Home at Ferndean
Unlike the typical quest tale, Jane Eyre’s journey consists of a series of calls and departures, each one bringing her one step closer to finding a home. In a happy home, there exists a healthy balance of security, duty, and freedom. Jane’s search is for a home where she can be both useful and loved, and where she can enjoy a sense of security and belonging while also retaining her independence. As a child at Gateshead, Jane was dependent on people with whom she felt neither a sense of love nor belonging. At Lowood, she became useful but was still a dependent. At Thornfield, she was useful and also loved, but not yet independent. At Marsh-End, she was able to be useful and independent, and even discovered a sense of belonging, but her life still lacked the security and love which her soul required. By the time Jane joins Rochester at Ferndean, she has become independent and is able to serve him on a level of equality. She tells him, “I love you better now, when I can really be useful to you, than I did in your state of proud independence.” Their new relationship is one of mutual benefit rather than subservience and dependence.
Just as the hero in the quest tale returns bringing back the “boon,” when Jane returns to Rochester, she seems to administer a life-giving elixir. As she describes it, “All I said or did seemed either to console or revive him […] It brought to life and light my whole nature: in his presence I thoroughly lived; and he lived in mine.” She now experiences what it is “to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth.” In the end, Jane overcomes her apparent disadvantages and finds her place in society while preserving her own identity and integrity, as well as a home where she can truly live, love, and be loved.
I have included Jane Eyre on my list of fictional works I believe every Christian should read. After you’ve read the book, check out all the film adaptations of it! Here are few to consider:
Related Articles
- Jane Eyre Review: Love and Lament (goodbookscents.wordpress.com)
- What Hollywood Doesn’t Get About Jane Eyre (jessicaminiermabe.wordpress.com)
- All About Jane (Eyre) – reviews of 10 different Jane Eyre films (Bella-Books-Reviews.blogspot.com)
- Jane Eyre – why I’m in love (theteathinker.wordpress.com)
- #42 Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë (the100greatestbookschallenge.wordpress.com)
- 11 Lessons That ‘Jane Eyre’ Can Teach Every 21st Century Woman…(www.huffingtonpost.com)
I'm All Booked 
Really good analysis. I’ve never actually watched a film version of Jane Eyre — which one is your favorite?
Even after seeing the more recent movies, I think my favorite is still the one with Timothy Dalton playing Rochester. It gave decent attention to Jane’s experience at Lowood; it depicted the growing relationship between Jane and Rochester and showed her snarky side, and by the time Rochester proposes to Jane it is actually believable.
My personal favorite Jane Eyre film adaptation is the one starring Timothy Dalton as Rochester. I feel it develops the relationship between Jane and Rochester more and I think Zelah Clarke showed Jane’s feisty side well. I think it kept relatively true to the novel, comparatively speaking.