Vita di Charlotte Bronte e romanzo Jane Eyre, Appunti di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Vita di Charlotte Bronte e romanzo Jane Eyre e più Appunti in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! Universita’ degli Studi di Verona English Literature and Culture 1 - Module 1 Charlotte Bronte – An unconventional woman Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) was the third born in a family of 6; she had 5 sisters and just one brother. The son is regarded as “the black sheep” of the Bronte family, as he was an alcoholic and a drug dealer and basically failed on everything he wanted to do. Their father was a pastor/reverend and they studied a lot. Charlotte was sent to the Clergy Daughter’s School at Cohen Bridge, where also her sisters were and contracted tuberculosis. In 1835 Charlotte returned to the Roe School, where she was a pupil the previous years, and started working as a governess. In 1838 Charlotte left the Roe School and became the governess for the Sidgewick family. In 1842 Charlotte and Emily moved to Belgium and continued their education. The lost of sight of their father Patrick brought them to the thought of potential poverty. Because of that, Charlotte and two of her sisters, Emily and Anne began writing very soon. Her family was very prolific in literature → Emily Bronte is famous thanks to her novel “Wuthering Heights” (1847), which was romantic, full of passions and with gothic features. The other sister Anne Bronte wrote “Agnes Gray” (1847), that deals with education and the important figure of the governess. Emily and Anne died of tuberculosis some years later, after a bad pneumonia. As they were women, they didn’t use their real name to write but used pseudonyms until they became famous: Charlotte Bronte → Currel Bell Emily Bronte → Ellis Bell Anne Bronte → Acton Bell Charlotte was a very strong woman and worked as governess and teacher in order to be independent. In addition, she refused a lot of marriage proposal, which was scandalous. Just at the age of 35, she decided to marry her publisher Arthur Bell Nichols but then died pregnant because of typhus in 1855. Charlotte Bronte as writer Charlotte Bronte is a Victorian writer, who showed also features of the previous genre, like the features of gothic novels, which were written in the Romanticism. She wrote a lot of novels: ● “Jane Eyre” (1847), that made her famous; ● “The Professor” (1857), published posthumously as it was mainly autobiographical → in fact when she was living in Bruxelles, she fell in love with an older professor; ● “Shirley” (1849) focused on society of the time and the conflicts between working class and upper classes; ● “Villette” (1853), a gothic novel deriving from her personal experience in Belgium during the 1840s. All the novels have female protagonists and reflect women’s condition in 19th century, such as the subordination in a patriarchal world. They represent heroines that rebelled against restrictions and looked for independence in the economic field and freedom of thought and action. Charlotte Bronte really captured the spirit of the 19th century and portrayed the life of the women during that period. Jane Eyre (1847) – A complex novel “Jane Eyre” was the novel that made Charlotte Bronte famous and it’s written in first person. It has many elements coming from the gothic novel, such as mysteries and dark elements, and from fairy tales. This novel can be read in different ways: 1. A “Bildungsroman” : it records the passage from childhood to the adult age 2. An autobiography with 2 different perspectives narrated: the narrative subject and the narrated object. 3. A religious autobiography like the 17h century <<pilgrim’s progress>> 1 Universita’ degli Studi di Verona English Literature and Culture 1 - Module 1 4. A feminist (or proto-feminist) novel: the heroine represents the struggle for women’s independence 5. A colonial novel (according to the recent post-colonial studies) : it supports the imperial ideology and represents marginalized colonial characters. When this novel was published, it raised a harsh criticism, that was a symptom of the tumultuous society and the current events. First of all, the society was changing due to the Industrial Revolution, that changed the class system in England and gave power to the new-born “middle class’. The working class appeared and was living in miserable conditions. There was general anxiety and discontent in Great Britain, that brought to rebellion and the sense of imminent revolution. That’s why the critics tapped into this anxiety when they viewed Bronte’s unconventional heroine as a subversive and seditious character. Some critics also believed that this novel denigrated the evangelical religion and promoted inmorality. The novel was also seen as a rebellion against the patriarchal society of the time. In fact during the 19th century, women were also incarcerated in mental asylums because of their “unnatural” behavior, where they experienced a strong subjugation and also surgical enforcement to the ideology of the Victorian age. Women started their real rebellion during the late 19th century and “Jane Eyre” embodied the need for independence and active life of women in the society. The structure of the novel At the beginning, the novel was divided into 3 volumes with a typical Victorian structure. It consists of 38 chapters, that can be divided into 5 parts according to the themes and moments of life of Jane: 1. GATESHEAD (ch. 1-4) this part deals with the childhood of Jane Eyre at the house of her aunt and cousins. In fact, she’s an orphan but was marginalised by her relatives as well. It is called ‘Gateshead’ because, according to Jane, she felt like she was imprisoned by gates of that house. 