Coming Of Age In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

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In order for a story to be great it must have a theme that makes reading it worth while. In Jane Eyre, the main character tells her life story and the struggle of choosing between your head and your heart. The emotion portrayed by Jane in a first person point of view not only makes the reader feel more directly involved in the novel, but it also provides an emotional setting that may resemble feelings the reader has in real life. The emotion and realism portrayed in Jane Eyre is what accomplishes the theme of coming of age and makes this one of the most popular novels to this day. Jane begins her story by telling the reader of the house of her Aunt Reed, who disliked Jane because her husband favored Jane even more than his own children. Jane expresses her life living with her aunt to be a place…show more content…
Brocklehurst enters the story to come take Jane to the school for orphans, Jane finally stands up for herself as she tells her Aunt exactly how she feels about her, “I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare that I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed.” (Bronte 41) However, this feeling of victory doesn’t last long as Jane soon arrives at school and is treated just as poorly as before. Mr. Brocklehurst publicly humiliates her in front of the whole school by claiming her to be a liar. This makes the reader feel sympathy for Jane and all the trouble she has suffered for being falsely convicted. This can in many ways, relate to the reader by reminding the reader of a past experience that made them feel belittled and falsely accused. She finds solace, however, in her friend Helen Burns and the superintendent of the school, Miss. Temple. In first person, Jane conveys how she learned from other people, the way they act, and how they view the world. These two differing viewpoints of the angelic Helen and hypocritical Mr.Brocklehurst plays a large role in shaping Jane into the woman she

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