Examples Of Coming Of Age In Jane Eyre

The coming-of-age novel, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, explores how those who are deprived of love during childhood are bound to seek love for the rest of their lives. The protagonist, Jane, develops her moral character as she searches for the love that she lacked. The process of this development is seen in her early days with her extended family, her schooling, her relationship with her Rochester and her newly found cousins, and her happy marriage with him.

At the beginning of the book, we learn of Jane’s abusive relationship with her cousins and aunt. She is cruelly and unjustly punished, her only consolation being a kind maid named Bessie and a doll. “To this crib I always took my doll. Human beings must love something, and, in the dearth

She gained one close friend, Helen, whom she admired for her attitude whilst being physically punished, and began to trust and care for her. She also meets a lovely teacher, Ms. Temple, and is given compassion and care for the first time. Both of these characters depart from her life as Helen passes away at a young age from tuberculosis, and Ms. Temple leaves the school because she marries and moves away. “I owed the best part of my acquirements; her friendship and society had been my continual solace; she had stood me in the stead of mother, governess, and latterly, companion” (chapter 10). She reflects on Ms. Temple’s departure from the school and how she had symbolized a loving home for her and had grown attached to her presence at Lowood. In the absence of a kind motherly figure, she had associated her teacher with maternal love. Jane’s fleeting love with Bessie, Helen, and Ms. Temple emphasizes her need for intimacy and the repeated poignant personal losses that lead her to become

“cannot at all imagine the craving I have for fraternal and sisterly love. I never had a home, I never had brothers or sisters; I must and will have them now” (chapter 33). She expresses her excitement to discover the love and familial devotion she never had. She never associated Gateshead hall, her aunt’s house, with feelings of home due to the memories and terrible experiences she endured there.
One of her cousins, St. John, a devout missionary, proposed she marry him, move to India, and dedicate her life to God with him. "God and nature intended you for a missionary’s wife. It is not personal, but mental endowments they have given you: you are formed for labour, not for love. A missionary’s wife you must—shall be. You shall be mine: I claim you—not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s