2. LOWOOD (ch. 5-10) this part deals with the cultural and religious education of Jane in an institute for orphan girls. 3. THORNFIELD (ch. 11-27) this part talks about the rise of Jane as governess for a little girl in the house of a mysterious man. As its name says, Thornfield was full of thorns in the same way, Jane fell in love but this relationships was full of thorns and secrets. 4. MARSH END (ch.28-35) this part deals with another place where Jane arrives and where she needs to be healed. Here she is regenerated, grows by an economical and social point of view and begins her climbing of the social ladder. 5. FERNDEAN (ch.36-38) this is the happy ending of the novel GATESHEAD See book → notes from chapter 1 to chapter 4 Gateshead is the place where “the gates close Jane down” and she lives here with her Aunt, Mrs Reed, and her cousins. She has an unhappy childhood and feels oppressed. Jane is an outsider, an alien, and her condition is also made clear by a lot of symbolic facts and by the actions of her adoptive family. Jane, as an orphan, was meant to have no money and to depend on others, but she never liked her passivity. Jane is presented here as a very angry person, full of rage, symbolized by the color red of what stands near her. 2 Universita’ degli Studi di Verona English Literature and Culture 1 - Module 1 Thornfield is the place that hides painful secrets and events. Here is where Jane growns up and this part represents a turning point in Jane’s life. In Lowood she was given the instruments to grow up but Thornhill is the place where she must grow up. Thornfield is a place of ambiguity: things and people are not as they seem. There is a strong contrast between appearance and reality. Here Jane meets: ● Mrs Fairfax → She’s the woman that replies to her advertisement and gives Jane a job. Jane thinks she’s the owner of the house and mother of the children. She then discovers she’s just the housekeeper, who also runs the economy of the house. ● Grace Pool → She’s a servant. Jane doesn’t understand who she is, if she’s a drunkard or a crazy woman but there’s a reason behind her behaviour. ● Adela → She’s a girl of 8-9 years old. Jane thinks she’s the master’s daughter but she actually has unknown origins. Adela is French and she's the daughter of a woman that had been the lover of the master but is not his actual wife. ● Rochester → He seems like a mysterious man, a villain, a strong man without faults but he’s completely another person → he's kind and full of weaknesses. ● The house → The house is very big and rich but there are secrets hidden inside every room, like in “Bluebeard” ’s story (Bluebeard was a man that married different women but wanted them not to go in a specific room because he hid a secret, the corpse of the first wife. Every wife, due to curiosity, entered that room and he started killing every wife that did so). ● Jane’s happiness → at a certain point Jane is extremely happy because she thinks she has finally achieved everything she wanted to but this situation lasts until she discovers the secrets of the house. Jane feels an illusory situation of happiness→ She needs to escape from this feeling in order to defend herself and not to be destroyed by this false happiness→ even if this means suffering, this is a compulsory step for her. …summing up ● Gateshead: ○ It’s the place of childhood where Jane grows up marginalized and oppressed in a discriminating family environment ○ Her sense of inferiority is imposed on her from the outside, from her cousins and aunt ○ She gives vent to her anger and rebels against her aunt ( like a slave in revolt) ● Lowood: ○ It’s the place of her education where Jane grows up in spite of difficulties and dangers, such as restrictions and diseases ○ Her sense of inferiority derives here from too high models she has, Miss Temple and Helen Burns, but she is pushed towards improvement and self-awareness, towards a higher level ○ Her process of independence is focused on education as a means to find a job and provide for herself. ● Thornfield: ○ It’s a place of mysteries, secrets and illusions that need to be solved in order to grow up as an adult woman ○ Jane goes from happiness to suffering through the refusal to be subjugated ○ She risks losing her independence and to be considered inferior again, mainly because of her relationship with Rochester. This relationship, that is apparently a happy one, is actually dangerous because it risks making Jane feel inferior and to establish subjugation again. always in Thornfield… ● Thornfield is a place full of mysteries, where some explanations are given at the beginning but they’re not convincing. Between the mysteries, we find: 5 Universita’ degli Studi di Verona English Literature and Culture 1 - Module 1 ○ Mr Rochester is introduced by the words of Mrs Fairfax, the housekeeper, but he remains unknown. He is the