Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre

About two weeks ago, I finished reading Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.  Here are some thoughts/observations about it.  There aren't any outright spoilers, but I do mention some significant plot points.

I thought the sort of reversal of life and death when Jane is talking to her aunt in Chapter XXI was interesting.  Mrs. Reed's son John recently died, and Jane goes to visit her, yet Mrs. Reed speaks as if John were still alive and if Jane were dead.  She said that she "wish[es] she [Jane] had died!" and talks to Jane as if Jane were someone else.  That is, Mrs. Reed mentions Jane only in third person even though she's who Mrs. Reed is talking to.  And when she talks about John, she uses present tense verbs: "John is like me and like my brothers, he is quite a Gibson... John gambles dreadfully... John is sunk and degraded, his look is frightful."  Even though John is dead, she talks of him as if he were still alive.

I can't help thinking that there's some further meaning to the names of the two sisters (Diana and Mary) whom Jane meets after she runs away from Thornfield.  In Chapter XXX, Jane describes Diana as "a superior and a leader" and "vigorous."  She also says that "in her animal spirits there was an affluence of life and certainty of flow."  To me, this seems to align her with the mythical figure Diana, goddess of the hunt and the moon.  The hunting aspects are covered with Jane's description of her as "a superior and a leader" and "vigorous" and in the mention of her "animal spirits."  The "certainty of flow" seems to be a connection between Diana and the moon, by way of the tides.

And if Diana is meant to resemble the mythical figure, I can't help but feel that Mary is meant to resemble the Biblical figure.  Yet I couldn't find any textual evidence to support this.  Similarly, their brother St. John might have some connections to the Biblical figure, but I couldn't really find anything to further that either.

While I couldn't find any Biblical connections to support my thoughts about those characters' names, there are many Biblical connections and references in the novel, especially in the later part of the book.  A lot of these are just similarities in phrasing, but I did notice two larger connections.

In Chapter XXXIV, St. John asks Jane to go with him on a missionary trip to India.  He wants her to go with him as his wife, but she would consent to go only if she remains his "adopted sister."  He explains, "I cannot introduce you as such; to attempt it would be to fasten injurious suspicions on us both."  This is almost the opposite of Abram and Sarai in Genesis 12.  "When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, 'I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, "This is his wife." Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake'" (Genesis 12:11-13).  I'm not exactly sure what the meaning of this connection is, but the situations are so similar (albeit oppositely) that there has to be something.  Along with the wife/sister complications, there's the similarities of going into a foreign land and the importance of physical appearance.  Sarai is beautiful, and Jane Eyre mentions more than once that she is rather plain-looking.

I also found some Biblical connections in the different ways that St. John and Jane pray in Chapter XXXV.  Jane describes that when St. John prays, "all his energy gathered" and "all his stern zeal woke."  In the same chapter, when Jane prays, she says, "I mounted to my chamber, locked myself in, fell on my knees, and prayed in my way - a different way to St. John's."  She herself makes a distinction between the two.  I think they're meant to reference Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount:  "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matthew 6:5-6).  It seems to imply that St. John is a hypocrite.  This might explain why he's in an opposite position compared to Abram in regard to the wife/sister distinction, but I still don't really understand it.