THE INFLUENCE OF BYRONISM UNTIL WORLD WAR II
1. Introduction (by Paola Enguix)
2. Influence
of Byronism until World War II
2.1. Byron’s influence on Victorian writer Charlotte
Bronte (by Mª José Jorquera)
Byronic phenomenon spreads throughout the world and
the history since its birth, influencing literary figures
as we will see. First we will stop at the Victorian
age, which presents us exceptional writers such as the one we will study:
Charlotte Bronte. Her novel Jane Eyre
has provided a great deal of examples so that we come to think it has a lot on
influence from Byronism. We will try to analyse these examples paying attention
to its two main characters: Mr. Rochester
and Jane Eyre, and will try to relate situations
occurred in the story to Byronism.
2.1.1. Charlotte Bronte's
Bronte's literary character of
In Chapter 11 of Jane Eyre, Jane asks of
Mrs. Fairfax, "What, in short, is his character?" To this Mrs.
Fairfax replies, "He is rather peculiar, perhaps: he has travelled a great
deal, and seen a great deal of the world, I should think. I dare say he is
clever" (136). This account by Mrs. Fairfax of her master establishes
Rochester as a sort of wanderer. Similarly, there is the account of Rochester's
promiscuous travel throughout Europe before his marriage to Bertha, where he
has an affair with Celine Varens. Several times
throughout the novel Rochester mysteriously arrives at and departs from Thornfield Hall, and frequently the residents of Thornfield must wonder at his return, as does Jane at the
opening of Chapter 17:
A week passed, and no news arrived of Mr.
Rochester: ten days; and still he did not come. Mrs. Fairfax said she should
not be surprised if he were to go straight from the Leas to London, and thence
to the Continent, and not show his face again Thornfield
for a year to come: he had not unfrequently quitted
it in a manner quite abrupt and unexpected. (192)
Rochester is also moody -- Jane notes this
upon her first few encounters with him at Thornfield
Hall. At first he is abrupt with and almost unkind to Jane; this is seen in his
response to her entrance, and her thoughts on his response, during the initial
encounter in the drawing room at Thornfield:
"Let Miss Eyre be seated," he
said: and there was something in the forced stiff bow, in the impatient yet
formal tone, which seemed further to express, "What the deuce is it to me
whether Miss Eyre be there or not? At this moment I am not disposed to accost
her." (152, ch.13)
At times he is congenial and attentive,
while at other times he is cold and aloof: here he is the latter. But
subsequent to this encounter, Rochester warms to Jane after she has saved his
life from the fire in his room: "You
have saved my life: I have a pleasure in owing you so immense a debt . . . .
Nothing else that has being would have been tolerable to me in the character of
creditor for such an obligation: but you: it is different" (182,
ch.15).
Certainly Rochester is passionate about Jane
- another Byronic characteristic - and this is demonstrated in this passage
where Rochester is speaking to Jane: he contrasts her (and his love for her)
with his lawful wife, Bertha:
Then you are mistaken, and you know nothing
about me, and nothing about the sort of love of which I am capable. Every atom
of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and in sickness it would
still be dear. Your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my
treasure still: if you raved, my arms should confine you, and not a straight
waistcoat . . . . I should not shrink from you with disgust as I did from her.
(329, ch.27)
There are two effects of this passage,
however, which are diametrically opposed. While this passage provides evidence
of his passion and his acute sense of self-awareness about his own emotions
(both characteristic of a Byronic hero), it is also indicative of the
conventionalities of his character. He requires human companionship, and he
ultimately dislikes isolation: at one point Rochester exclaims, "Solitude! solitude! … You [Jane] are to
share my solitude" (329, ch.27). Also, Rochester desires a
conventional marriage with Jane; at least, he has convinced himself that it
would be a conventional marriage.
