Jane Eyre Worldviews Essay

A worldview is the foundation one uses to determine what is right and wrong in every aspect of life. Charlotte Brontë and Thomas Hardy are two nineteenth century, British authors who write on the suffering women face during the social class revolution in Britain. The main characters in their books, Jane and Tess, respectively, face similar tribulations, but end up with infinitely distinct outcomes in their lives because of their authors’ vastly different worldviews. Using James Sire’s A Universe Next Door, as a key to understanding worldviews, and analyzing Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles makes the authors’ worldviews well defined. Comparing Brontë’s and Hardy’s worldviews explains why the stories of Jane and Tess
have completely separate finales, even though they face similar trials. Charlotte Brontë uses her novel, Jane Eyre, to express her worldview of Christian theism.
She clearly states this in her preface when she says, “Appearance should not be mistaken for truth . . . the world redeeming creed of Christ,” (xxiv). Brontë reveals several core beliefs of Christian theism through Jane’s struggles. These unique factors distinguish her worldview from Hardy’s. Brontë uses her worldview to show that even when suffering is rampant in life, there is still a road to everlasting peace. Brontë believes that reality and life revolve around God and knowing Him. Sire defines the Christian God as “triune, transcendent and immanent, omniscient, sovereign, and good,” (28). Brontë uncovers this God throughout her novel. Jane comes to know this God through experiences with Christian models Brontë uses in her story. Brontë relates the people Jane meets to some of the major flaws she sees in
Christians. The first Christian model Jane meets is Mr.
Brocklehurst. Mr. Brocklehurst is the overseer of the school where Jane goes to learn. Brontë uses Mr. Brocklehurst to represent Christian hypocrisy. Mr. Brocklehurst claims to “bring up these girls not accustom[ing] them to habits of luxury and indulgence,” but Brontë points out later how his wife and daughters “ought to have come a little sooner to have heard his lecture on dress, for they were splendidly attired in velvet, silk, and furs,” (63,65). Hypocrisy is the most irritating flaw Brontë notices in Christians. Next is Helen Burns. Helen is Jane’s best friend at Lowood, the school where they both study. Brontë uses Helen to show her disapproval of quiet, meek, enduring, and tolerant Christians. One of the teachers at Lowoord mercilessly scrutinizes Helen for her slightest imperfections. Helen believes though that “life appears to be too short to . . . register wrongs. We are . . . burdened with faults in this world: but the time will soon come when we shall put them off,” (58). Brontë finds passivity harmful to true, passionate
Christianity. The final model Jane meets is St. John. Jane encounters St. John near the end of her story. He asks Jane to marry him and move to India with him to become a missionary despite the fact that they are related and are not in love. Brontë shows her anger at those who think God cares more about works than genuine faith. While not perfect, Brontë pushes Chrstianity as the best option for a worldview. Brontë believes that human beings are capable of distinguishing right from wrong. Sire summarizes this points when he says, “Human beings are created in the image of God and thus possess personality . . . and morality,” (32). Brontë uses Jane in her novel to illustrate how man is capable of differentiating rights and wrongs solely because of God’s Will. Brontë exhibits her belief of a God-given sense of morality in man. Later in Brontë’s story, Jane leaves Lowood and becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall. The owner of the property, Mr. Rochester, is a mysterious man who captivates Jane. She finds herself in love. Brtonë uses this relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester to show that man has the ability to consciously makes decisions that have moral implications. Mr. Rochester and Jane grow continually fonder of each other until Mr. Rochester proposes to Jane. On the day of their wedding, it is made public that Mr. Rochester actually has another wife, who lives in a secret room in Thornfield. Mr. Rochester still tries to persuade Jane to marry him. Jane finds her carnal desires and emotions pitted against what she knows is morally right. Jane decides that she “must keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man” and knows that “God must have led her on, (342, 347). This shows Brontë convincement that God gives man morality. Brontë believes that though human beings are sinful by nature, that they are capable of restoration. Sire says that Christian theists believe that fallen man is “capable of restoration through the work of Christ,” (39). Brontë shows throughout her novel the depravity of man. She depicts the suffering that all people will inevitably face in the imperfect world man inhabits. The unique part of Brontë’s worldview is how it allows man to escape suffering by redemption. Christian theism allows man to be forgiven by God and overcome anguish to step into eternal peace one day. Brontë again uses the example of Mr. Rochester and Jane to examine the suffering man experiences and the redemption that is available to man. After Jane leaves Mr. Rochester, they both have to come to terms with God. After many hardships, they meet again. Mr. Rochester’s Thornfield Hall burns to the ground and his wife dies. Jane deals with the forceful marriage proposals of St. John. When they reunite at last, Brontë shows the redemption man can experience. Mr. Rochester tells Jane how “my heart swells with gratitude to the beneficent God of this earth . . . I did wrong . . . I defied Him . . . I was forced to pass through the valley of the shadow of death . . . I supplicated God . . . I asked of God to bring me peace once more,” (486-487). Because Mr. Rochester was able to accept his wrong and ask forgiveness, and most importantly be forgiven, Jane is able to marry him and love him without remorse. Brontë notes “that God had tempered judgment with mercy,” (492). Thus, Brontë shows how man’s suffering can lead