Becoming a memorable hero in literature is not an easy thing. Your life is
exposed to the public eye, critics scorn your motives, and, far crueler, AP English
teachers force their students to write a character analysis about every aspect of your
being. However, once in a blue moon, a hero springs up that, strangely enough, is
interesting enough that certain ambitious students find him or her so intriguing that
they type a three thousand word essay praising or denouncing the story.
Jane Eyre is not that kind of hero. Anyone who can write on the subject for more
than two hours leads a very dull life. The book is four hundred pages long and full of
long-winded details by the fore-mentioned individual. The title character in Charlotte
Bronte's Jane Eyre does have her high qualities, though. She is virtuous, independent,
assertive, and does not accept defeat. These attributes alone, however, are not what
makes this women admirable. It is the fact that Jane succeeds in life despite her lack of
social standing, family, independent wealth, or beauty that makes her a hero of modern
The idea that a women could dare to attempt controlling her destiny is hardly a
new idea. The Bible (written thousands of years before Jane Eyre) is full of examples of
assertive women unwilling to let the incompetent men around them ruin their lives. A
famous example derives from the story of Tamar and Judah. When Tamar allegedly
sinned with an unknowing Judah, he realized "she did it because I did not give her to
my son Shelah." (Genesis, 38:26). A few thousand years later, Sophocle's wrote about
the tragic tale of Antigone, the princess of Thebes, who stood up against her wicked
uncle Creon to do what she thought was right. William Shakespeare filled his plays
with brave women willing to die to follow their hearts (does Juliet spring to mind?) But
all of these women could afford to martyr t
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