The Father Figure In Jane Eyre
Rochester: The Father Figure in Jane Eyre
The immortal love Jane feels for Rochester is a substitution for the lack of fatherly love in her life. Jane has been deprived of parental affection from the beginning of her childhood. The only ?motherly? association she has had was a negative experience with her bitter Aunt Reed. Jane strives throughout the novel to receive the loving touch she has yearned for since her days of innocence. However, Jane?s effort to find the love she is seeking remains fruitless until she meets Rochester. He is a man twenty years her senior whom gives her the attention she has long desired. Jane?s passion for Rochester is a result of the Oedipus complex she failed to overcome as a child due to the absence of a father figure.
Jane?s first impression of Rochester is neither romantic nor sentimental. He is the first male figure she meets while at Thornfield and is thrilled by the fact that her help had been ?needed and claimed? when he had fallen off his horse. She describes Rochester, as ?dark, strong, and stern? yet never mentions any kind of physical attraction towards him. Jane?s perception of him is as an older man
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