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Post by Emily Shea on Nov 18, 2015 0:20:27 GMT
Throughout Jane Eyre, Bronte takes us through the spiritual journey of Jane. We see her trying to interpret other people's religious views, to attempt to find her own spiritual meaning. However, Antoinette (or Bertha) has no interest in these activities.
Similar to Jane, Antoinette lost someone close to her. Her mother died when she was very young, and now finds it extremely difficult to accept the loss throughout her life. The fact that she lost her causes her to believe in the absence of a higher being or God in this case. Lewkowicz states, "Antoinette carries the distance from and distrust of a higher being she feels for the rest of her life." These feeling all sparked from the unaccepted loss of her mother.
At this point her in life, Antoinette has reached "the point of no return" for her spiritual awakening. She has lived her life with the mindset that there is no God or higher being, and if she was to change those views now her life is so messed up that she cannot change her past through religion.
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Post by cnelson on Nov 21, 2015 16:04:47 GMT
- This was definitely a similarity Jane and Antoinette shared. But the difference occurs in the fact that Jane saw Helen's death as a lesson to be learned. The fact that she died showed Jane that she would not survive in society by being submissive and passive as Helen had been. Bertha could have definitely had the same perspective on her mother's death because of the fact that she had seen her mother's "real death" much earlier in life. This shows how Antoinette had clearly not been so close to her mother before she had physically died. Her mother deteriorated into madness and she had seen it all happen, but instead of taking the death of her mother as a lesson to be learned she looked at it as a punishment. Because she failed to realize that her mother's death was a possible warning sign, she blamed god instead and ended up having the same fate as her mother did. -Jane, unlike Antoinette, had seen multiple portrayals of religion before Helen's death (such as Mrs. Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Helen herself) this helped Jane to gain a broader knowledge of religion that she utilized to strengthen her beliefs. But Antoinette only had her mother's death as a portrayal of religion which had portrayed a punishing, merciless, and pointless view of religion. She had no other earlier learned knowledge to think otherwise, and after marriage she was entrapped in the Thornfield mansion and is never able to see the other views of religion Jane had experienced. This could have been a big contributing cause to the reason why Bertha become mad. |
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Post by hopekim on Nov 23, 2015 0:13:45 GMT
- This was definitely a similarity Jane and Antoinette shared. But the difference occurs in the fact that Jane saw Helen's death as a lesson to be learned. The fact that she died showed Jane that she would not survive in society by being submissive and passive as Helen had been. Bertha could have definitely had the same perspective on her mother's death because of the fact that she had seen her mother's "real death" much earlier in life. This shows how Antoinette had clearly not been so close to her mother before she had physically died. Her mother deteriorated into madness and she had seen it all happen, but instead of taking the death of her mother as a lesson to be learned she looked at it as a punishment. Because she failed to realize that her mother's death was a possible warning sign, she blamed god instead and ended up having the same fate as her mother did. -Jane, unlike Antoinette, had seen multiple portrayals of religion before Helen's death (such as Mrs. Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Helen herself) this helped Jane to gain a broader knowledge of religion that she utilized to strengthen her beliefs. But Antoinette only had her mother's death as a portrayal of religion which had portrayed a punishing, merciless, and pointless view of religion. She had no other earlier learned knowledge to think otherwise, and after marriage she was entrapped in the Thornfield mansion and is never able to see the other views of religion Jane had experienced. This could have been a big contributing cause to the reason why Bertha become mad. I agree that there are similarities and differences between Jane and Antoinette's versions of religions, but don't you think how they reacted and therefore formed religious opinions has a lot to do with who they are and their personalities? For example, after Helen died, Jane easily could have blamed God and turned away from him like Antoinette, but because of her personality and will to persevere, I think that is the most important reason in why they have different viewpoints on religion rather than previous exposures to religion, although still crucially important! |
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