Jane Eyre Intertextual Analysis

The main characters in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley share similar qualities in their struggles with society. Jane and the monster are raised in a society where they are not wanted. The Reeds verbally and physically abuse Jane to silence and fear. For example, John Reed took advantage of his status to abuse her for no reason: "I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it" (Bronte 10). Like Jane, the monster gets abused without any real justification: "Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung: in transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick" (Shelley 97). The abusers were people that Jane and the monster wished to be loved by. After being tormented for so long, the two began to view themselves poorly. Jane believed she was a "the most wicked and abandoned child ever reared under a roof. [...] [She] only felt bad feelings surging in [her] breast" (Bronte 27). Likewise, the monster questioned his existence: "Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?" (Shelley 85). Due to these feelings, the two believed they would be better off living on the dark side. Jane was "conscious that a moment's mutiny had already rendered [her] liable to strange penalties, and, like any other rebel slave, [she] felt resolved, in [her] desperation, to go all lengths" (Bronte 12). After getting shot, the monster resorted to a similar conclusion: "My daily vows rose for revenge- a deep and deadly revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish I had endured" (Shelley 101). The two characters did, however, have a softer side in agreeing that one should be loved by another. Jane "always took [her] doll [to her crib because she believed] human beings must love something" (Bronte 28). The monster begged Frankenstein to "create a female for [him], with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being" (Shelley 104). I strongly believe that Jane and the monster would have been great platonic friends. Each would understand the other very well.