Rochester's bigamy -- or near-bigamy, as the
case may be -- provides an excellent illustration of the "Byronic"
side of his character. He refuses to acknowledge the legal and moral code of
the society in which he lives by refusing to acknowledge his marriage to Bertha
Mason, and this simultaneously makes him unrepentant -- both are qualities of a
Byronic hero. He views Bertha as his ward, someone who must be taken care of,
and not as his wife. He pursues Jane while still married to Bertha, because he
has convinced himself that his marriage to Bertha is unrecognizable as such.
Since bigamy is legally criminal (in the context here, also considered a sexual
crime), Rochester also carries the burden of the guilt associated with it --
another characteristic of a Byronic hero. This is shown by the secrecy
maintained about his attempted marriage to Jane, and it is also exhibited in
his early conduct with Jane shortly after she arrives at Thornfield
Hall. Jane questions Mrs. Fairfax about his behavior
in Chapter 13 when she first comments:
"[H]e is very
changeful and abrupt."
"True: no
doubt, he may appear so to a stranger, but I am so accustomed to his manner, I
never think of it; and then, if he has peculiarities of temper, allowance
should be made," [Mrs. Fairfax replies].
"Why?"
"Partly
because it is his nature-and we can none of us help our nature; and, partly, he
has painful thoughts, no doubt, to harass him, and make his spirits unequal."
(158-59, ch.13)
This conversation between Jane and Mrs.
Fairfax indicates that it is noticeable to others that Rochester carries guilt,
the "painful thoughts", about something in his past: Bertha, of
course, and his marriage to her and his treatment of her.
Although there are striking examples of how
Rochester's character is that of a Byronic hero, there are perhaps as many
examples of him as a conventional man. In a letter to W. S. Williams in 1848,
Bronte describes how she intended to portray the character of Rochester. Bronte
writes:
Mr. Rochester has a thoughtful nature and a
very feeling heart; he is neither selfish nor self-indulgent; he is
ill-educated, misguided; errs, when he does err, through rashness and
inexperience: he lives for a time as too many other men live, but being
radically better than most men, he does not like that degraded life, and is
never happy in it. He is taught the severe lessons of experience and has sense
to learn wisdom from them. Years improve him; the effervescence of youth foamed
away, what is really good in him still remains. (Bloom 3)
Even Bronte's own description of him sends a
mixed message. Perhaps most importantly, she specifically says he is
"ill-educated," has a good nature and a "feeling heart," and
is not selfish or self-indulgent -- all of these characteristics seem to be at
odds with that of a Byronic hero. Yet she also describes him as "radically
better than most men," and through this description, that Rochester learns
from his experience, she implies that he possesses self-awareness - a
characteristic that is consistent with those of a Byronic hero.
The most convincing evidence of Rochester's
conventionality, which Bronte provides for the reader, is Rochester's own
descriptions of himself. In Chapter 18, when Rochester and Blanche Ingram are
bantering back and forth about the charade they have just performed, Rochester
asks her, "You would like a hero of
the road then?" To this Blanche replies, "An English hero of the road would be the next best thing to an Italian
bandit; and that could only be surpasses by a Levantine pirate" (214).
By "English hero of the road" Blanche clearly means a Byronic hero,
for it was the most notable hero in English literary history (Thorslev 189), and here Blanche implies that she views
Rochester as such a character. The response that Bronte provides Rochester
with, however, provides evidence that he is not so convincingly defined. He
responds, "Well, whatever I am,
remember you are my wife; we were married an hour since, in the presence of all
these witnesses" (214, ch.18). When Rochester says, "Well, whatever I am…," he
discretely rejects what she has implied: Blanche misunderstands Rochester's
character. With his (now legal) marriage to Jane at the end of the novel and
their residence at the Manor House of Ferndean,
Bronte indicates that Rochester is less Byronic than he at first may appear to
the reader.
2.1.2. Jane Eyre: A Byronic Heroine?
In the introduction to a compilation of essays
on the Bronte sisters, Harold Bloom notes that
It seems not to have been
primarily the coarseness and sexuality of Jane Eyre which shocked Victorian
reviewers . . . but . . . its "anti-Christian" refusal to accept the
forms, customs, and standards of society -- in short, its rebellious feminism.