master of the house where Jane’s serving but remains surrounded by mystery. He arrives just later in the house because he was traveling. ○ The third floor of the house, the attic → it’s a mysterious, gloomy and strange place where discarded furniture was put. Jane is struck by some pieces of furniture which are particularly strange, with old and creative decorations that seem to belong to another world, an exotic and far away world → sense of weirdness and strangeness ○ A curious laugh from the upper floor disturbs Jane, which she describes as “morthless” (=without joy, diabolic, scary). This laugh seems to come from an uninhabited room, where she’s not allowed to go. She then asks Mrs Fairfax for explanations → without really bothering, Mrs Fairfax answers that it’s probably Grace Pool’s fault. ○ Grace Pool → She’s the strangest servant in the house, an unidentifiable character. Everything that happens in the house, which is strange or abnormal, is associated with her, who becomes the scapegoat for everything inexplicable that happens in the house. Grace Pool isn’t actually the guilty one to be blamed. ○ Jane understands that there’s a presence but she doesn’t really understand what really happens and who's the mysterious presence. She will discover just later on that: ■ The presence is Bertha Mason. She is the most important character and sums up all the stereotypes related to otherness. Bertha Mason is the first wife of Rochester; Rochester first married in Jamaica, in the Caribbean colonies, with this woman of English origins. He had been forced from his family to marry this woman to maintain all the wealth they had→ as second-born son, Rochester needed to marry a rich woman to have money because the inheritance was given to the eldest brother. Bertha’s father owned plantations and slaves in the carribean colonies → this arranged marriage allowed Rochestr to have money ad Bertha to have an English husband. Rochester soon realizes that this beautiful and sexually attractive woman (→ inmoral according to the Victorian values) has something wrong. It turns out that she has mental problems and Rochester decides to go back to England with her. He just decides to put his wife in the attic, together with all the discarded furniture. This is where she meets Grace Pool, who will take care of Bertha. Rochester keeps hiding her in the attic and keeps the secret with all the servants. ■ Bertha’s presence is perceived, in her absence, by elements of her alterity which Jane will have to face. Just in this way, Jane discovers her presence, which will be revealed just later on in the novel. Until that moment, these strange elements will be referred to as otherness and strangeness. Jane, at a certain point, meets Rochester and has a feeling that they will never be just master and servant, they’ll have another type of relationship, a dangerous one because of the risk of losing her independence which she has struggled for in her life. Meeting Rochester: Jane’s need for equality The first time she meets Rochester happens by chance: Jane’s out, she’s walking and sees someone approaching the house on a horse; this person has an accident with the horse and needs help→ Jane runs to this man and helps him. She doesn’t know who this man is and only later on she’ll discover that it was Rochester. The following day, in fact, she’ll meet him and realize everything. → THE FIRST TIME SHE MEETS THE PERSON THAT WILL MAKE HER DEVELOP A RELATIONSHIP OF DEPENDENCE IS DURING AN EPISODE WHERE SHE’S SUPERIOR TO HIM. Jane is equal or superior to him. The condition of inequality will be developed later on. Since a child Jane appears as looking for independence. At Thornhill she starts defining the kind of woman she wants to be. Before meeting Rochester it is peculiar that Jane thinks about the position and condition 6 Universita’ degli Studi di Verona English Literature and Culture 1 - Module 1 of women in the society. She gives a proto-feminist speech on the need for equality between men and women. Only in Thornfield Jane understands what she wants as a woman. → Jane’s speech is related to the next meeting with Rochester. She thinks about the need for equality between men and women and that makes her also think that she’s ready to face a relationship with a man. Jane and Rochester develop a good relationship on friendly terms. But Rochester is introduced from the beginning as the Master and he gives Jane orders she obeys to. Rochester wants, also without doing it on purpose, to establish his power. Jane has to struggle in order not to allow a master-slave relationship but has the instruments to go against him. Prejudices on otherness Rochester develops a love relationship with Jane and tells her about another past love. His confessions on his past love stories shows also rejection of what is not English → prejudices on otherness. Rochester talks about a love story he had in France with Celine Varens: ● Celine Varens → She was the first lover of Rochester but she wasn’t morally reliable. She is described as a French dancer but seen under the prejudices of the Victorian period = a French woman, a ballet dancer, morally unreliable. In fact she cheats on him and she’s unable to perform the role of mother. Celine betrays Rochester and Adele is probably the daughter of another man, as she’s