by Essaka Joshua

"My Master," he says, "has forewarned me. Daily he announces more distinctly,-'Surely I come quickly;' and hourly I more eagerly respond,--'Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus!" (1) **********

The ending of Jane Eyre, with its mysterious citation of the book of Revelation and anticipation of the martyr's death of St. John Rivers, has long struck critics as problematic. Marianne Thormahlen, for instance, suggests that the shift from "the happy domesticity of the Rochesters to the dying missionary has puzzled readers for generations." (2) Attempts at understanding this shift have centered on the enigmatic characterization and purpose of St. John Rivers? Thormahlen, who writes the most sustained account of the problem, argues that Jane Eyre "seems to transmit a profoundly contradictory picture" of St. John Rivers? Thormahlen holds that St. John acts in an inconsistent manner: he saves Jane from certain death after she has crossed the moor in her escape from Edward Rochester, yet he is also her oppressor in attempting, forcefully, to persuade her to submit to a loveless marriage and a possible early death as a Christian missionary in India. Judith Williams likewise points out the inconsistency, suggesting that St. John cannot be seen as truly charitable, even though he is an exponent of "evangelical charity," as Jane describes him. (5) The significance, for Williams, lies in St. John's demise. St. John anticipates his sainthood, rather than achieves it. His lack of love, then, may play a part in his possible shortfall. (6) On the other hand, Pollard and Gordon suggest more simply that there is no difficulty, as St. John's virtuous withdrawal from worldly pleasures is part of his saintly journey. (7) The central theological question concerning his character seems to be: Is St.John without fault and therefore entitled to sainthood?

Thormahlen's solution is to keep separate the religious paths taken by Edward (and Jane) on the one hand and St. John on the other, arguing that Bronte does not choose between them. There is, in my estimation, however, enough evidence in the novel to suggest that Bronte does make a choice, and that the final sentence of the novel encapsulates its fundamental theme.

The central religious theme of the novel is the renouncing of idolatry, for which St. John acts as a symbol. St. John is problematic, however, because a secondary theme of the novel is that rejecting idolatry does not require a rejection of human relationships. Indeed, part of the point seems to be that renouncing idolatry is necessary for good human relationships. Bronte approves Jane's "pattern of human endeavour," not St. John's. In this article I shall try to demonstrate that the ending, far from creating problems for our understanding of the novel, is in fact part of a sustained account of the role of Jesus, the Christian Messiah, in human relationships, and that if read in the way that I shall suggest, Jane Eyre is, despite some of the ways in which it has been presented in the critical literature, a deeply religious novel, and indeed a novel with an orthodox and unexceptionable Christian message. The novel's idolaters make false gods of other characters; they do this by treating these other characters as if they had Messianic status, or could somehow supplant the Christian Messiah. Much of the evidence for this resides in the Biblical references in the novel, upon which there has, as yet, been little sustained comment. If we look closely at the implicit and explicit Biblical references, it is striking how many of these references overtly or covertly ascribe Messianic status to the various characters in the novel. The novel frequently does this by applying specific Christological verses. This association between Messianic symbolism and fictional characters is wholly eschewed at the end of the novel, to be replaced by an unequivocal focus on Christ. I shall argue that one of the novel's purposes--or at least one of the narrator's purposes--is to show that human relationships are successful only if the partners in the relationship avoid the dangers of idolizing each other. Salvation, as it were, comes not from human relationships and the human beloved, but from Christ, the heavenly beloved. While it is not my main purpose to give an account of the enigmatic role of St. John Rivers in the novel, I shall try to show too that my reading of the religious aspects of Jane Eyre can provide a solution to the cryptic conclusion of the novel, which is, of course, a quotation from a Messianic text.

I shall begin by examining the various Biblical and theological references in the novel, largely in the order in which they appear, highlighting the development of these allusions. I shall not look at all such references, but focus on those that have specific Messianic context, or at least that relate to the general theme of idolatry-the worship of the creature. At the same time, I shall show how the narrative includes contrary images and cautions the reader that these Messianic identifications and pretensions are disordered. Almost all of the passages where characters in the novel are associated with Messianic imagery and texts are negative in their general message and effect. Characters assume the aspect of false Messiahs: their actions are consequently dysfunctional, and the effects of these actions disruptive. But this is not so in every case, and I shall consider the exceptions secondly. On the basis of this examination, I shall try to come to some preliminary conclusions about the Christian message found in the novel, a message which is explicitly found in contemporary religious literature that, variously, either was or may well have been known to Charlotte Bronte I shall finally relate my conclusion to the novel's problematic ending, associated with St. John Rivers.

Jane Eyre displays a clear progression in the ascription of Messianic status. To begin with the protagonists: Edward Rochester implicitly thinks of Jane Eyre as his Messiah from an early stage in their encounter; Jane takes rather longer to think of Edward in this way. A hint of what is to appear later in full-blown form is seen during the second meeting of Jane and Edward--the first meeting when each is aware of the other's identity. Edward commands Jane to "Go into the library," but immediately excuses his peremptory manner: "- I mean, if you please. - (Excuse my tone of command; I am used to say 'Do this,' and it is done: I cannot alter my customary habits for one new inmate)." (13) In at least two respects, this passage represents Edward placing himself in a weak position relative to Jane. Obviously, despite his commanding manner, he is immediately forced to apologize and excuse himself.

But the words of his excuse are taken from an episode that occurs in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke: the healing of the centurion's servant. The centurion asks for Jesus' help in a way that explicitly links the centurion's authority with his unworthiness:

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: hut speak the word only, and my servant shall he healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it? (14)

The next time Edward makes Messianic allusions is again in relation to his own actions and status. He attempts to justify his proposed bigamy by arguing that his love for Jane is sufficient to atone for the wrongdoing, in the way that Christians understand Christ's atoning work to be an expiation for human sin:

Again and again he said, "Are you happy, Jane?" And again and again I answered, "Yes." After which he murmured, "It will atone--it will atone. Have I not found her friendless, and cold, and comfortless? Will I not guard, and cherish, and solace her? Is there not love in my heart and constancy in my resolves? It will expiate at God's tribunal. I know my Maker sanctions what I do. For the world's judgement--I wash my hands thereof. For man's opinion--I defy it." (15)

This picture of Edward atoning for sin through his love for Jane is clearly an attempt to recast the sin he is committing as a Messianic act of self-sacrifice. Edward believes his actions to be sanctioned by God, asserting that Jane's happiness will be adequate reparation for bigamy. He justifies the importance of his role in Jane's life by echoing John's gospel: "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (16) Here Jesus asks the disciples to believe in him, listing the benefits of doing so. Throughout this speech Edward presents himself as the saint who has his eyes firmly fixed on Heaven, rejecting earthly reputation in favor of the salvation he can bring to Jane. This is, nevertheless, a disordered image of a Messianic mission: the committing of a sin in order to atone for a wrong. In justifying bigamy in this way, Edward displays spiritual pride. In washing his hands of the "world's judgement," he echoes Pilate's self-absolution and complicity in the crucifixion in Matt. 27:24.

Edward's general inclination is to identify Jane as his Messiah, rather than present himself as Messianic. Jane, his "angel" and "comforter," causes him to be "healed and cleansed," (17) just as Jesus heals and cleanses the sick as a metaphor for his healing and cleansing the human race of its sin? (18) Yet Jane never accepts Edward's description of her as Messianic: "Mr. Rochester, you must neither except nor exact anything celestial of me, - for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you; which I not at all anticipate." (19) In spite of her reluctance to accept the role of Edward's Savior, in this conversation Jane uses a phrase highly reminiscent of Jesus talking of the nature of his relationship to his disciples in John's Gospel: "For a little while you will perhaps be as you are now,--a very little while; and then you will turn cool." (20) Compare with John's Gospel:

Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.... A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? We cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? (21)

Jane, too, begins to see Edward in a God-like role:

My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven. 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. (24)

This is precisely the dysfunction that the novel urges its readers against. The passage marks a crucial change in Jane's view of Edward. Just as Edward has inclined to view Jane in Messianic terms, he is now her Messiah, her God, and, as Jane realizes but is powerless to avoid, he has replaced her Christian belief with, indeed, something altogether more "pagan." (25)

