Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre emerges with a unique voice in the Victorian period for the work posits itself as a sentimental novel; however, it deliberately becomes unable to fulfill the genre, and then, it creates an altogether divergent novel that demonstrates its superiority by adding depth of structure in narration and character portrayal. Joan D. Peters’ essay, Finding a Voice: Towards a Woman’s Discourse of Dialogue in the Narration of Jane Eyre positions Gerard Genette’s theory of convergence, which is that the movement of the fiction towards a confluence of protagonist and narrator, is limited as the argument does not fully flesh out the parodies that Charlotte Bronte incorporates into her work. I will argue that in the novel the perceived narrative discourse as well as inner voice necessarily convey to its audience a restriction in design; however, this limitation in narratology does not diminish a literary work, rather the struggle between the narrative discourse and the inner voice expands the genre. Through the examination of characters which are centrally focused on the physical restraint of expression over passion, for instance when Helen Burns calmly accepts her punishment and Jane verbally lashing out at Mrs. Reed, are deprived of any seminal moment, and, therefore reduces them. Bronte subverts the narrator’s voice in the Millcote scene as well as the scene discussing Bertha with Jane and Rochester, to demonstrate that these moments are rupturing the traditional type of fiction in order to assert a superior form. Finally, I will analyze how the inner voice and narrative discourse converge in the final scene of Jane and Rochester discussing the past, in order to create a more fluid, intelligent, natural emotional Jane Eyre. Helen Burns is characterized as long-suffering, in contrast with Jane Eyre who is passionate and at times incapable of containing her emotions, which demonstrates the sentimental style of the novel form, that creates a