Jane Eyre and a Tale of Two Cities: Love Theme
What is Love?
“I'm not supposed to love you, I'm not supposed to care, I'm not supposed to live my life wishing you were there. I'm not supposed to wonder where you are or what you do...I'm sorry I can't help myself, I'm in love with you.”
(Quote from Lord Byron)
What is love? Scientists would simply call it a magnificent chemical war inside the brain causing us to feel the way we do about another person. Famous poets Lord Byron and Shelley would argue that it is beauty that makes us feel love but isn’t it in fact love that opens our eyes to what’s truly beautiful about a person. Many would agree that love is blind but if this is so, how can it have the ability to allow us to see and feel things untouched by any other emotion. The only way to describe it that genuinely serves it any justice at all is to say love is magic. It has the power to make any given person do extraordinary things, the ability to transform or destroy anybody completely all in one emotion, one thing is for sure, it gives people a greater purpose for existence, a reason to live and die for, something beyond themselves to devote their life to. These constructions of love are repeatedly promoted in two of the most well known novels of the Victorian period, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
‘She walks in beauty, like the night, Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright, Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!’
(Lord
“I'm not supposed to love you, I'm not supposed to care, I'm not supposed to live my life wishing you were there. I'm not supposed to wonder where you are or what you do...I'm sorry I can't help myself, I'm in love with you.”
(Quote from Lord Byron)
What is love? Scientists would simply call it a magnificent chemical war inside the brain causing us to feel the way we do about another person. Famous poets Lord Byron and Shelley would argue that it is beauty that makes us feel love but isn’t it in fact love that opens our eyes to what’s truly beautiful about a person. Many would agree that love is blind but if this is so, how can it have the ability to allow us to see and feel things untouched by any other emotion. The only way to describe it that genuinely serves it any justice at all is to say love is magic. It has the power to make any given person do extraordinary things, the ability to transform or destroy anybody completely all in one emotion, one thing is for sure, it gives people a greater purpose for existence, a reason to live and die for, something beyond themselves to devote their life to. These constructions of love are repeatedly promoted in two of the most well known novels of the Victorian period, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
‘She walks in beauty, like the night, Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright, Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!’
(Lord