very different from him. Celine abandones Rochester and elopes with her lover. French→ accused with xenophobic prejudices. In terms of otherness, Rochester feels xenophobic feelings towards Celine and his daughter Adele. He believes that other countries are not as moral and intelligent as Great Britain. ● Adele is the daughter of Celine. She is also a victim of the xenophobic prejudices of the time→ she’s not particularly intelligent, nor gifted. She has a tendency to superficiality, like her mother, and can only be redeemed with an English education. Rochester, though doubting about the fact that she’s not her daughter, decides to take her in Great Britain and give her a severe education. The other woman: Bertha Mason There are a lot of signs of her presence in the house. Bertha then proves her existence in the episode of the fire→ she appears but she’s not revealed. This woman just makes strange noises→ a «vague and lugubrious murmur», a «demoniac laugh», an «unnatural sound». She is reduced to a savage state and she’s deprived of humanity. Also Jane hears and perceives something but cannot say if it’s a human or not because all these sounds are inhuman, are unidentified. During one night, Jane hears a lot of strange sounds and wakes up. As she goes outside her bedroom, she sees that Rochester's room is on fire → she runs in his room with some water and she extinguishes the fire → JANE SAVES ROCHESTER’S LIFE ONCE AGAIN AND SHE’S IN A POSITION OF SUPERIORITY TOWARDS HIM. He’s a little bit annoyed at the beginning but then realizes that she saved her life. The reaction that he has was suspicious, like nothing strange happened: he went upstairs and when he comes down says probably it was just Grace Pool, without giving much importance on this fact. Jane understands that something scary and mysterious is happening but remains outside → The truth is kept hidden from Jane on purpose → the unresolved mystery puts her on a lower level, keeps her in a position of inferiority. She also tries to justify and accept her exclusion from the mysterious events by saying that she’s not allowed to know everything that happens in the house as a servant and not a family member. Again here in Thornfield Jane is excluded from knowledge, from high society and from social belonging. Exclusion from high society The exclusion from high society is evident also in the passage of the ball/party→ Rochester returns to Thornfield after a period of absence decides to give a party with friends just to have fun. During one of these evenings, during the ball, Jane cannot take part because she’s just a governess, one of the servants. When Jane goes downstairs, where the aristocrats were gathered, she looks at them behind a red curtain (again the color red → symbolizes envy, the detachment from the high society and the 7 Universita’ degli Studi di Verona English Literature and Culture 1 - Module 1 Jane perceives that the presence is not that of a servant and sees Bertha, without actually knowing it. Bertha is partially seen through the mirror → the mirror returns, like in the episode of the red-room, and gives back a scary image. Bertha is described, first of all, just as “a form”, dehumanized and with the impersonal form “it”. She’s described as a savage animal, a vampire, and makes strange noises, not human at all. Then, Jane describes the scene of the veil, of how Bertha wore the veil, then tore it and jumped on it. Bertha is trying to say that the real bride of Rochester is her and not Jane. When Jane tells Rochester about this fact, he replies that it was just Grace Pool. However, Jane is not convinced because she knows that the presence was not that of a servant. Jane then goes back to bed and when she wakes up, during the marriage day, she dresses up with the help of the servant Sophie and then stares at herself in the mirror→ the mirror appears for the third time. Jane doesn’t recognize herself → Jane, as the bride, cannot recognize herself but sees just a figure. Bertha made her think that the role of bride is not hers. The wedding ceremony is suddenly interrupted: when the priest asks if there was someone against the marriage, the lawyer of Mr Mason speaks. He says that Rochester was already married with another woman, Bertha Antoinette Mason, the sister of Mr Mason. At this moment Rochester begins to tell his story from his own point of view. He tells about the marriage his family decided with Bertha, of how he felt about that, knowing also that she was from the colony of Jamaica. He also pretends he has been obliged and entrapped. In this story Rochester is the victim because of Bertha’s unknown madness and because of her family’s deficiencies from decades. Also Mr Mason, Bertha’s brother, was recognised having a cognitive deficiency. Rochester, in this way, tries to justify himself in front of all the people in the room. Bertha is mad, according to Rochester, and also represents the “other” that scares: ● She comes from a colony; ● She’s sexually attractive and active; ● She doesn’t have any Victorian value. Bertha is described as the opposite of Jane, who instead is English, modest and decent and embodies all the Victorian values. Rochester, with his speech, wants to convince people that he can’t be married to such a woman→He invites the people at the marriage to go and see