“The Eastern allusion bit me again” said Jane. This quote is taken from Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre first published in 1847.The story follows Jane, the heroine, through her journey from childhood to her journey to adulthood, where she falls in love with the Byronic hero Mr. Rochester. This essay aims to discuss the various Eastern allusions found within the novel. These eastern allusions are discussed in terms of orientalism and specifically how Jane relates with the “other” which is sometimes problematic. The novel can be read in a feministic or post-colonial manner. I will also comment on how eastern illusions strengthens the postcolonial reading of Jane Eyre and how these allusions makes the feminist reading fall flat.I will also discuss how the eastern allusions are exoticized and that “the other” is desired yet at the same time seen a pagan and savage.
It is firstly important to define the term “the other” with whom Jane identifies with. The “other” is seen as different in regard to culture, religious practices and clothing from the dominate society. In this novel the west is seen as the dominant society namely England and anything apart from it is “other”. The “other” and East was not only dominated by imperialism but also by Western ideas and Christianity. Many western writes took the struggles of the east to use for their own gain and to exoticize the east and their cultural practices. This is shown in how the “other” is reflected in the novel through