jane eyre: theme - christianity and religion

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religion in the novel

  • Throughout the novel, jane struggles to find the right balance between moral duty and earthly pleasure, between obligation to her spirit and attention to her body. she encounters three main religious figures: mr brocklehurst, st john rivers and helen burns. 
  • Each represents a model of religion that jane ultimately rejects as she forms her own ideas about faith and principle, and their practicle consequences. 
  • Mr brocklehurst's evangelical view had negative effects on jane, as did st. john river's empirical views.
  • Helen burns taught jane a view of faith and god that she could understand. 
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religion in the victorian era

  • Victorian religion was formal and family-oriantied. if one member of the family went to church then the entire family would go. If focused mainly on ideas of preosperity, human diginity, and moral ethics. the most popular religion of the time was christianity. 
  • Predominant at the start of the 19th century, by the end of the victorian era the church of england was increasingly only one part of a vibrant and often competitive religious culture, with non-anglican protestant denominations enjoying a new prominence.
  • The period also saw the greatest burst of curch building since the middle ages. 
  • The church of england was very powerful and most people went there. 
  • Social life for ordinary people revolved around choir, sunday school outings etc. 
  • Many employers insisted that their employees go to church. 
  • Throughout the 19th century england was a christian country. the only substantial non-christian faith was judaism: the number of jews in britain rose from 60,000 in 1880 to 300,000 by 1914, as a result of migrants escaping persecution in russia and eastern europe. 
  • There was a major increase in the number of church of england clergyman, from 14,500 in 1841 to 24,000 in 1875.
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popular religions in the 1800's

  • The church of england, now known as the anglican church, was the established church of england in this area (and it still is). 
  • Most english people were members of the church of england. 
  • In 1787, methodist chapels were licensed under the toleration act. 
  • The church grew rapidly, and there are about 30 million methodists today. 
  • Quakers (devoted to peaceful priciples) and unitarians (someone who asserts the unity of god and rejects the doctrine of the trinity) recieved freedom of worship in 1813. 
  • Unitarians had emerged in the mid-17th century and first unitarian church was opened in 1773. 
  • By the seconds half of the eighteenth century, they had a major impact on the english presbyterian (a religion) and general baptist churches, which enjoyed significant populairty in the 1800's. 
  • In 1829, measures were passed for catholic emancipation. a number of influential clergy defected from the church of england, and one (manning) was appointed a cardinal in 1875. 
  • There was also a significant jewish community. 
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faith and religion's relevancy in today's society

  • Fewer people in today's society, in britian, call themselves christian, they remain in a country steeped in christian values. 
  • For church of england vicars who worry less about what they will preach on sunday than whether there will be any parishioners to listen to them, the latest findings of the british social attitudes survey will make grim reading.
  • For years the number of people professing religious belief in Britain has hovered around the 50% mark. Now it seems to have dived decisively, plunging from 52% to 47% in just a year.
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mr brocklehurst

  • Supervisor at lowood school
  • Starves the girls at lowood and thinks that god is okay with it.
  • "and should you fall into the pit and to burn there forever?"
    • He uses religion as a tool to create fear and dread amongst the girls in the institution as he scares them with the concepts of hell.
    • Refering to hell
    • A way to frightening and controlling people into following orders as they tell them it's a way to escape the "pit full of fire".
  • Mr. brocklehurst adopts the rhetoric of 'evangelicalism' when he claims to be purging his students of pride, but his method of subjecting them to various privations and humiliations, like when he orders that the naturally curly hair of one of Jane’s classmates be cut so as to lie straight, is entirely un-Christian. 
  • "you may indeed feed their vile bodies but you little think how you starve their immortal souls."
    • Uses religion as a way to torment the girls. 
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helen burns

  • She's said to be the most 'angelic of angels'.
  • Helen represents a mode of christianity that stresses tolerance and acceptance. 
  • as Mr. Brocklehurst uses faith and religion as a way to gain power, burns simply turns the other cheek to Lowood's harsh policies as she trusts her own faith. 
  • While Helen isn't oblivious to the injustices that the girls suffer at lowood, she belives that justice will be found in god's ulitmate judgement - God will reward the good and punish the evil. 
  • "love your enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you."
    • She believes in forgiveness from christ. 
  • "i believe; i have faith, i am going to god."
    • Helen is exhausted and dying but she uses what little breath sh has left to voice her beliefs and optimism. 
  • "i can resign my immortal part to him without any misgivings."
    • Demonstrating her absoloute faith in god and the comfort that she takes from her being of his existence.
    • Not only does she trust god, she also has faith in the messages of the bible. 
  • 'resurgam' 
    • meaning - i will rise again; what she believed
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miss temple

  • 'Miss Temple - Maria Temple'
    • maria = defined from mary
    • temple = a place of  worship
  • 'i suppose i have a considerable organ of veneration, for i retain yet the sense of admiring awe with which my eyes traced her steps'.
    • 'organ of veneration' - her propensity to admire and respect.
    • catholics 'venerate' mary, the religious allusion is clear the connection with mary.
    • indicates the connection that jane has made with miss temple.
    • miss temple's first name, maria, sounds a lot like mary. 
  • 'the door opened, and an individual carring a light entered'
    • a link with light and dark
    • another link with the figure of christ. 
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st john

  • His zealous christianity offers him neither serenity nor solace. 
  • St. John's feelings about christianity are revealed in his sermons, which shows his bitterness and hardness.
  • He doesn't want to marry out of love, he wants jane as his wife to serve him and accompany him on pilgramages. 
  • Before st. john proposed a second time, he read a passage from the bible about hell etc. 
    • this is very manipulative of him as he's trying to influence jane's decision. 
  • "A missionary's wife you must- shall be. You shall be mine: I claim you- not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign's service. 
    • St. John proposing to Jane.
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eliza reed

  • She plans to convert to Roman Catholicism and become a nun, living in a covent. 
    • Jane is always hostile towards Eliza and her distaste for Eliza's plan to become a nun is a combination of her Protestantism and her belief that to hide yourself away in a convent is a denial of life.
    • However, she doesn’t become a nun because she feels called to serve God, but because she wants to get away from the world.
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jane

  • Jane rejects the all three religion beliefs by Helen Burns, Mr. Brocklehurst and St. John Rivers. She does not abandon morality, spiritualism, or a belief in a Christian God.
  • When her wedding is interrupted, she prays to God for solace.
  • As she wanders the heath, poor and starving, she puts her survival in the hands of God.
  • She strongly objects to Rochester’s lustful immorality, and she refuses to consider living with him while church and state still deem him married to another woman. Even so, Jane can barely bring herself to leave the only love she has ever known. She credits God with helping her to escape what she knows would have been an immoral life.
  • For Jane, religion helps curb immoderate passions, and it spurs one on to worldly efforts and achievements. These achievements include full self-knowledge and complete faith in God.
  • Rochester has been a block, in the way of Jane's faith.
    • 'He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for his creature: of whom I had made an idol.'
  • Jane's version of praying.
    • 'Prayed in my way- a different way to St. John's, but effective in its own fashion.'
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