Jane Austen, Jane Fairfax, and Jane Eyre (2007)

MANY YEARS AGO, I was struck by Romantic weathers at end of Emma and beginning of Eyre, and wondered if Charlotte Bronte chose Jane and Rochester's middle name because of Fairfax. Bronte said she didn't read Emma until after Eyre appeared on 16 October 1847 (Letters 2.349, Gordon 143), then violently attacked its author, but did she in fact draw on Emma and re-write it? And did she see that Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication permeates Emma almost as much as it does Eyre? First, similarities. In Emma, evening of this day was very long, and melancholy, at Hartfield. The weather added what it could of gloom. A stormy rain set in, and nothing of July appeared but in trees and shrubs, which was despoiling (421): Eyre wanders similarly in a leafless shrubbery, where cold winter wind brings somber clouds and penetrating rain (7). As to name Fairfax, that may refer to Thomas Fairfax, a Parliamentary general during English Civil War. Like him, is sickly but honorable. Even Charles I, whom helped depose, called him a man who ever kept his word (qtd. in Gentles), while Milton begged him to use his firm unshak'n vertue to clear the shamefull brand/ Of Public Fraud (On Lord Gen. Fairfax 5, 12-13). Fairfax, 'the most upright female mind in creation,' also loathes her 'life of deceit' (437,459). Frank, says Emma, has 'None of that upright integrity, that strict adherence to truth and principle, that disdain of trick and littleness, which a man should display in every transaction of his life' (397), but Austen herself may recall Lord Fairfax. (1) Whether Bronte remembered Puritan or governess, both and who marries Edward Rochester subdue their passions and appearance. Fairfax's grey eyes and reserve (167-69) anticipate self-controlled, Quaker-like governess Eyre, who rejects pink satin for sober black and pearl-grey (103, 281). Frank flirts with Emma while secretly engaged, and Mr. Rochester proposes bigamy. Marriage rescues from Bragges, Smallridges, and Sucklings (380), and Mr. Rochester's proposal prevents Eyre fleeing to O'Galls of Bitternutt Lodge (263). Mrs. Churchill's death allows to marry Frank; that of madwoman allows to marry Mr. Rochester. And if Mr. Knightley is sixteen years older than Emma, but not a brother, no, indeed (99, 331), Mr. Rochester, who at twenty years older than might almost be your father, becomes her ardent suitor (277). It's odd that a charade with sexual implications occurs in both books. Odder still are eyes: Emma has 'the true hazle eye--and so brilliant!' (39), and when Frank desires his future wife to have 'hazle eyes,' Emma thinks of Harriet, [h]azle eyes excepted (373). So why would Mr. Rochester talk of Jane's radiant hazel eyes, when they are actually green (271)? As to possible corrections, is Eyre poor and plain because Bronte objected to beautiful Fairfax? knows that though a 'hasty and imprudent attachment may arise, ... only weak, irresolute characters ... will suffer an unfortunate acquaintance to be an inconvenience, an oppression for ever' (373). But whereas Eyre abandons Mr. Rochester, never manages to leave. Frank's uncle will give all his aunt's jewels (479), but Eyre rejects jewels by which Rochester tries to chain her (271). And if Mr. Rochester enlarges Eyre's mind, Frank cannot match intellectually. Once he is rich, she marries him, but Eyre marries Rochester once all his powers are gone. Austen foretold that would not live long (Family Record 307), but Eyre produces a son. Did Bronte correct Austen again when she makes Eyre far more outspoken than Fairfax? Austen's character calls governess-trade 'the sale--not quite of human flesh--but of human intellect . …