Sarah Barnette

Sarah Barnette is a scholar of English literature with an interest in Victorian literary ethics.

Why Salvation Means Submission

Jane Eyre reads as a story of gender, empire, and the self—but Charlotte Brontë's novel is a deeply pious, evangelical Christian text about salvation.

“The rebelliousness of Jane as a child and her proud, sometimes vehement nature as a young adult troubled many readers in Brontë’s day, even as it thrilled others to a fever pitch. Tied to controversial interpretations of God and man, these features had serious religious implications. Charlotte gives Jane a great measure of self-respect, for instance, and strongly indicates that she shares, with God, responsibility for her life’s choices and therefore salvation. The interplay, too, of so many doctrinal perspectives in Jane Eyre, together with the developmental arc of the heroine, creates an ambiguity about Jane’s exact system of faith.”

Read the Article Instead: “Why Salvation Means Submission”