How Does Jane Eyre Change Throughout The Novel

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, is about a young girl who grew up without parents. This young girl was named Jane Eyre. Her parents died when they went to a different country and contracted an illness while they were there. Jane then went to live with her Uncle Reed who then died shortly after. His dying wish was for his wife, Mrs. Reed, to keep his niece, Jane, in her care and not abandon her. While Jane grew up with Mrs. Reed, she was deserted. In this book, Jane Eyre shows the development of her maturity through adolescence and how she discovered passion and reasoning. Jane demonstrates this by how she handles Mr. Rochester and the pressure that burdens her from her decisions. St. John also influenced Jane with his opportunistic
personality. These two factors, reasoning and passion, produce one of the major themes which is finding the balance between both of them.

Mr. Rochester and Jane went through many emotional obstacles together. It started when Jane left Lowood to become a rising governess. Jane went to a village called Thornfield where she was then hired to look after a young girl named Adele. While she took care of this child, her master showed much fondness of her over time. They both fell in love, but strange things starts to happen. First, the house almost caught on fire, and a strange figure tore the veil in Jane’s room. This is now where passion and reasoning come into play. Jane and Rochester are about to get married when something shocking happens. Jane figures out by, Mr. Mason, that Mr. Rochester already has a wife named Bertha. Mr. Rochester explains his whole story about how this came to be. His father didn't want to spit his estate so he gave it to Mr. Rochester's older brother. Meanwhile his father didn't want to leave his other son, Mr. Rochester, to be left in poverty, so he arranged a marriage with Bertha. His father and brother both knew that Bertha's family had a bad history with insanity, but they didn't care because they were very wealthy. They tricked Mr. Rochester into marrying her. When her insanity got worse he locked her up in his attic with a young lady named, Grace Pool, to look after her. Jane, after hearing this was devastated. Mr. Rochester wanted her to become his mistress, this means they will have sex but will not actually be married. At this point of time Jane doesn't show the balance between passion and reasoning due to her inexperienced maturity. She is still a young women and it shows due to her lack of intellect towards her actions and decisions in tight situations, like with Rochester and St. John. Jane was passionate about loving Mr. Rochester, but her passion for God's authority was much greater. Jane knew that it was wrong to be Mr. Rochesters mistress. This is one of the reasons why she left him. The other reason is because it was torture for her to even be in the same house as him if they couldn't be together. The encounter between St.
John and Jane also helps the development of the major theme which is finding the balance between passion and reasoning. This initiated when Jane left Mr. Rochester, and went to a remote village called Whitcross. Jane had no money due to the amount paid for the coach to get here here. She went for days without food or shelter only occasionally did she find some food, like when a young girl gave her food that was to feed her pigs. St. John then saw her laying on his doorstep. He then helped Jane regain her energy back over time. Jane later on becomes wealthy, because her Uncle died and left her two-thousand pounds. Jane then figures out that St. John and his two sister Diana, and Mary are her cousins. While they live a happy and comfortable lifestyle for a couple of months St. John as an idea. St. John wants to pursue his dream of becoming a missionary since his dad wouldn't let him when he was alive. St. John, with his opportunistic characteristic decided he wanted to go to India as a missionary, but not alone. He wanted Jane to marry him and go with him to India. Jane prohibited this idea at once. St. John’s priority was to marry her because she was a hard worker and in his mind she isn't a person to be loved. St. John believed that it was her duty to God to submit her life to living in India while being married to her cousin. Jane in this situation was driven to reasoning. She knew that she wouldn't want to live in India all her life to a man that doesn't love
her.