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A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Clever and eloquent, these words of the Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson would have undoubtedly moved his Romantic English contemporary, Charlotte Bronte. As Transcendentalism was an American interpretation of the Romantic Movement in England, it similarly praised the souls of the artists and the fantastical. Even though Bronte was a Romantic herself, freedom of expression did not come as easily because she was a woman confined to the restraints of a Victorian society. Through her novel, Jane Eyre, Bronte manages to send her message of the power of imagination to the masses, although under the male pen name Currer Bell. The literary classic evinces the role of passion and imagination in both Bronte's own life and the society of the time, while showing how Jane's internal struggle to maintain a balance between reality and her active imagination is essential for her sanity.

Jane's childhood experiences while living at Gateshead and at Lowood School reflect Bronte's own life as a child, and through this direct parallelism in the novel, Bronte is able to convey her belief in the importance of imagination as an escape. Jane's passionate imagination is made apparent in the novel through her hope to flee to faraway, magical lands. When reading Bewick's "History of British Birds," Jane learns of many new places which inspire her, claiming, "Of these death-white realms I formed an idea of my own: shadowy, like the half-comprehended notions that float dim through children's brains, but strangely impressive" (Bronte 21). In her mind, she forms images of a "...rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray... [a] broken boat on a desolate coast... [and] the cold and ghastly moon glancing through the bars of a cloud at a wreck just sinking" (21).

These visions perceived in Jane's youthful imagination are strangely powerful for a young girl. They express the isolation and abandonment she feels in her life and her desire to escape this pain. This outlet is critical for Jane's existence because living such a deprived childhood creates horrific moments which "...instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression – as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die" (27). The challenges created by Jane's sorrowful childhood destroy her desire to live, but her ability to implement her imagination as a means of withdrawal from her tragic reality allows Jane to cope and endure.

This need for imagination seen in the young Jane is a direct parallel to the childhood of Charlotte Bronte herself. She too dreamed of traveling to imaginary worlds. Throughout her youth, Charlotte even worked with her brother, writing short stories and poems about a fantastical African Kingdom she entitled "Angria" (Brownell). Jane's experience at the Lowood school is also taken directly from of a page of Bronte's own life. At the age of nine, Bronte was enrolled in the Cowan Bridge Clergy Daughters' School, where her imagination was suppressed by school authorities, and her two older sisters died of childhood illnesses (Newman 5). Bronte employs this experience in her novel to illustrate the necessity of escape from reality when existence becomes unbearable. Jane uses this tactic even when she is first sent to Lowood when, not anticipating the depressing life she is about to enter, Jane thinks, "Thus I was severed from Bessie and Gateshead: thus whirled away to unknown, and, as I then deemed, remote and mysterious regions" (Bronte 52). Jane's active imagination draws her towards such intriguing and mystifying possibilities, and she is at first optimistic about the venture. Although Jane's Lowood experience is not what she expected, it is her hope of a better future and flight from reality that Bronte is trying to illustrate to her audience. Bronte understood the frustration Jane feels and how the imagination can appear a salvation to those who suffer in reality, which is why she finds it imperative to express this notion in her work.

Jane's years spent at Lowood may have frustrated her imaginative side, but Bronte recreates this situation in her work to illuminate the importance of living in a composed and controlled manner in the Victorian era. Bronte understood the prejudices against females during the Victorian era as she grew older, and being the "painfully shy" person she was, she would not have been one to rebel against these social conformities (Brownell). Choosing to write under a male pen name shows that she is not concerned with being recognized as an unconventional female author, she merely wishes to convey her message. Bronte was convinced of these assumptions about women's subordinate role in society. After writing a letter to poet laureate Robert Southey asking his opinion of her literary works, Southey responded, "Literature cannot be the business of a women's life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it, even as an accomplishment and a recreation" (Newman 6). Charlotte took these words to heart, writing on the letter, "Southey's advice to be kept for ever" (6). She learned to suppress her passionate thoughts and imagination to stay connected with society, which was, more importantly, her audience.

Bronte uses the Lowood experience as a place for Jane to discover the ways in which accepting duty and responsibility in life are essential in shaping the ideal woman. Portraying the conservative Miss Temple as the first positive female role model in Jane's life suggests to the reader that a fulfilled life for a Victorian woman required the suppression of outward expression of one's passions. Pointing out the significance of the name "Temple," Sandra M. Gilbert, author of "Plain Jane's Progress," believes Miss Temple to be a "...marble pallor...a sort of shrine of lady-like virtues: magnanimity, cultivation, courtesy – and repression" (480). Jane recognizes these characteristics of Miss Temple as well. In Jane's first impression of her, she notes Miss Temple's "...refined features; a complexion, if pale, clear; and a stately air and carriage" (Bronte 58). As she becomes closer to Miss Temple, Jane later adds, "Miss Temple had always something of serenity in her air, of state in her mien, of refined propriety in her language, which precluded deviation into the ardent, the excited, the eager: something which chastened the pleasure of those who looked on her and listened to her, by a controlling sense of awe" (81).

Jane also notices similar qualities of control in her best friend at Lowood, Helen Burns. For instance, when Helen explains to Jane why she did not rebel against her abusive teacher earlier in the day, stating her devotion to the Lord's ways as her reasoning, Jane's is amazed with Helen's ability to suppress her passions, thinking, "...I could not comprehend this doctrine of endurance...I felt that Helen Burns considered things by a light invisible to my eyes. I suspected she might be right and I wrong" (65-66). This admiration Jane has towards Helen's and Miss Temple's controlled and dignified composure evinces a change in her character. As she begins to discern, her fiery and rebellious manner may not be the proper way for a woman to express her thoughts. This realization Jane has at Lowood motivates her to live a life more balanced between duty and imagination.

