Irony Becomes Her

Jane Eyre VI: "I plant my foot"

After the revelation at the altar that Mr. Rochester is already married (with very extenuating circumstances for his attempt to commit bigamy), Jane informs him that she cannot live with him under pretense of marriage, though he promises her full spousal privilege and his sincere personal vow of "till death do us part." He responds with a formidable question:

"Is it better to drive a fellow-creature to despair than to transgress a mere human law, no man being injured by the breach? for you have neither relatives nor acquaintances whom you need fear to offend by living with me?"

This was true: and while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. "Oh, comply!" it said. "Think of his misery; think of his danger -- look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair -- soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?"

Still indomitable was the reply--"I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad -- as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth -- so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane -- quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot."

I did. Mr. Rochester, reading my countenance, saw I had done so. His fury was wrought to the highest: he must yield to it for a moment, whatever followed; he crossed the floor and seized my arm and grasped my waist. He seemed to devour me with his flaming glance: physically, I felt, at the moment, powerless as stubble exposed to the draught and glow of a furnace: mentally, I still possessed my soul, and with it the certainty of ultimate safety.

This is in my top five literary passages of all time. In both language and force of meaning, I don't know if it has its equal. Jane knows that no matter what Mr. Rochester's good intentions are, she cannot do what he asks without a loss of self-respect -- thus, an eventual loss of his respect as well. After a short, blissful time, their now-genuine love will sink to the level of the mistresses he has had previously (she knows there have been several), and she will be no better than they in his eyes or in her own. Her own long-term self-interest once again prescribes short-term self-denial.

Moreover, she sees the law she would transgress as coming from God, not the state or church of England -- and there is no fellow human to give or withhold approbation because of her decision. Whether she is correct or not isn't as much of a concern for my present purposes as the fact that she recognizes the value in the "preconceived notion" despite every other inclination or concern within herself. Even with "veins running fire," she still sees the supremacy of God's ways (which are in her ultimate self-interest) over what is expedient and convenient in every other way.

Oh, to "plant my foot" as Jane does! For it is one thing to be strong-willed -- indeed, pig-headed -- about what we want right now, but it is quite another to exercise self-control under adverse circumstances for the sake of a greater, more lasting good.

Of course, when it comes to marriage and sex in our culture, there are plenty of voices to argue that we are mistaken about the greater, more lasting good -- it is merely a carrot which certain power interests hold up to control our behavior and curb our enjoyment. To me, however, it is a little strange that our culture can fully abandon this principle with regard to marriage and sex while it still applies in sports, education, nutrition, etc. etc. We still admire those who exercise some pretty extreme discipline to achieve these kinds of goals.

But holding out for true, honest, complete, unbreakable, fully transparent commitment, coupled with complete mutual submission, to another person who we supposedly love anyway? That takes discipline and short-term self-denial, so heck with it.

Labels: Jane Eyre

posted by Lynn @ 2:26 AM