Belser 1

Bailey Belser
Professor Molly Ferguson
ENG 230
December 1, 2015

The Memory of Jane Eyre: Reliable?

The third edition of Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte is a compelling version
of the life story of the main character, Jane Eyre. This book is written as a personal
narrative of Jane Eyre telling a story about her life as an adult reflecting on her past. Jane
depicts her life as an adult from a childs perspective and young adult perspective,
however, her narration is from the perspective of an older, more established adult. Some
scholars believe Jane was unreliable when telling her story because her memory could
have faded overtime or she manipulated her memory leaving out portions of the story to
influence the audience to believe exactly what she wanted. With this, the absence of her
memory is deemed unreliable and proves Jane to be an untrustworthy character to some
individuals. However, according to Earl A. Knies, assistant professor of English at Ohio
University, Jane characterizes herself through the things she says, and does, and her
frankness, both in talking to characters throughout the novel, and in talking to us,
convinces us of her reliability (553). Although one could perceive she narrated her story
with a lack of memory making her character an unreliable source of storytelling, the story
is hers to tell. Jane gets to pick to pick and choose the best parts to place in the story that
add most importance. Whether or not she leaves out certain instances of the story does
not mean her memory is untrustworthy. In agreement with Knies words, Jane is simply
telling a story of her life and she proves herself to be trustworthy with many instances
throughout the novel such as her honesty within her interactions with characters and the

Belser 2
words she speaks to the audience (553). Because of her trustworthiness she demonstrates
through the honesty of her interactions, consistency of her story, and identity, we can
gather that her memory is reliable.
A main aspect to look at when determining whether or not Janes memory is
reliable is by taking instances from her story that prove the audience can first trust her in
general. Once the audience has their full trust in her, they can determine that her memory
is reliable. Thus, inferring any holes within the story were left out not to make herself a
more attractive character to side with, but that these instances were simply unnecessary to
be present within the story. One way the audience can trust Jane is through her honesty,
and the fact of we never get the feeling shes trying to varnish the truth (Knies 553). A
perfect of example from the novel when Rochester asks her if she finds him handsome,
and without any hesitation, she responds with no, sir, and directly tells the audience
perhaps she should have said something more appropriate than such a harsh response
(Knies 553). The audience can see Jane is honest with answers even if the answer is
something that should be worded in a less offensive way. What gives this example even
more validity is the fact that Jane later falls in love with Rochester, so her honesty with
him in the beginning of their encounters provides evidence that she speaks truth.
When Jane reflects at the beginning of the novel as a small child, she is just as
honest then as her young adult years. On page 27 of the novel, when asked if she read the
bible, she bluntly says, sometimes. If one could reflect back to their own childhood and
think of an instance where an answer could get them in trouble, they would most likely
say the answer that will get them in the least trouble. However, Jane as a child does not
do so, and her answer results in her being told with the harsh words that she is wicked at

Belser 3
heart. Personally, looking back at my own life as a young child, knowing that someone
might deem it a sin or say that I am bad person then I would tell them I read the bible
until sun up to sun down. Children long to be accepted and do what is right. Jane does not
fit into that same assumption. Instead, she presents herself through her answers with
honesty. I believe this goes to show the kind of person she is as well. She is straight
forward and disregards any repercussions, which makes her a more trustworthy person.
Another example of her honesty is her direct acknowledge of the audience, in
which she refers to as readers. Her direct acknowledgment brings the story to present
tense Jane, which is the Jane that is in her established adult life and recalling her memory
as an adolescent. When Jane stops in the middle of a specific part of the story she is
telling to address the reader, it makes her more personable. This can allow the audience to
feel like they are in that specific moment with her telling the story. By drawing the
audience in, they can feel more comfortable with her words, which can almost make one
feel like they are listening to the story of a friend, thus making her a more trustworthy
person. For example, on page 274 of the novel, she calls to the reader after a heartwrenching experience she faces of having to leave her love, and exclaims she hopes we
never have to endure the pain she is feeling in that moment. It is hard to not trust her in
this raw moment of pain she is feeling because she is expressing to her readers with
honesty that she is indeed hurting, and that no one should have to feel like that. This is a
very real moment in the novel where we can literally feel the rawness of her genuine
words.
When Jane directly addresses the reader, as previously stated, the audience
member can find that to make Jane seem more personable. Because of this, there is a

