Jane Eyre
Prompt #29 · Jane Eyre
Prompt Type: Relationship/Contrast
Helen Burns and Jane Eyre respond to injustice in fundamentally different ways, with Helen advocating patient endurance and Jane asserting her right to resist. Analyze how Brontë uses this contrast to examine competing moral and spiritual philosophies. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should—so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.”
Chapter 6
Argument
This quote represents Jane's philosophy of active resistance to injustice, directly opposing Helen's passive endurance. Jane's imperative language ('we should strike back') and emphasis on retaliation ('so hard as to teach') embodies her instinctive rebellion against undeserved suffering.
Quote 2
“It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.”
Chapter 6
Argument
This quote represents Helen's philosophy of patient Christian endurance, contrasting sharply with Jane's impulse to resist. Helen's appeal to duty ('far better to endure') and biblical authority ('return good for evil') frames suffering as a moral test requiring self-sacrifice rather than self-assertion.
Quote 3
“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. We are, and must be, one and all, burdened with faults in this world: but the time will soon come when, I trust, we shall put them off in putting off our corruptible bodies; when debasement and sin will fall from us with this cumbrous frame of flesh, and only the spark of the spirit will remain.”
Chapter 6
Argument
This quote crystallizes Helen's spiritual philosophy that transcends earthly injustice through faith in divine redemption. The metaphor of the 'corruptible body' as a temporary burden contrasts with Jane's embodied, immediate response to oppression, revealing fundamentally different temporal and spiritual orientations.
Quote 4
“Ere I had finished this reply, my soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt. It seemed as if an invisible bond had burst, and that I had struggled out into unhoped-for liberty.”
Chapter 4
Argument
This quote represents Jane's philosophy in action, showing how resistance to injustice produces spiritual liberation rather than Helen's patient suffering. The metaphor of bursting 'invisible bonds' and struggling into 'unhoped-for liberty' directly contrasts with Helen's acceptance of earthly constraints, revealing Jane's belief that self-assertion is morally empowering.
Quote 5
Chapter 9
Argument
This quote represents Helen's ultimate embodiment of her spiritual philosophy at the moment of her death, where faith in divine redemption transcends earthly suffering entirely. Helen's simple declarative statements ('I believe; I have faith') contrast with Jane's passionate assertions of earthly rights, crystallizing the fundamental difference between Helen's otherworldly orientation and Jane's embodied resistance.