Bertha in her room. The first person that appears in Bertha’s room is Grace Pool, who’s cooking something near the fire. Bertha is at the end of her room, which is a small and oppressing space, and that underlines her isolation. She’s described as a savage beast in a cage without human traits. She’s like an animal in captivity and her noises and movements remind primitive populations and animals. Bertha is not speaking, she’s moaning and looks like an animal wearing clothes → Rochester buyed her clothes so he seems like the hero, the only man able to civilize her. She looks like a big woman and shows her face to the people in the room → her face is like one of a monster. Rochester also gives a speech about Bertha and compares her to Jane from a physical point of view: ● Bertha is described as a monster, a demon with red eyes, a face like a mask; ● Jane is described as having clear eyes, a quiet mouth and a beautiful face. Rochester needed someone with human traits by his side, not a monster. Bertha can be interpreted as the double, the alter ego of Jane: → The first comparison is the colonial confrontation; it is made referring to their different background, cultural and ethnical identity: - Jane is English and pure → she represents the superiority of the English civilization = rationality, modesty, decency - Bertha is a symbol of alterity and otherness as she comes from the colony of Jamaica→ she is not really English nor foreign, she’s “other” → she represents the primitivity that needs civilization = irrationality, passion; → Bertha represents Jane’s repressed irrational nature of anger and rage of when she was a child, that was contained thanks to the English education she received at Lowood; → Bertha’s the negative character that took out/absorbed Jane’s negativity: Jane is now a positive character, deliberates herself from her otherness and also loses her marginalizing features → so far 10 Universita’ degli Studi di Verona English Literature and Culture 1 - Module 1 Jane had always been a marginalized character but with Bertha as counterpart, all this negative elements are erased from Jane’s life, like if they were absorbed by Bertha, the vampire like figure; → Jane is portrayed as the good English and Victorian woman, in contrast with the colonial alterity of Bertha. When Bertha is shown, Rochester shuts the doors and it is time for him to face Jane alone. He starts telling her the story from the very beginning. The narration of Rochester is based on the refusal of Bertha’s otherness from the beginning of their story. He says what he didn’t appreciate and didn’t want about Bertha → negative description (with "didn’t have, didn’t was…"). He never loved her and described her as an alien, with obnoxious tastes and a low, common and narrow mind, incapable of anything higher. He couldn’t stand a kind conversation with her because it turned into a trite, perverse and imbecile one. Her temper is violent and disgusted Rochester, who immediately began to feel antipathy for her. After the marriage with Bertha, Rochester was afraid of being contaminated and corrupted by life in the colony. After refusing Bertha, he also refuses the place where they are for the fear of contamination. This thought occurred to him when, during a night, he was woken up by Bertha screams and then sat near a window; he was watching a West Indian Night and describes the climate and the environment → the description it’s all in negative terms and in terms of excesses: the hot climate, the danger of hurricanes, the unbreathable air because of the sulfurous wind, the mosquitos and the hot red moon, that is not quite as the English moon. Rochester describes an unbearable situation of excess that he can’t stand anymore, both because of his wife and the environment. Rochester decided to go back immediately to England, where all can be cured, saved and purified. In fact, he talks about England like → “A wind fresh from Europe”. It is a call for home, place of regeneration and hope → England represents the place where things can be settled. Rochester brought Bertha to England → England is a prison for her while for him it represents salvation. He locked her in a prison and tried to be relieved. He speaks clearly about the fact that he couldn’t stand the place, the people, his wife's madness and this kind of life → Just England represented for him salvation, the freedom and the possibility to find someone else → he wanted to find a good and intelligent woman he could love and trust. He is, in other words, looking for a substitute for the mistake he has made by marrying Bertha → he wants someone in contrast with the fury and madness of his first wife. Rochester describes his ideal woman by saying “the antipodes of the creole” → he means antipodes in geographical, physical and moral terms. Jane is the perfect alter ego of Bertha, the perfect substitute. She’s like an instrument of the master -Rochester- to get out of his situation. The preconditions for the marriage weren’t positive at all → the interruption was not so negative for Jane but not avoidable, because without these premises the marriage could not go on → still at the basis there is this instrumental use he made of Jane and her figure. Rochester wants to be, again, the master for Jane, who automatically was about to become a