Reason verus Emotion
...om her time at Lowood, Jane has conformed herself so much to the propriety and expectations of the modern society that this character, who clearly springs from the mold, catches her attention with his passion as a moth is drawn to the flame. By escaping the strong bonds of propriety, if even vicariously, Jane begins to once more get in touch with the passion she had as a child and seek the ideas she originally related with in that emotion. At the same time, she realizes that she cannot exist on pure passion, and when it gets too emotional and involving with Rochester, Jane flees to seek the cold, organized world the Victorians idolized. Apollonian ideals hold that all things are beautiful in their rational, natural forms; Apollo himself was depicted as a beautiful young Greek man. St. John, the novel’s interpretation, is described as having “a Greek face, very pure in outline: quite a straight, classic nose; quite an Athenian mouth and chin,” introducing the idea that the Greek have some influence on the ideal (pg. 358, Jane Eyre 1979 Great Illustrated Classics). He holds the natural beauty that Apollo adored, but at the same time he devotes his being to the supernatural, to God. He holds himself bound to a being not of the earth, an ironic bond if taken in context of modern society, but a perfectly natural one in Victorian context. In that era, it was accepted that God was a natural part of life for everyone, and so St. John was once again exemplify those qualities which the ancient Greek god held so dear. It was through this impeccably rational mind that Jane Eyre grew the most in the shortest period of time. The conflict between Jane’s bipolarity and St. John’s single-minded singularity led -- and nearly forced -- Jane to embrace the Dionysian side of her personality, reject the extremes of Apollonian rules and return to her roots in chthonic emotion. This dichotomy between such polar forces drives Jane to explore the inner depths of her own psyche. Apollonian-imposed order taxes on Jane’s individuality as much as the Dionysian love of chaos attacks her sense of peace, but a level exists beyond this: good and evil. True irony is introduced when Jane makes a choice to abandon St. John and return to the life she fled as, by Victorian ideals, “good” is the side God supports and the Victorian culture supports; the fair, devoted, rational St. John represents it. Rochester, by contrast, is the evil side, the unpredictable, unclassified and the temptation. Jane chooses the unknown, the undesirable (according to society) and becomes happy, something altogether unexpected and inexcusable by the era’s modus operandi. The suggestion inherent in the contrast is that things -- life, love, purpose -- a...