When I first opened my copy of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, I skipped ahead to the last page, as I usually do, and although there was not much for me to see there, the second page is what truly caught my eye. This page included notes, under which were stated quite a significant amount of bible verses with citations. It was no mystery then that this story would include some Christian language. Upon having read it, it is quite clear to me that this Christian language has played a significant role in shaping our main character, Jane Eyre. The evangelical discourse surrounding Jane Eyre’s childhood has altered her ideological perspectives on the world, which helped influence her choices during the latter part of her life.

Philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin speaks of two types of discourse that govern an individual’s ideological development. Authoritative discourse is the word that is full of authority and that we receive from our elders, due to its authority already having been “acknowledged in the past” (Bakhtin 214). When the ideological discourse becomes woven into the subject’s internal consciousness, it has entered the realm of internally persuasive discourse. A combination of these two types of discourse plays out throughout the course of Jane Eyre’s life. Upon being asked what happens to naughty children after death, Jane responded to Mr. Brocklehurst, the master of the Lowood boarding school, with her “ready and orthodox answer” that “they go to hell” (Brontë 43). In this line we witness the result of the authoritative discourse of a strictly Christian household that permeated much of her childhood in Gateshead. A ten year-old Jane had heard enough of the authoritative word to be able to recite it, a quality that would only be amplified later on in her studies at Lowood. Brocklehurst went on to explain to Jane’s benefactress, Mrs. Reed his plans for the girls at Lowood, which entailed “mortify[ing] in them the worldly sentiment of pride,” as well as constantly training them “in conformity to [their] position and prospects” (46). One would say Jane was well trained in both aspects by the time she left the school; however, a key element remains here that should not be ignored, which is Jane’s overt resistance towards the dogmatic ways of Lowood.

Internally persuasive discourse that plays a part in her outlook on life years down the road comes in the form of Helen Burns, a quiet and humble student Jane soon befriends in Lowood. Upon witnessing Helen be forced to stand on a stool in the middle of class as punishment Jane pondered, “How can she bear it so quietly...Were I in her place…I should wish the earth to open and swallow me up” (72). Another instance when Helen was whipped on the neck for a minor offence—not cleaning her nails—Jane noticed, “not a tear rose to Burns’ eye” and while her own fingers quivered with anger, Helen remained steady and calm (75). She explained to Jane, “the Bible bids us return good for evil,” and the importance of not harboring animosity but instead of “liv[ing] in calm, looking to the end” (78-83). The anger and outrage Jane was used to feeling towards the injustices thrown at her by means of her adoptive family would seem puny when put against Helen’s humble outlook on her own punishments. It seems as though Brocklehurst had somewhat succeeded in “render[ing] [her] hardy, patient, self-denying,” as the picturesque Christian girl living in Victorian England (89). The fact that Helen died in Jane’s arms whilst speaking of how happy and “comfortable” she was, is the deciding factor in Jane’s own internal discourse that helped propel her towards embracing the Christian doctrines during her next eight years spent at Lowood (118).

After a time spent settling into her position as governess at Thornfield, Jane received a harsh scrutiny from Mr. Rochester, the owner of the house, when he stated, “The Lowood constraint still clings to you somewhat…you fear to smile too gaily, speak too freely, or move too quickly” (205). In this instance we become outsiders looking in upon Jane, and it is clear just how much of a transformation the active and defiant ten year-old went through. By skipping over her years at Lowood preceding Helen’s death, she illustrated the severity of the change as being her own ignorance of its existence. When she visited her dying aunt, Jane mulled over where Mrs. Reed’s “spirit—now struggling to break free of materialistic tendencies—[would] go,” after which, in an attempt to consolidate her own thoughts, she recalled Helen’s own doctrine of “the equality of disembodied souls” (354). This, along with her assertion to Mrs. Reed that she has forgiven her marks an important instance wherein the internally persuasive discourse of her childhood alongside Helen Burns has caused the nature of her relationships to adhere to the Evangelical Law. When the decisive moment arrived and she had to choose between becoming Rochester’s mistress or “renounce[ing] love and idol,” she chose the latter (473). This choice could be read as her rejecting him out of respect for her own agency; however, by considering her evangelical upbringing and the psychological effect it has had on her, it is impossible not to realize that she was also running away from the not-so-Christian reality of taking part in adultery, for it would be “wicked…to obey [him]” (473). She would later on revel in the fact that she stayed true to her evangelical upbringing, “and scorned and crushed the insane promptings of a frenzied moment,” a moment which entailed her deciding to go against the grain and to stay with Rochester after all.

Jane’s evangelical solace was afterwards manifested in the form of her cousin, St. John Rivers, whom she met after having left the wicked temptations of Thornfield. In looking at his character as this manifestation, it is fitting that he provided her with the opportunity for work as a teacher at his school—thus giving the subtle nudge towards freedom within the confines that he had already established. Jane had begun to find solace in him when she attended his sermon, during which she listened with the practiced interest and eloquence that “had sprung from a depth where lay turbid dregs of disappointment” (528). Here is an example of authoritative discourse at play, for the true authoritative voices in her life had merited not obedience, but defiance from her as a child, and thus she had obeyed them with this same disappointment. In an introspective moment, Jane then noted that both she and St. John “had not yet found that peace of God which passeth all understanding” (528). She spoke here of that same peace that Helen Burns had felt before her death, a peace that she had not gained completely due to the “racking regrets for my broken idol and lost elysium” that she carried with her after leaving Rochester (528). And yet, when the time came for her to choose to give herself to God’s service by marrying St. John, she could not do it. Jane even made a point of making sure that the reader knew the reason behind her refusal, as it really had nothing to do with the missionary side of the proposal, but rather the fact that she would be forced to marry a man she did not love. In a conversation with Diana, St. John’s sister, she pointed out “I offered to accompany him as his sister” (625). Indeed, she was awed by “his progress” and did not want to simply be a tool wielded by a man she had no attachment to (627). When she finally did return to Rochester after hearing of the death of his wife and of his own sustained injuries, she reunited with her “idol,” and thus could finally have a lawful, Christian marriage with the man she loved in the hopes of finding the elysium that the disembodied soul of Helen Burns had surely ascended to long ago. Thus, it is not surprising that Jane ends the narration of her life by speaking of St. John, for she is certain now that when he dies, “a good and faithful servant [will be] called at length into the joy of his Lord” (682).

It is of no mistake on Brontë’s part that the final pages are given not to the happy couple, but rather to the Christian missionary, off to spread God’s word to the Eastern world. With strong overtones of evangelicalism, Jane Eyre is a study in the effects of Bakhtin’s authoritative and internally persuasive discourses upon a steadfast and defiant young girl in Victorian England. As both of these evangelical discourses take shape in Jane’s life, thus they both leave lasting impressions that carry on well into her adulthood.