A new kind of woman

Jane Eyre is the epitome of the middle class heroine. Possessing neither fortune nor beauty, she manages to capture the heart of the wealthy Rochester through the strength of the moral virtues that her socioeconomic position grants her with. In some respects, she finds herself almost superior to Mr. Rochester morally, for Rochester's sin of keeping Bertha Mason a secret gives rise to questions about the quality of his character. It especially suggests his disability to overcome or control his own passions. Bertha Mason’s wildness is really just a personification of Rochester’s unfettered masculine sexuality.  Jane is comparatively moral, as evidenced by her refusal to become nothing more than his mistress. Rochester's dilapidated state at the end of the novel not only displays the deterioration of his physical body, but perhaps is also a symbol of the weakening of his soul. Here it seems that he is now truly equal, or even less equal to Jane, who has developed her soul to its potential by finally discovering how to balance her independence with passion. After this journey of self-discovery, she can finally "rehumanise" him following his moral transgressions. As Nancy Armstrong mentions in her article, “Readers remain thoroughly enchanted with narratives in which a woman’s virtue alone overcomes sexual aggression and transforms male desire into middle-class love.” In this way Bronte gives rise to a new kind of woman, in which her desirability is determined not by her beauty or family name but by her virtue alone.