The novel provides several other hints that the developing love between Jane and Edward is in conflict with sound religion, irrespective of the bigamy that any marriage would involve. One theme that runs through the scenes between Edward and Jane in volume 2 is that of the Fall: as the relationship between Edward and Jane develops, the narrator brings in imagery of the Garden of Eden, and reports Edward as likening Jane to Eve. Most strikingly, Edward's proposal of marriage takes place in a metaphorical Eden, complete with fruit. Jane describes the scene in great detail. It begins with an opulent mid-summer sun setting at the "sweetest hour of the twenty-four," "burning with the light of a red jewel." (26) Jane walks into the garden at Thornfield and, as the change in tense indicates, she becomes absorbed in her memory of her encounter with Edward:

I went apart into the orchard. No nook in the grounds was more sheltered and more Eden-like; it was full of trees, it bloomed with flowers: a very high wall shut it out from the court.... I look round and I listen. I see trees laden with ripening fruit. I hear a nightingale warbling in a wood half a mile off; no moving form is visible, no coming step audible; but that perfume increases: I must flee. I make for the wicket leading to the shrubbery, and I see Mr. Rochester entering.... He strolls on, now lifting the gooseberry-tree branches to look at the fruit, large as plums, with which they are laden; now taking a ripe cherry from the wall; now stooping towards a knot of flowers, either to inhale their fragrance or to admire the dew-beads on their petals. A great moth goes humming by me; it alights on a plant at Mr. Rochester's foot: he sees it, and bends to examine it. (27)

It is not hard to see the point here. The scene takes place in Eden, and Edward has already eaten the fruit. The moth, which makes a further appearance later in the scene, is used frequently in the Bible to indicate destruction: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal"; "Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth." (28) There are perhaps echoes, in the passage quoted, of the Song of Solomon 4:12-5, 5, a feature that may be relevant given the long Christian identification of the male lover in this poem with Christ: perhaps another instance of Jane's implied idolization of Edward. The honey, fruit, flowers, fragrance, enclosed garden and latched door are present in both.

Representing Thornfield as Eden alludes to the post-lapsarian nature of Edward and Jane. When Adam and Eve are cast out from paradise they live amongst thorns: "Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field." (29) Edward is a kind of Eve, tempting Jane; he also sees Jane as Eve. Edward's proposal of marriage addresses Jane in terms reminiscent of the language used to describe Eve in Genesis: "I ask you to pass through life at my side--to be my second self, and my best earthly companion"; "I love you as my own flesh." (30) Compare Genesis:

And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.... Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh? (31)

"You are welcome to all of my confidence that is worth having, Jane: but for God's sake, don't desire a useless burden! Don't long for poison - don't turn out a downright Eve on my hands!"

Both of them, of course, are too late: Jane has, albeit unwittingly, tempted Edward, and he has already eaten the fruit.

"You were, you little, elfish--" (33)

And a little later Jane reports, "He said I was a capricious witch." (34) Witches place charms and spells on their victims, and in this case the charm is entirely to make Jane into a goddess.

... It removed my veil from its gaunt head, rent it in two parts, and flinging both on the floor, trampled on them? (35)

The reference here is to Jane's wedding veil, but the whole passage is reminiscent of the tearing of the Veil of the Temple that according to the Gospels was torn either just before or during Jesus' death: "The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." (36) For Christians, this symbolizes the end of the Old Law, the Law that St. Paul identifies as leading to sin and deserved condemnation. The destruction of the wedding veil symbolizes and anticipates very neatly the narrator's subsequent assessment of this sinful, bigamous marriage: it is only when both the marriage and the disordered relationship between Jane and Edward are abandoned that both characters can order their affections in such a way that they can form a successful bond.

In truth "the waters came into my soul; I sank in deep mire: I felt no standing; I came into deep waters; the floods overflowed me." (38)

The quotations from these psalms are placed at the end of volume 2, emphasizing their significance as a watershed. The first verse of Psalm 29, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," is one of Jesus' "last words" on the Cross, and the whole psalm is traditionally understood as Christological--indeed, as specifically related to Christ's crucifixion? (39) Psalm 22:18 is alluded to at other points in the Passion narratives. (40) Psalm 69 is also twice alluded to in the Passion narratives. (41) Again, these allusions have led Christians standardly to want to interpret Psalm 69 christologically, and specifically as related to Christ's Passion. Given this, it is striking that Jane's only scriptural allusions immediately after the humiliation of the wedding ceremony are to these two psalms, so closely associated with Christ's passion and death. Furthermore, Jane refers to Psalm 69 indirectly at this point in the narrative: "I seemed to have laid me down in the dried-up bed of a great river; I heard a flood loosened in remote mountains, and felt the torrent come: to rise I had no will, to flee I had no strength. I lay faint; longing to be dead." (42) Clearly, these are strong descriptions of affliction and powerlessness in the face of the adversity Jane is confronting.

