Jane Eyre and Little Women: Jane and Jo Comparison

The novels Jane Eyre and Little Women are strikingly similar in many ways, and the characters Jane Eyre and Jo March are almost mirrors of each other. There are many similarities between Jane and Jo, and also some differences, as well. From childhood, although they find themselves in completely different situations, both girls experience many of the same trials in their younger years. Jane is an orphan who has no family to call her own, and lives with an aunt and cousins who despise and dislike her. She was left penniless by the death of her parents, and is reminded daily by her house mates that she is inferior to them because of her circumstance. Jo grows up in a loving home with three adoring sisters and a mother, however, she also feels the absence of a parent, because her father is away at war. Jo is also poor, her father having lost all his money in an attempt to help a needy friend. In this way, both Jane and Jo are alike -- they both long for the life they had before they were poor, although Jane longs more for the richness of a family while Jo and her sisters desire the material wealth and the return of their father. However, in both cases, the girls' longing for these "riches" influence their whole young adulthood -- Jane clearly shows this the best when she refuses to become Mr. Rochester's mistress later in life, because of her continuous search for a stable family life.
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<br>Jane and Jo are also alike for other reasons. Both are mature for their ages, spending a great deal of time reading and thinking. They are both passionate and willful, although Jane shows her spirit more through occasional outbursts when provoked, while Jo is constantly losing her temper and making inappropriate comments. Both are also plain children, Jane having no features to make her beautiful, and no features to make her unattractive, as well. Jo is a tomboy, and therefore rejects the "appropriate" dress and actions for a girl of her age, hiding her beauty because it is