"As Due by Many Titles I Resign My Self to Thee, O God
" (Donne) What Do You See as the Most Interesting or Challenging Aspects of Therelationship Between the Human and Divine in the Texts Jane Eyre' and the Poetry of John Donne?
In looking at this question, it is my opinion that it is arousing a discussion of the self-denial that religion imposes and also the conflict it imposes on the self. For this I will primarily be looking at Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre' and the poetry of John Donne.
The progression of Jane Eyre's life is shown by a variety of links to religion due to the many changes in her way of life. Bronte shows her childhood at Gateshead in a passively religious context, but the Red Room scene in Chapter 2 gives the reader an insight into Jane's childhood worries of life and death. The contrast of "crimson cloth" with "a snowy Marseilles counterpane" (Bronte, Chap 2 Jane Eyre) provides the reader with thoughts of purity versus sin and passion and consequently the conflicts within religion which are shown to prey on Jane's mind:
I began to recall what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes, revisiting the earth to punish the purged and avenge the oppressed
(Bronte, Chap 2 Jane Eyre')
Jane has been in a family structure based on punishment and, rebellion by her. Before entering the Red Room, she is reminded by Miss Abbott that "God will punish her" and that she is to say her prayers, for if she does not repent, "something bad may be permitted to come down the chimney" and fetch her away (Bronte, Chap 2 Jane Eyre'). This comment to a child is undoubtedly going to have some impact and as shown in the extract from the Red Room scene above, Jane's thoughts of the relationship one has with God relate to the form of upbringing that she has received from her Aunt's household. She talks of her understandings of religion but does not address God himself.
In comparison, Donne's Holy Sonnet No 14' shows a detached tone in a religious address. A typical association with prayer is that of formality and reverence. Donne has a control over his poem in terms of form and structure in that he uses a combination of the Italian
The progression of Jane Eyre's life is shown by a variety of links to religion due to the many changes in her way of life. Bronte shows her childhood at Gateshead in a passively religious context, but the Red Room scene in Chapter 2 gives the reader an insight into Jane's childhood worries of life and death. The contrast of "crimson cloth" with "a snowy Marseilles counterpane" (Bronte, Chap 2 Jane Eyre) provides the reader with thoughts of purity versus sin and passion and consequently the conflicts within religion which are shown to prey on Jane's mind:
I began to recall what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes, revisiting the earth to punish the purged and avenge the oppressed
(Bronte, Chap 2 Jane Eyre')
Jane has been in a family structure based on punishment and, rebellion by her. Before entering the Red Room, she is reminded by Miss Abbott that "God will punish her" and that she is to say her prayers, for if she does not repent, "something bad may be permitted to come down the chimney" and fetch her away (Bronte, Chap 2 Jane Eyre'). This comment to a child is undoubtedly going to have some impact and as shown in the extract from the Red Room scene above, Jane's thoughts of the relationship one has with God relate to the form of upbringing that she has received from her Aunt's household. She talks of her understandings of religion but does not address God himself.
In comparison, Donne's Holy Sonnet No 14' shows a detached tone in a religious address. A typical association with prayer is that of formality and reverence. Donne has a control over his poem in terms of form and structure in that he uses a combination of the Italian