"Let me be torn way, then!" I cried. "Let another help reel"

"No; you shall tear yourself away; none shall help you: you shall, yourself, pluck out your right eye; yourself cut off your right hand: your heart shall be the victim; and you, the priest, to transfix it." (43)

Here, Jane is, like Christ, priest and victim. Compare for example the Epistle to the Hebrews:

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. (45)

It is significant that Jane's potentially adulterous relationship with Edward is alluded to here. Margaret Smith notes that "the exhortation to purify by self-mutilation occurs elsewhere in the gospels, but significantly it is in this particular passage that it is associated with condemnation of adultery." (46) Joseph Prescott understands "the verses as a commentary on the intended adultery, and actual maiming of Rochester." (47) Jane tears herself from the man who loves her "as [his] own flesh." (48)

Reading these passages from Jane Eyre is difficult. On the one hand, the close association of Jane with these Messianic texts could lead the reader to suppose that she is still being portrayed in a fundamentally negative light. Jane's departure, for instance, is linked to Edward's redemption. (49) On the other hand, it is quite clear that the references alluded to are associated with the beginning of Jane's "redemption": her immediate departure from Thornfield and her subsequent suffering. Presumably, the point is that Jane already perceives that the correct course of action is not to be Edward's Messiah. It is, rather, to be Christ-like in a theologically acceptable way: to "take up her cross and follow [Christ]." (50) As we shall see below, this is precisely how St. John Rivers, in his final letter from the mission-field, presents to Jane the Christian's duty, and in spite of St. John's defects, it is quite clear that this is how the narrator leads us to understand his mission too.

During these developments in Jane's religious personality, Edward fails to change in any way. He twice alludes to himself as damned. During the wedding ceremony itself, he notes that his attempted bigamy sends him to Hell:

Mr. Rochester continued, hardily and recklessly: "Bigamy is an ugly word!--I meant, however, to be a bigamist: but fate has out-manoeuvred me; or Providence has checked me,--perhaps the last. I am little better than a devil at this moment; and, as my pastor there would tell me, deserve no doubt the sternest judgments of God,--even to the quenchless fire and deathless worm." (51)

Edward sees himself as lost. Jane's morally prudent decision to leave leads to earthly wretchedness for him, and his own actions have led to his spiritual damnation. Jane attempts to redirect him: "Do as I do: trust in God and yourself. Believe in heaven. Hope to meet again there." (52) Edward rejects this heavenly goal, accusing Jane directly: "You condemn me to live wretched, and to die accursed.... You snatch love and innocence from me? You fling me back on lust for a passion--vice for an occupation?" (53) Jane's presence, then, is seen by Edward as sufficient to save him from Hell and to guide him aright. But this is, in Christianity, the role of Christ alone: Jane is still understood by Edward in Messianic terms. Jane, contrariwise, has realized that the only cure for their malaise is the renouncement of idolatry:

I was experiencing an ordeal: a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals. Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning! Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved; and him who thus loved me I absolutely worshipped: and I must renounce love and idol. One drear word compromised my intolerable duty--"Depart! (54)

The passage precisely parallels Jane's comments on page 277, the moment when she notes that she has made Edward her "idol": the solution to their disordered, potentially bigamous relationship, is to renounce this idolatry. Jane counsels Edward accordingly: "I advise you to live sinless; and I wish you to die tranquil." (55) Jane, from a Christian point of view (and thus, as I shall argue, from the novel's central point of view), does not fall into idolatry as rapidly as Edward, and begins to escape from it more quickly.

Almost immediately after Jane's initial abandonment of this idolatrous attitude, she feels an assurance of Edward's well-being too, an assurance that originates not from her own idolatrous worship of Edward, but from her well-ordered worship of God. Jane discovers this as she wanders across the moor.

Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. (57)

I was sure St. John Rivers--pure-lived, conscientious, zealous as he was--had not yet found that peace of God which passeth all understanding: he had no more found it, I thought, than had I; with my concealed and racking regrets for my broken idol and lost elysium--regrets to which I have latterly avoided referring; but which possessed me and tyrannized over me ruthlessly. (61)

Jane's renunciation of idolatry is more complete than her renunciation of the idol and the false heaven that he has promised.