They were disturbed not so much by the proud Byronic sexual energy of Rochester
as by the Byronic pride and passion of Jane herself. (Bloom 3)
The contemporary reactions to Jane Eyre,
however, may be more accurately viewed as an expression indicative of a
so-called "Victorian prudery" (Winnifrith
76), for Jane's character, like Rochester's, lies closer to the conventional
than the Byronic on a continuum of possible characterizations.
While Jane can be seen as primarily
conventional, there are three characteristics which provide the strongest
examples of Jane Eyre as a Byronic heroine: her refusal to repent, her
intellectual and emotional superiority, and her rejection of value systems and
moral codes. Throughout her childhood at Gateshead Hall and later at Lowood, appeals are constantly made to Jane to repent. The
earliest appeal also appears in Chapter Two; the order is given by Miss Abbot
as Jane is locked in the "red room": "Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don't
repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney, and fetch
you away" (45). Of course, following this appeal, there is no mention
by the narrative Jane of her repentance. In a conversation with Rochester,
however, Jane's response to Rochester contradicts this:
"When fate wronged me, I
had not the wisdom to remain cool: I turned desperate; then I degenerated. Now,
when any vicious simpleton excites my disgust by his paltry ribaldry, I cannot
flatter myself that I am better than he . . . . I wish I had stood firm-God
knows I do! Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre: remorse is
the poison of life."
"Repentance is said to be
its cure, sir." (167, ch.14)
While it is done so hesitatingly
("Repentance is said to be its cure," she emphasizes), Jane's reply
indicates that she accepts what she has said to Rochester as true.
An equally important characteristic of a
Byronic hero is that of superior intellectual and emotional capacity. Millicent
Bell points out that Jane is "threateningly
intelligent, forthright to the point of bluntness, submitting herself mentally
to no one, not even when she finally does improbably win a man's love. Her unsubmissiveness, her independence is her social fault"
(263). Yet Jane is at the same time submissive, and she desires to be so.
Rochester asks her, "And will you
stay with me?" To this, she replies:
Certainly-unless you object. I will be your neighbor, your nurse, your housekeeper. I find you lonely:
I will be your companion-to read to you, to walk with you, to sit with you, to wait
on you, to be eyes and hands to you. Cease to look so melancholy, my dear
master; you shall not be left desolate, so long as I live.
(460, ch.37)
Her
willingness to serve the deserving Rochester, which is clearly indicated in
this passage, is not slavish, but instead it indicates Jane's compassionate
nature; she is not at all the characteristically dark, brooding, and mysterious
Byronic heroine.
In some ways, Jane does exhibit Byronic
qualities to a greater extent than Rochester. She constantly questions
authority and established value systems, which she essentially rejects. Jane is
also painfully self-conscious, even at a very young age. The opening paragraph
to Chapter Two (after Jane has been banished to the "red room" by
Mrs. Reed) provides an example of both:
I resisted all the way: a new
thing for me, and a circumstance which greatly strengthened the bad opinion
Bessie and Miss Abbot were disposed to entertain of me. The fact is, I was
conscious that a moment's mutiny had already rendered me liable to strange
penalties, and like any other rebel slave, I felt resolved, in my desperation,
to go all lengths. (44)
But
despite the weak appearance of a Byronic heroine, Jane's character ultimately
does not escape the conventional. Jane is most happy when she is serving
others.
Bibliography
Winter 2005. University of Michigan-Dearborn
Instructor:
Jonathan Smith
Editorial Assistance: Lisa Denney,
Elizabeth Bellalouna, and Lauren Russette
http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/ROCH_835.htm
http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/JANEASBY.htm
2.2. The 20th Century
2.2.1. The first decades of the 20th Century (by Josué
Álvarez)
2.2.2. The Thirties (by Manuela Elisa Blanes
& Julia Fernández)
2.2.3. The Forties (by Jéssica
Aguilar & Cristina Camps)
3. Conclusion (by Aina García
& Mª Llanos García)