Haunted by Passion: Supernaturalism and Feminism in Jane Eyre and Villette

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

In Jane Eyre and Villette, Charlotte Bronte builds suspense and creates an eerie atmosphere by hinting that bizarre occurrences are caused by supernatural entities such as ghosts or demons. Ultimately, the strange events are given rational explanations. The monster in Jane Eyre is revealed to be Rochester's wife Bertha Mason and the ghostly nun in Villette turns out to be Ginevra Fanshaw's lover in disguise. Both Bertha and the nun are robbed of their threatening supernatural quality. Like these figures, the female protagonists of Bronte's fiction are repressed and subdued. Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe hide the passionate side of their personalities from the outside world. This repression manifests itself in the form ofmysterious figures that haunt both novels. The aggressive and animalistic Bertha Mason represents Jane's buried passion. Similarly, the mysterious nun represents Lucy's repressed sexuality and serves as reminder of her loneliness. Jane and Lucy conceal their passion in order to get by in male dominated society. In Bronte's time, outspoken and aggressive women were generally considered to be unacceptable and unladylike. The ideal woman was calm, quiet, and submissive. Powerful women were often viewed as threatening. The supernatural figures associated with the female protagonists in both novels are robbed oftheir mysterious allure. Like Jane and Lucy, they are stripped of their power. Jane and Lucy are conflicted characters who struggle with their longing for marriage and their desire to be independent. They both fall in love and hope to establish relationship of equality with the men in their lives. Although Jane and Lucy have similar objectives, they do not achieve their goals with the same degree of success. Unlike Jane, Lucy achieves independence and largely overcomes the repression that has been with her throughout most of her life. Villette succeeds as feminist novel while Jane Eyre is rather problematic. The conclusion ofLucy's story conveys an empowering feminist message in all the ways Jane's story does not. ! Laurel Lorber Graduate Thesis Final Copy I 4/30/13 1 Haunted by Passion: Supernaturalism and Feminism in Jane Eyre and Villette i I I j 1 In both Jane Eyre and Villette, Charlotte Bront~ builds suspense and creates an eerie 1 I 1 atmosphere by hinting that bizarre occurrences are caused by non-human entities such as ghosts ! I ! and demons. Ultimately, the strange events are given mundane, rational explanations. I The monster in Thornfield and the ghostly nun that haunts Lucy are revealed to be human 1 beings. As result, they are robbed of their threatening supernatural quality. Like these figures, I the female protagonists ofBront~'s fiction are repressed and subdued. Jane Eyre and Lucy I Snowe conceal their impassioned interiority from the outside world. This repression manifests ~ I itself in the form ofmysterious figures that haunt both novels. In Repression in Victorian i Fiction: Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, and Charles Dickens, John Kucich describes passion in I t Bront~'s novels as a kind of caged animal (Kucich 37). It desperately wants to break free from t confinement. The aggressive Bertha Mason and the mysterious nun are figures associated with I I 1 the doubling that results from repression. Jane and Lucy struggle with the conflict between their longing for marriage and their desire to be independent women. Both characters fall in love and I hope to establish relationship of equality with the men in their lives. The conclusions ofJane Eyre and Villette are deceptive: Jane appears to live happier life than Lucy, but this may not 1 necessarily be the case. Although Jane and Lucy have similar objectives, they do not achieve these goals with the same degree of success. The extent to which each novel succeeds as feminist story depends largely on how much progress the protagonists make in their attempts to overcome the repression that has been with them since their early years of development.