But Edward is not the only idol that Jane is in danger of worshiping. The powerful influence of St. John Rivers presents itself to her as a further, serious temptation to idolatry, and it is only after this idolatry is resisted that Jane's relationship with Edward is restored. I will discuss St. John's troubled role in the novel in the final section below. But it needs to be made clear that one of the reasons for the problematic status of St. John is Jane's disordered attitude towards him, an attitude that he has encouraged as much as Edward caused her earlier idolatry.

Jane begins by equating St. John's physical beauty with his spiritual beauty, understanding her relationship to her idol in these terms. In taking on St. John as her mentor, Jane tries to emulate him.Jane's inability to become beautiful is seen by her as a metaphor for her inability to achieve the physical and spiritual perfection that St. John stands for:

He wanted to train me to an elevation I could never reach: it racked me hourly to aspire the standard he uplifted. The thing was as impossible as to mould my irregular features to his correct and classic pattern, to give my changeable green eyes the sea blue tint and solemn lustre of his own. (62)

St. John's role as an idol is perhaps emphasized more so even than Edward's, in that it is an overtly religious choice that Jane is making. Marriage to St. John is presented to her as a spiritual decision. At this point in her troubled relationship with this pseudo-Messianic figure, St. John dominates Jane in the same way that Edward manages to, and this is highlighted in the repetition of the reference to the healing of the centurion's servant. St. John uses Matt. 8:9 (= Luke 7:7-8), as Edward has done previously: "When he said 'go,' I went; 'come,' I came; 'do this,' I did it." (63) Jane is confused when confronted with this degree of authority. In presenting herself as the sick servant, and St. John as the centurion, Jane hints that she is aware that St. John should not stand in place of the Messiah. Nevertheless, Jane is battling with the confusion that the religious element of his authority presents. Even though Jane hints here that she is waiting for the real Messiah to heal her, realizing that St. John, in spite of his authority, is not to be seen as a Messianic figure, she is tempted to make an idol of him, as the following passage confirms:

The language here is of sacrifice: a sacrifice not on behalf of St. John, but to him; it is an attempt to earn his approval. But the offering of sacrifices to creatures is the paradigm case of idolatry in the Old Testament. (65)

Indeed, St. John himself equates Jane's refusal of him with her damnation, as if he himself is not just one possible route to the salvific work of Christ, but that work itself. On the night before St. John's departure for Cambridge, he begins family prayers by reading Rev. 21:7-8:

Henceforward, I knew what fate St. John feared for me. (66)

The next morning, St. John leaves Jane a note that explicitly identifies marriage to him, and the subsequent missionary work, with salvation: "You left me too suddenly last night. Had you stayed longer, you would have laid your hand on the Christian's cross and the angel's crown." (67) Jane rejects St. John's offer because she rightly perceives that his understanding of human love is deficient: "I scorn your idea of love" (68)--partly because it is insufficiently emotional, but, more importantly, because it fails to value Jane as the distinct human being that she is: There would be recesses in my mind which would be only mine, to which he never came; and sentiments growing there fresh and sheltered, which his austerity could never blight, nor his measured warrior-march trample down: but as his wife--at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked--forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital--this would be unendurable. (69)

St. John accepts only one part of Jesus' two-fold love commandment: he loves God, but not his neighbor. This notion of love is almost as disordered as that of the idolatrous characters earlier in the novel. Equally, Jane's refusal of St. John marks her final salvation from the dangers of idolatry.

The night before St. John's departure, Jane hears Edward's voice calling from afar, and experiences a Mighty Spirit: not Edward (though she hears his voice too) but God himself, and from this point in the novel all relationships are rightly ordered: all idolatry has been definitively forsaken, but not at the expense of well-ordered human relationships:

I seemed to penetrate very near a Mighty Spirit; and my soul rushed out in gratitude at His feet. I rose from the thanksgiving--took a resolve--and lay down, unscared, enlightened--eager but for the daylight. (70)

The wondrous shock of feeling had come like the earthquake which shook the foundations of Paul and Silas's prison: it had opened the doors of the soul's cell, and loosed its bands--it had wakened it out of its sleep, whence it sprang trembling, listening, aghast. (71)

