Beauty In Jane Eyre

Charlotte and Emily Bronte are the most successful authors of their time; writing stories that contain truths that have stood the test of time. However, their success did not come easy. Bronte used a pen name to conceal her identity and shield herself from ridicule for the first few months after Jane Eyre was published. Even though Charlotte was not the most beautiful woman, she found abundant success in her talents in spite of the Victorian era’s belief that women’s value is found solely in how much beauty and money she possessed. In Charlotte Bronte’s coming of age novel, Jane Eyre, outward beauty deceives as it ironically represents a true evil in oneself. The beautiful Reed family, who resides in Gateshead, has cruel hearts as they boast

Edward Rochester is a talented man; what he lacks in beauty he makes up for in other areas. Jane describes Rochester’s appearance as having “stern features and a heavy brow; his eyes and eyebrows looked ireful and thwarted” (Bronte 214). Even though Jane is no beauty herself, she still critiques others appearance, but she does not judge them for it. After his bad first impression and ugliness, Rochester decides to treat Jane with the highest level of respect that she has seen in her entire life. After some light conversations, Rochester has found himself in love with Jane because of her mind. He ignores her “plainness” and finds her true beauty to be her personality (Bronte 177). Jane is just an orphan and Rochester is a wealthy, well respected man. In the Victorian era, their significant social class difference posed a challenge for their relationship. Rochester fights the social norms and tries to marry Jane no matter what. The authors of A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane’s Progress explain how “not because he is princely in manner, but because, being in some sense her equal, he is the only qualified critic of her art and soul” further proving that Rochester is the only one for Jane (Gilbert and Gubar 352). Since Jane and Rochester are not shallow and possess the ability to

John, Jane returns to Thornfield where she sees that the house has burned down. The fire lit by Bertha left Rochester immensely ugly, blind, and with only one hand. However, by the time Jane returns, Rochester has become morally better; his newfound ugliness has caused him to become a better person. Jane still finds herself in love with Rochester, further proving the uselessness of beauty.

Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre exposes the truth that looks are often times deceiving in judging one 's character. All of the character’s who interacted with Jane were either plain/ugly or gorgeous. The plain people had the most beautiful and kind souls, while those who were physically pleasing had a horrid character that eventually crept out of their dark soul. Bronte wants the readers to learn that you should have a blind eye to beauty when getting to know someone because their personality often times contradicts their outward