Jane Eyre: the spiritual self in feminist awakenings

Abstract

Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë portrays a variety of spiritual discourses which are integral to the heroine’s self-preservation throughout the novel and personal fulfillment by its end. Although Jane is a Christian, her affinity for folklore and faeries, as well as her reverence for divine female figures in nature are both aspects which complicate her faithfulness to orthodox beliefs, and are an alternative spiritual space that she falls back upon when the influences of patriarchal Christianity are failing her rights to personal autonomy as a woman. Jane Eyre is a novel which ultimately espouses the hybridization of spiritual belief in supporting a person’s individual pursuits when society pressures one to conform to premade roles, as well as a text which opens up a tolerant and open spiritual discussion in which people can discuss what sort of spiritual beliefs are right for them individually. Keywords: English, English literature, Victorian, Victorian literature, spirituality, alternative spirituality, paganism, pagan, Christianity, patriarchal Christianity, patriarchy, feminism, faith, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë