The way in which society tries to live today goes hand in hand with the quote “What really matters is on the inside, not the outside”, which is often repeated, maybe because people want everyone to feel equal and no one inferior or maybe because a person just wants to feel better about his or herself so this statement is said. The story “Jane Eyre” completely contradicts this quote, especially during the social extravaganza, which was put on by Mr. Rochester and the Thornfield workers.
The main goal during the era in which the book “Jane Eyre” took place was to be wealthy so you could be a part of all the so called finer things in life such as nice clothing, jewelry, money, large mansions, and so on. The social extravaganza which took place at Mr. Rochester’s mansion contributed to the meaning of the book by helping explain the characters, setting, and plot of the story “Jane Eyre”. During this social long lasting party, thirteen ladies and gentlemen came to stay at the Thornfield mansion along with Mr. Rochester, Jane and rest of the servants in the mansion not including the ladies and gentlemen’s servants whom they would bring along for their own purposes.
There were eight women and five men. The women, Mrs. Eshton, Amy and Louisa Eshton, lady Lynn, Mrs. Colonel Dent, Lady Ingram, Blanch and Mary Ingram were all dressed very nicely. They all walked lightly with buoyancy. The men, Henry and Frederick Lynn, Colonel Dent, Mr. Eshton, and Lord Ingram all looked of wealth. Mrs. Blanch Eshton played a role in the contribution of this social get together in the form of a bride to be.
She and Mr. Rochester were preparing for marriage. In hearing that Mr. Rochester and Blanch Ingram were to be married, Jane insisted that she must move out before Blanch moves in. Hearing this in the garden, Mr. Rochester proposed to Jane on the spot stating that he never loved Blanch and she never loved he. In the story “Jane Eyre” the setting as the reader knows renders to be quite a degrading one in a way.
The setting describes all of the elegance which went along with being wealthy like Mr. Rochester, Louisa Eshton, Mary Ingram, et cetera and the poor hard life which went along with being born with so called not good blood and therefore a person was started out in life knowing that he or she would never acquire a life of luxury but a life of hard work and a feeling of inferiority. During the social get together Jane, Mrs. Fairfax, and many others were at the Thornfield house for the only reason of making the richer guests happy by waiting on them hand and foot and performing whatever tasks in which they were told to do such as serving supper and helping dress the ladies and gentlemen.
The guests, Mrs. Eshton, Amy and Louisa Eshton, Lady Lynn, Mrs. Colonel Dent, Lady Ingram, Blanch and Mary Ingram, Henry and Frederick Lynn, Colonel Dent, Mr. Eshton, and Lord Ingram were all sat in the nicely cleaned and furnished dinning room to eat supper and were well provided with the best silverware and china for such occasions as tea and all meals while the servants would eat in the kitchen or their room. During the stay of these wealthy people the plot was to seem that Mrs. Ingram and Mr. Rochester were going to get married but the reader knows that he really loves Jane.
Mr. Rochester and Blanch would make eye contact frequently and do such acts together as he singing while she played the piano together. This was all but an act put on by Mr. Rochester. He knew that Blanch Ingram only loved him for his money. Mr. Rochester rumored that he wasn’t worth a third of the fortune that people thought and after that Blanch and her mother were very cold to him. Mr. Rochester told Jane that she must be present every night. The reader knew so he could see and talk to Jane. Mr. Rochester’s extravaganza at his mansion helped contribute parts of the characters, setting, and plot of the story “Jane Eyre”.
This social occasion was quite important to the rest of the book because without it Jane would have had no fight, or no doubt about Mr. Rochester. Without this section the book would have made for an entirely different plot. The quote “ What really matters is on the inside, not the outside” really shows how life was back in the time when Mr. Rochester and Jane were living. The people than were much more selfish than the majority of the population of our society today.
Bibliography: The criticism “The Function of Setting in Jane Eyre” describes briefly the outline of the story and the mental and physical walls of each in which Jane was contained. Jane was continually moving throughout her life to new settings such as the move from Gateshead to Lowood then Lowood to Thornfield next from Thornfield to the Moor House and so on. As each of these moves occurred Bronte, the author of Jane Eyre, made sure that each of these surroundings fitted Jane’s differing hopes and dreams although in each situation Jane, was surrounded by walls, physically and mentally
Jane was ostracized from the rest of the family, which mentally made her feel imprisoned in the Gateshead mansion. She was imprisoned to the contents of the nursery physically before she left for Lowood. Jane ate, slept, and passed her time in the nursery walls. Within the walls of Lowood Jane stayed for eight years. She was a student for six years and a teacher for the remaining two years. Physically Jane did not leave the walls of Lowood except to go to church. Mentally, she did not feel as imprisoned in this situation as her earlier situation at Gateshead because she found people that really cared for her such as Mrs. Temple and Helen Burns at Lowood.
She could relate and achieve happiness to a point with the help of these people whereas she could do nothing of the sort at Gateshead where she was rarely loved or talked to by anyone except Bessie. When Jane moves to Thornfield she is freer than she has ever physically been before. The walls are still there but less real to her because she now feels that her life is filled with more life, fire, and feeling than before. The Thornfield mansion has so called soft shackles on Jane.
When Jane ventures out into the real world with nothing with her and no walls to protect her, she realizes that she is not equipped to live in complete freedom. Jane finds the Moore House and is quite happy with it knowing how the outside world is now. She can come and leave the house whenever she feels and the companionship of Mary and Diana probably suit to be the best situation for Jane yet. Jane then moves into another small cottage where she is quite happy until she decides to go back to Mr. Rochester, the walls which seem to best suit Jane. Upon arriving at Thornfield, Jane feels that she can now stay with Mr. Rochester because the circumstances have changed.
Mrs. Rochester has now died and the confining walls of Thornfield have burnt down so Jane can live happily the way she wants because all the walls are now down. I liked this specific criticism about “The Function of Setting in Jane Eyre” because it helps explain what goes on in Jane’s mind and how she feels and adapts to each situation, which she finds herself. The criticism summarizes the setting of each location in which Jane is in and how mentally and physically she feels about being within the walls of each.