This desire to live a more controlled life creates in Jane an internal struggle to try and keep her imagination separate from her reality, which causes her moments of both extreme terror and great joy. Bronte introduces this conflict to the reader during Jane's stay at Gateshead. When Jane is punished in the red-room, her imagination seizes power over any rational thoughts, leading Jane to believe that the ghost of Mr. Reed is literally present in the room with her (Bronte 29). She feels "...oppressed, suffocated: [her] endurance broke down; [she] rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort" (29). Unable to control her emotions and distinguish between the unreal and the real, she gives into the terrors of her mind.

The choice of the word "endurance" in this passage foreshadows a latter instance in the novel where Jane admires the "endurance" of Helen Burns, a selection Bronte carefully made to show the reader how Jane's rebellious nature is more of a weakness than a sign of strength. Although Jane's imagination does provide her times of happiness, such as when she is reading Gulliver's Travels and dreaming of fleeing to the fantastical lands of "Lilliput" and "Brobdignag," she is still frightened when her thoughts become a reality (32). After reading this book so many times, Jane comes to believe it is actually "eerie and dreary" calling the protagonist, Gulliver, "a most desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerous regions" (32). Once her visions of these blissful lands enter reality and no longer seem as amazing to the young Jane's eyes, she no longer wishes to read the story, claiming, "I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse" (32).

In her childhood, Jane feels a need to separate her reality from her imagination to keep her inner thoughts as an outlet from her sad life. As she entered her adult life, however, it was Jane's desire to create a balance between her fantasies and following societal conventions that motivated this separation. This division is still a challenge as she grows, particularly during her time as a governess. Jane's unconventional romance with her employer, Edward Rochester, stirs up many different emotions, creating moments so passionate she is unable to decipher what is real from the figments of her imagination. In the final day of their engagement to each other, Jane even confesses, "I cannot see my prospects clearly tonight, sir; and I hardly know what thoughts I have in my head. Everything in life seems unreal...You, sir, are the most phantom-like of all: you are a mere dream" (276). As Gilbert suggests in her feminist criticism of the novel, "Many of Jane's problems, particularly those which find symbolic expression in her experiences in the third story, can be traced to her ambiguous status as a governess at Thornfield" (483). Unsure of the proper relationship she is to have with Mr. Rochester, Jane develops confusing and contradicting thoughts that impede her ability differentiate fact from fiction.

Bronte proves how imperative this need to establish equilibrium between imagination and reality is with the introduction of Bertha Mason at Thornfield. Bertha Mason is the epitome of a solely passion-driven existence lived in the inner realms of the mind that leads not to happiness but utter insanity. Bertha acts as Jane's alter-ego in the novel, illustrating to the reader why Jane cannot allow herself to ignore the duties of her reality. If Jane acted on all her wild urges, she would be perceived by those around her as insane as Bertha, "the mad-lady in the attic." Gilbert notes this in her essay, arguing, "What Bertha now does, for instance, is what Jane wants to do. Disliking the ‘vapoury veil' of Jane Rochester, Jane Eyre secretly wants to tear the garment up. Bertha does it for her" (492). This passage also suggests that through her realization of the importance of responsibility and good social conduct, Jane's transformation is so great that she becomes a whole new person, Jane Rochester. However, her passionate, uncontrollable side, Jane Eyre, is still a powerful force in her mind. By subordinating this force, Jane Rochester is able to maintain her sanity, unlike her dark double, Bertha. This relationship between the two women is made apparent again in the novel's conclusion. Bertha's death at the end of the novel is symbolic of the essential "death of Jane Eyre," which occurs when Jane decides to stay at Thornfield to care for the now handicapped Mr. Rochester. Jane's transformation becomes definitive to the reader upon her final reaction to Mr. Rochester's euphoric excitement at her return to Thornfield, in which she

...listened to Mr. Rochester's narrative; but made no disclosure in return. The coincidence struck me as too awful and inexplicable to be communicated or discussed. If I told anything, my tale would be such as musts necessarily make a profound impression on the mind of my hearer; and that mind, yet from its sufferings too prone to gloom, needed not the deeper shade of the supernatural. I kept these things then, and pondered them in my heart. (Bronte 436)

It is here that the fiery, passionate side of Jane's mind fully gives in to her dutiful side because she now finds the care-taking of Rochester to be the sole responsibility in her life. She is willing to suppress her emotions and her imagination to hold on to Mr. Rochester, the one aspect of her life she cannot bear to lose.

Although Jane does ultimately choose to live a more dutiful life, she never stops feeling the passionate emotions and desires that have always been a moving power in her existence. She is not denying her emotions; she is keeping her wild and fantastical thoughts to herself so she can advance in life without being inhibited by the pain and confusion she felt so often in her youth. It is through her experiences at Gateshead, Lowood, and Thornfield that Jane learns to balance her imagination and her reality. As long as her imagination is separate from her reality, it works effectively as an escape for the tormented Jane; however, when her imagination becomes intertwined with reality, she suffers confusion, pain and heartache. As Jane matures, she learns to suppress her passionate feelings to maintain the lady-like composure expected of her. Bronte, having lived similar personal experiences to her protagonist, even creates the mad Bertha Mason to reiterate the necessity of containing rebellious urges in living a sane existence. Being the person she is, it would be impossible for Jane ever to lose her imaginative side, but as soon as she discovers love and passion outside the inner workings of her mind, she is forced to venture beyond her personal reality to new and exciting lands.

• 2006 Winter
• Literary Interpretation