to redemption. In his novel, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy articulates his worldview of Naturalism. This is apparent because Hardy claims that what one knows and feels forms the substances of ones life “for the world is only a psychological phenomenon,” (106). Hardy’s worldview asserts a few crucial principles that contrast from those of Brontë’s Christian theism. He reveals these beliefs through Tess’s struggles. Hardy uses his worldview to conclude that man is doomed to a life of suffering; the only escape from which is death. Hardy trusts that matter, that is the Cosmos, is all that exists. There is no immanent, sovereign, and good deity like the God of Brontë’s worldview. Sire summarizes this idea: “Matter exists eternally and is all there is. God does not exist,” (68). Hardy believes that Immanent Will, that is a force or group of forces, controls the universe and all in it and acts either indifferently or actively hostile to man. Hardy solidifies this idea of immanent Will’s uninterested acts towards man through the suffering of Tess. Hardy’s Immanent Will treats man with no concern, but acts as if man is part of a game. While Brontë shows how man is failing to connect with God, Hardy shows how God fails to connect with man. Hardy indicates how unmoved Immanent Will is to man by using the example of Tess’s relationship to Alec. Tess is a poor, common, Christian girl and her father discovers that their family may be d’Urbervilles, an old noble family. Thus, Tess is sent to “claim kin” to a d’Urberville family and ask for money and help. While there, she meets the charming, young Alec. Tess admires Alec and one night, while she sleeps, Alec has his way with her. Hardy shows how the universe does not blink an eye when this happens to Tess. In fact he doncems her belief in faith saying, “Where was the providence of her simple faith? . . . One may admit the possibility of a retribution lurking in the present catastrophe . . . to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children may be a morality good enough for divinities,” (91). Additionally, Hardy notes that, “the thought of the world’s concern at her situation—was founded on an illusion,” (113). Hardy’s passive deity that displays no concern for man immeasurably differs from the respectable God Brontë portrays. Like Brontë, Hardy agrees that man is capable of distinguishing right from wrong. However, he credits man himself though for this ability, not God. As Sire says, “Through our innate and autonomous human reason, including the methods of science, we can know the universe . . . man self-determines ethics,” (75, 77). Hardy uses Tess to demonstrate that while man may be able to acknowledge the difference between right and wrong, fate has ultime control over man’s actions. Hardy shows how Immanent Will is in control of man’s actions, even though man can tell the difference between right and wrong. After Tess’s unfortunate encounter with Alec, her parents send her to work on a dairy farm. On the way to the farm, Tess laments over her situation and tries to turn her dismal mood around, but she wonders “perhaps I don’t quite now the Lord yet,” (130). Without the Lord she cannot pursue His peace; the only lasting peace. Immanent Will will lead her through an endless cycle of suffering. “Tess really wished to live uprightly,” but Hardy shows how fate keeps pushing her in the wrong direction and encourages her to make the wrong decision. Unlike Brontë, Hardy believes that human beings are only born with slight faults that are perfectible by human reason. Sire says, “A child is born with innate faculties which merely have to develop naturally,” (75). Hardy thinks that the problem is not with man, but that religion is flawed. The universe is the problem. Man is perfect. He depicts a world where the only option is agony. The biggest difference between Hardy’s worldview and Brontë’s is that Hardy’s worldview does not permit man to escape his suffering by means of redemption. Hardy’s Naturalism shows the only way to escape suffering is death. Hardy uses the example of Tess and her relationship with Angel Clare to show how escaping the painful grasp of fate is impossible for man. At the dairy farm, Tess meets the beautiful Angel Clare and instantly falls in love with him. She idolizes him and treats him as a god. After Angel and Tess are married Angel learns of how Tess’s encounter with Alec. Angel cannot forgive her, because he is not God, and, once again, Tess’s old suffering harms her more than she thinks she can tolerate. Angel says he cannot have her yet and he departs for Brazil. Tess’s pain is so severe that she thinks ahead to “a time when [her] bone would be bare. ‘I wish it were now,’” (325). Tess cannot escape the suffering because she put all her hope and chance at redemption in Angel, not God. Later, Angel returns and tries to take Tess back. Fate ensures she cannot escape his grasp and she crawls back to him. He suffers the rest of her life until she is hung for killing Alec. Hardy says of her death that “’Justice’ was done, and the President of the Immortals . . . had ended his sport with Tess,” (465). Thus, Hardy shows how man’s suffering, caused by the indifference of Immanent Will, cannot lead to anything except death. In the end, it needs to be determined what each authors’ worldview leaves the reader with. Brontë’s Christian theism offers hope. While it admits that suffering is part of the universe, it allows for a sovereign and good God to exist. This God allows man to distinguish between right and wrong, and though they are sinful others them a path to redemption. Jane and Rochester are able to experience peace, happiness, and love. This is what is so blatantly different from Hardy’s Naturalism. In Hardy’s Naturalism, there is no personal God who is good and loving. In His place, there is a indifferent or hostile force out to make sport of man. Even worse, all life is in Hardy’s world is suffering until an inevitable death. Tess struggles her entire life and cannot find love in Angel, her God. Her peace could only come in the form of death. One can make whatever choice one wants, but it is clear that Brontë’s worldview is the better of the two. It offers hope.