. When Jane understands his plans to whisk her off to the south of France, she emphatically declares, “I do love you…more than ever: but I must not show or indulge the feeling; and this is the last time I must express it. ” Due to the fact that Jane has a strong moral background, she would rather abandon her love than become Rochester’s mistress.
The Victorian concept of the woman as the angel of the house was a middle-class ideal. Jane presents a problem with this role because she is middle-class, but she does not have the monetary status to fully be of the class. It is not until she becomes educated in the virtues of patience, domesticity, rationale and becomes financially independent, thereby gaining her place in the middle-class that she assumes her role as the domestic angel. Through the models of Miss temple and the two Rivers sisters, she slowly emerges as the angel by the end of the novel.