"He [God] sees not as man sees, but far clearer: judges not as man judges, but far more wisely. I did wrong: I would have sullied my innocent flower--breathed guilt on its purity: the Omnipotent snatched it from me. I, in my stiff-necked rebellion, almost cursed the dispensation: instead of bending to the decree, I defied it. Divine justice pursued its course; disasters came thick on me: I was forced to pass thought the valley of the shadow of death.--His chastisements are mighty; and one smote me which has humbled me for ever.... Of late, Jane--only of late--I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconciliation to my Maker. I began sometimes to pray: very brief prayers they were, but very sincere." (72)

"I thank my Maker, that in the midst of judgment he has remembered mercy. I humbly entreat my Redeemer to give me strength to lead henceforth a purer life than I have done hitherto!" (74)

One curious feature of this scene is the narrator's comparison of herself to the Virgin Mary, quoting Mary's words: "I kept these things ... and pondered them in my heart." (75) Perhaps we are to think of Jane as ultimately the person whose actions lead Edward back to orthodox religion and non-idolatrous human relationships? We should recall too Jane's role as mediator between Edward and the world during his blindness: "I was then his vision, as I am still his right hand." (76) Immediately after this scene, the final chapter opens with Jane's famous summary of subsequent events: "Reader, I married him." (77) So the abandonment of idolatry, the refusal to treat other human beings as though they have any sort of Messianic function, leads to the resolution of the plot.

Central to this analysis is the identification of Edward, St. John, and Jane as false Messiahs. Other characters, including Jane as a child, occasionally receive something like Messianic status in ways that lack negative implications. The very young Jane suffers in a way that is likened to the sufferings of Jesus. The elder Jane--the narrator of the story--comments about her treatment at the hand of her guardian, Mrs Reed: "I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did: while rending my heart-strings, you thought you were only up-rooting my bad propensities." (78) "Father forgive them; for they know not what they do" is said by Jesus on the Cross. (79) Jane's comment apparently ascribes to herself a Messianic role. But this comment is from the older Jane, from someone who, like the first Christian martyr, Stephen, can use Christ's words from the cross merely as a way of following the example of Jesus. (80) There is no idolatry here, merely the practice of Christian virtue.

The only real exception is the remarkable Helen Burns. Helen Burns is identified as a Christ-like figure by means of some implicit scriptural quotation found in Jane's first conversation with her, a conversation that takes place on the same day that she has seen Helen flogged. Jane is puzzled that Helen does not want to retaliate. Helen immediately cites Jesus' teaching: "The Bible bids us return 'good for evil,'" (81) and implicitly places herself in the role of recounting Jesus' teachings: "Learn from me," she exhorts Jane, just as Christ exhorts his disciples "learn of me." (82) Helen proceeds to teach Jane the message of forgiveness, distancing herself from being perceived as Messianic:

"What does he say?"

"Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you." (83)

Charles I, too, one of the subjects of the conversation, is presented by Helen as a type of Christ, a "murdered king," whose "enemies were the worst: they shed blood they had no right to shed." (84) The words Helen uses to describe the martyrdom of Charles I echoes those used for Jesus, whose enemies are described as shedding innocent blood. Pilate says "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." (85) This is a way of further presenting Helen in the role of someone who reports Jesus' teachings. Why is Helen Burns not a false Messiah? Helen is not a substitute for Christ in the sense of being an idolized object of adoration. She merely takes on Christ's teaching role, and can represent Christ in this way without thereby becoming the object of an idolatrous and dysfunctional devotion--the very problem exhibited by the other Christ-like characters.

Jane Eyre presents idolatry as sinful, and the eradication of this kind of worship as necessary for well-ordered human relationships. The novel does not, however, counsel that human relationships should be abandoned altogether; it suggests that relationships should not stand in the way of the worship that is due to God. If this is the message of the novel, then it is a standard orthodox Christian one which was readily available to Charlotte Bronte herself.

