Passion V. Reason Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre, follows the life of a young woman of the same name. Jane faces many decisions in her life that cause her to choose between passion and reason. The inner struggle of these conflicting forces illuminates the idea that people should not let society choose their future because everyone faces internal conflicts that guide their decisions. Jane’s early life is mostly governed by the thought that evil can only be returned with revenge. When her Aunt Reed and cousins torment her and treat her harshly, Jane returns this hate by fighting and yelling. She becomes so overcome with this fervent anger that when she is locked in the “red-room” (Brontë 8) she thinks that she sees the apparition of her dead Uncle Reed. Jane’s passionate actions cause Aunt Reed to send her away to school. Jane is sent to Lowood Institute and meets a young, pious girl named Helen Burns. Young Jane and Helen represent passion and reason, respectively. Jane feels that “If people were always kind and…show more content… Rochester. After Jane discovers Rochester is already married, she is not sure how to respond. She wants to be reasonable because “the transaction in the church had not been noisy; there was no explosion of passion . . . an open admission of the truth had been uttered by my master; then the living proof had been seen,” but she also feels passionate because “My hopes were all dead—struck . . . I looked on my cherished wishes . . . stark, chill, livid corpses that could never revive,” (Brontë 189). Rochester offers Jane to “be Mrs. Rochester—both virtually and nominally . . . to make [her] [his] mistress,” (Brontë 194); consequently, Jane is conflicted because she can choose to either follow passion and go with Rochester as his mistress or choose reason and leave him. She chooses reason and leaves, heading nowhere in