slave again → Jane is just a solution to Rochester’s mistake and Jane’s idea of independence would have disappear. Jane remains silent for a long time and is convinced by Rochester’s explanation. She’s not blaming Rochester for the rejection of Bertha. Also Jane, in fact, rejects her indirectly. So Jane supports what Rochester said and has the same bias and prejudicial approach and the same paternalistic view→ She agrees about the alterity of Bertha as a consequence of coming from the colonies. She’s an open minded person when it comes to rights but then, talking about the colonies, is totally absorbed by the cultural context of her time→ In fact, she pities Bertha for being inferior. However, Jane also defends her because Bertha can't help being mad as far as her whole family was. Now Jane knows the whole story about Rochester and he has no more secrets. It is at this moment that Rochester proposes to Jane to go to France and begin a new life there, without thinking about his past. Jane refuses not because she doesn’t like his behavior but because accepting his proposal would have meant losing her independence and becoming just a concubine, a mistress, and not a real wife. She cannot rationally accept this position→ she doesn’t want to lose her dignity, autonomy, equality and independence. Due to this female pride and self-respect, she’s planning to run away. 11 Universita’ degli Studi di Verona English Literature and Culture 1 - Module 1 During the night, Jane stares at the moon while thinking about running away. The moon represents another symbolic image. The English full moon gives Jane the calm safety and tranquility she needs. In fact, she addresses the moon with the pronoun “she” and, according to Jane, it has female traits. It symbolizes the sense of protection and speaks to Jane→ the moon represents for Jane a mother figure that suggests to her what to do. After the first fake marriage and the proposal to go to France, the moon suggests that she flee the tentations → Jane decides to run away alone. She runs for days without eating and drinking and arrives at a little village. There, she faints in front of a house and, when she wakes up, she’s rescued by a man and two women. MARSH END See book→ notes from chapter 28 to chapter 35 The period she lives in this little village named Marsh End is, for Jane, a period of rebirth and self-reconstruction. She arrives at Marsh End and presents herself just as “Jane”. ● She’s rescued by the River family, made up of a brother, Saint John, and two sisters, Hannah and Diana → the family is composed like Jane’s family in Gateshead, two sisters and one brother but in this case there is no mother. ● Jane will start a new life here: St. John, who is a pastor, finds her a new job as a teacher in the village. ● Jane will later be informed that the 3 siblings she lives with are her cousins, the sons of her father’s sister → this is another fairy tale element→ unknown relatives appear and change the course of someone’s life. ● A new life is about to start → the prospect of a new future is given by a series of events that change Jane’s life: ○ She finds new relatives, that are kind with her; ○ She receives another letter from her rich uncle John Eyre. St. John receives it and gives it to Jane and she now reveals her as Jane Eyre. The letter was not written by her uncle → the lawyer wrote that her uncle had died and she inherited all his riches → she inherited 20.000 pounds. Her economic advancement is made thanks to the exploitation of the colonies, like the majority of English richnesses, but → she now has a social and economic position. ○ Jane discovers that the 3 siblings are her cousins → social inclusion and social belonging with these relatives that are like a family to her; ○ After feeling socially included, she decides to share the inheritance with her cousins: each one now has 5.000 pounds and this money makes Jane respectable, modest and decent. She also has economic independence. She uses her money in order not to be dependent on a man. Jane changes again → she becomes more adult, rich and finally independent. St. John persuades Jane not to give them her money → Jane insists because she also wants her two female cousins to be independent. The only threat to her independence is made by St. John. His cousin proposes to her. He wants to become a missionary in India and open a school in this colonial land→ he needs a wife to give them a good example and to support his mission → It’s not a union made for love. Jane understands that it would be a fake marriage because it would be made for necessity and she’ll be just an instrument. Jane would also have moved away from England, like what she would have done with Rochester → moving away from England in that period included the risk of losing the English purity. Jane refuses the proposal and also doesn’t approve of the idea of love for duty. Jane's position is ambiguous → Jane proposes to go to India without marrying him → Jane supports the colonial cause of civilizing the colonies but doesn’t support the idea of marrying just to give a correct example to Indian people. St. John, however, refuses her counter proposal because she refused the marriage, and goes to India alone. Jane remains definitely in England because of a supernatural and some concretes causes: 12