St. John's Relationship

In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Edward Rochester is an emotionally intense and passionate man. In contrast, the Christian missionary St. John Rivers is cold and restrained. In life, where fire and ice are opposites of each other in many different ways, Rochester and St. John represent that relationship in their opposing features, motives, and reactions. One of the clearest examples of their fire-and-ice relationship is their individual motive for wanting to marry Jane. Rochester wanted to marry Jane for love, because he was “chained” to the lunatic Bertha. The way he declares his love is fiery and energetic, almost to the point of craziness. He states, “You – you strange – you almost unearthly thing! I love as my own flesh. You – poor and
obscure, and small and plain, as you are – I entreat to accept me as a husband” and is described as “very much agitated and very much flushed, and there were strong workings in the features, and strange gleams in the eyes” (Brontë 298). On the other hand, St. John sees marrying Jane as his “Christian duty”. He doesn’t have any feelings for her, unlike Rochester, who loves her with an obsession. St.
John does not have feelings for her, but instead wishes to bring her as an assistant on his missionary trip to India. He reasons that, to achieve her God-given mission, “[…] you [Jane] must have a coadjutor – not a brother, that is a loose tie, but a husband. I too, do not want a sister; a sister might any day be taken away from me. I want a wife; the sole help-meet I can influence efficiently in life, and retain absolutely till death” (Brontë 470). Another difference between Mr. Rochester and St. John is their appearance. Brontë writes that Rochester had “a massive head” and “great, dark eyes” (136-137), while St. John’s face was, “like a Greek face, very pure in outline; quite a straight, classic nose; quite like an Athenian mouth and chin” (400). St. John’s face is clearly defined, almost statue-like, and appears very cold and refined, just like the “ice” that he symbolizes in the story. Similarly to how John’s sophisticated features represent his iciness, Rochester’s unconventional features, such as his heavy brow and dark eyes, represent how primitive aspect of fire. Lastly, the way they react to being rejected by Jane also illustrates that they are opposites. When Jane refused to marry Rochester because he already had a wife, he blew up in
rage. As Brontë writes, “His voice was hoarse, his look that of a man who is just about to burst an insufferable bond and plunge headlong into wild license” (Brontë 353). Rochester’s inability to control his emotions and not burst into anger is similar to fire, because of how unpredictable and wild it can be. When St. John was rejected, Jane says that “when I asked him if he forgave me, he answered that he was not in the habit of cherishing the remembrance of vexation; that he had nothing to forgive, not having been offended” (Brontë 474). His reaction proves his similarity to ice, because he was portrayed as having no feelings or emotions towards her refusal. However, just like how fire can defeat ice in real life, when Jane marries Rochester and John dies in India, the “fire” of Mr. Rochester beats the “ice” of St. John.