A similar message can be found, for example, in Isaac Watts's volume, Discourses of the Love of God (1729). This has a section on "Rules to moderate excessive Love to Creatures":

Set up the Love of God supreme in your Heart, and keep it so. This Principle of divine Love will grow jealous if any meaner Love rise too high, and become its Rival, or make too near Approaches to its Seat and Throne. A sovereign Love to God will limit and moderate all inferior Love.... Remember that excessive Love to the Creatures hath often provoked a jealous God to embitter them to us terribly by remarkable Providences, or to cut them off suddenly in his Anger. The way to keep our Comforts, is to love them with Moderation. (86)

If it were possible to believe that all of us were saved, the hope of the future would he a glorious hope. If, without any misgiving or uncertainty, we were assured, that as we have often met together in peace in this house of prayer, so hereafter we should all meet together in peace in the presence of God, joyful indeed would be to us the prospect of eternity. In that case we should have little difficulty in complying with the admonition of the text [Col. 3.2: "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth"], and setting our affection on things above. Our prayer would then be the expression of our heart's sincere desire, when we said, "Thy kingdom come": "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." (89)

The application of these sorts of insights to human relationships--even familial ones--is made more clearly in the letters of the Evangelical and moderate Calvinist Henry Venn, whose biography and selected letters were published in 1834. Venn believed Calvinism to be true, but unlike more extreme Calvinists was unwilling to condemn those who did not. A copy of Venn's extremely popular and well-known Complete Duty of Man (1763) was in the library at Ponden Hall, and thus possibly available to Charlotte. (92) Venn was the father of the Clapham Sect's pastor, John Venn, and was counted among those Evangelical clergyman admired by Patrick Bronte. (93) Venn's letters include insights that seem very close to the kind of view that Jane Eyre seems to defend. The newly married Venn writes to his wife, Eling, in the following terms:

"But tell me, Nanny," said Mr. MacFarsin, looking sorrowfully, "do you hope that these things [viz. "the Priest ... the wafer, that is ... the body and blood of the blessed Jasus"] will save you? Do you expect they will take you to heaven?"

Nanny, recovering herself a little, and speaking louder and with greater emphasis, cried--"Ah! No--ah? No--nothing can save me but Christ! Ah? No--nothing can save me but Christ! In myself I am all sin, but Christ is good; and I believe in him, and love him, and so God loves me, and makes me good." (95)

If my reading of these theological references in Jane Eyre is correct, a central religious message of the novel is that earthly attachments cannot substitute for loving God. This is a commonplace of Christian theology. Bronte suggests, further, that love relationships are dysfunctional without a correct love for Christ, but that in this context proper love for fellow creatures is possible and wholly appropriate. St. John's path is rejected by Jane, not because he places too much emphasis on the role of Christ, but because he overlooks the fact that prioritizing Christ does not entail refusing to allow a secondary place for human affection too. Jane and Edward are able to "love one another in God and for God." (96) St. John rightly exhorts Jane to value Christ above all else. But he fails to see that this unconditional love of God does not require the abandonment of earthly attachments. St. John's love for Jane is non-idolatrous; but it is not thereby well-ordered. St. John's battle with idolatry parallels that of Jane. Both reject it, but St. John rejects human love as well. The extremity of St. John's suppression of love is seen when he observes Rosamond Oliver:

St. John curbs his emotions like a despotic ruler, but they are not easily kept in check. Jane understands St. John to have made a choice between loving Rosamond and loving God, and presents what she imagines is St. John's internal monologue as an explication of his decision to renounce his love for Rosamond:

He now furtively raised his eyes: he glanced at me irresolute, disturbed: he again surveyed the picture.

"That I should like to have it is certain: whether it would be judicious or wise is another question." (100)

Jane reveals that St. John expects to stand before the throne of God without fault, but is he without fault? (101) His devaluing of his fellow creatures suggests that he is not. St. John's mission, Jane hints, is self-appointed: "He entered on the path he had marked for himself; he pursues it still." (102) She continues: "Himself has hitherto sufficed to the toil; and the toil draws near its close: his glorious sun hastens to its setting." (103) The unusual syntax (using "Himself" as the subject) draws attention to St. John's active role in his own martyrdom. Jane is conscious of St. John's spiritual pride: "His is the ambition of the high master-spirit, which aims to fill a place in the first rank of those who are redeemed from the earth." (104) No human stands between St. John and "his sure reward, his incorruptible crown," but Jane Eyre offers an alternative and better calling: marriage, provided there is no danger of idolatry. (105) St. John's fault is not his pride (though Jane is aware of his pride) but simply his inability to find a right love towards creatures.

University of Birmingham

NOTES

(105) Ibid.