Belser 4
sense of comfort within her words, and because of this comfort, there is reliability.
Personally, I believe this act of addressing the reader was to add comfort to her the
credibility of her words, and the things she did, and to add clarity of her narration. For
instance, on page 367, Jane directs the narrative to the reader, And reader, do you think I
feared him in his blind ferocity? If you do, you little know me Jane is specifically
telling the reader, if you question who I am at this point, then you do not know me.
Throughout the story, like in this example, Jane shares a part, then make sure to direct the
readers so they personally do not have any misunderstanding of something. As an
audience member, I believe adding clarity by sharing things specifically to the reader
makes her words more trustworthy, and gives her narration reliability because she is
stressing what she really wants the audience to take from the specific part of the story.
Already, we can infer that her honesty is prevalent from a young age through her
current age. There is a consistency of her honesty in correlation with her age throughout
the novel as she is telling her story with the instances already presented. Something
prevalent Knies brings up is, yes Jane does have an influence on the way we feel about
certain characters, and however, she does not persuade us to dislike, or like someone.
What makes us like, or dislike the characters in her story are based off the interactions
she has with them, and their personalities. Because she is not directly forcing us to feel
certain ways about a character, but telling us descriptive entails about them, we can infer
on our own how we feel about them (553). We dislike the characters she dislikes or likes
for the same reasons she does, not because she does. For example, Miss Ingram treats
Jane poorly, and by Janes detailed description of her personality, we dislike her not just,
because of how she treats Jane, but also because of her personality in general. As

Belser 5
audience members, Jane is not trying to persuade us, from this the audience can infer she
is being honest with them.
Janet H. Freeman, assistant Professor of English at Denison University wrote an
article called, Speech and Silence in Jane Eyre. According to Freeman, Once the novel
is nearing the end, that Janes true history is her own property and that no one else has the
right to tell it (684). In other words, by the end of the novel, everything about her added
up and enforced the reliability of her story. As the adult Jane is telling the story of when
she was a child about the mistreatment she endured from the aunt she was related to by
marriage, and lived with after the death of her parents. Because of the miserable life Jane
claimed to live as a child due to her relationship with her aunt, she promises to her Aunt
anytime anyone asks if she liked her aunt, she will tell them of her dislike and
mistreatment (Bronte 30). Freeman emphasis the key word to look at in this excerpt is
that Jane finishes off by saying she will tell this exact tale to anyone who asks it (686).
By the end of the novel, she has kept her word of speaking ill of her Aunt, and by telling
her Aunt she would only tell the exact tale validates her reliability, which allows us to
trust her since this entire novel she has done just that.
One might argue we still cannot trust her memory about the mistreatment of her
childhood because she was so young, she was just remembering the bad things to get
sympathy from the audience, or even that she bitter about her childhood, so she is
blowing the mistreatment out of proportion. However, Jane shares an instance in the
novel on page 197 where her aunt admits on her deathbed that having to take care of Jane
was burden and annoyance. Her aunt also stated that she wished Jane had died from the
flu outbreak at the school she was sent to. Because Jane shares this experience with us, it

Belser 6
is hard to believe she could be dishonest after stating she would tell the exact story of her
mistreatment for the rest of her life, and follow it with the confirmation from the words
her aunt said to Jane on her deathbed. I do not think it takes much to realize Janes aunt
did mistreat her after saying such harsh words wishing death upon her, and that her
memory could not be wrong of her childhood if she is consistent with the words she
promised to her aunt as a child. She is showing reliability through the timeline of her
narration.
The truth of her identity shows she is an honest person. One can consider those
who are honest about themselves and do not change for the sake of others are usually
deemed as truthful. We can see this occurrence with Janes love affair with Rochester.
One thing Jane has always maintained is her desire to be treated equal. On page 216 in
the novel, she expresses the awareness of their differences in status by pointing out that
she knows she is lesser than him in status, however, she believes that their souls amount
to the same. With this in mind, Jane shows her awareness of their differences, which
allows the reader to see she is honest about who she is. She does not try to be something
she is not to get Rochester to love her. Again, we see truth to who she is when Rochester
is trying to buy her fancy things, and while Jane is grateful, she also points out that those
rich things are not who she is, and if she accepts those things she will not be the Jane he
loves (Bronte 221). When looking at her response to the gifts, her honesty is undeniable.
On page 221, she tells Rochester she will not accept those gifts to be loved, just like she
does not call Rochester handsome just because she loves him. They would only be lying
to themselves of whom they are if these acts were done. Again, she is being bluntly
honest by not straying from her identity, and beliefs.

Belser 7
Another aspect of Janes reliability of her words is her honorable commitment of
her words and to people. We have already seen one example of the promise she kept to
her aunt. There are many more examples of Jane being told to do something, and she
steps up to the occasion keeping her word and being committed. This idea can go handin-hand with the idea of her honorable identity as well because, while she is true to her
word, she never strays from her identity as a person. When the desire St. John has for
Jane to be his missionary wife due to her capabilities, rather than love, Jane will not
marry him, but expresses she will assist him because the terms he wants for marriage are
not something she agrees with (Bronte 352). We see her honorable commitment by her
willingness to accompany St. John to India, but we also see her honorable identity by her
unwillingness to marry him. This is something she experiences when the relationship
with Rochester is ended due to his already current marriage she was unaware of. While
she still loves him, she painfully leaves him because staying with him would be wrong
(Bronte 274). Here she has to face the question of going against herself by staying with
him, or leaving him. By choosing what is true to her beliefs, the audience can see she is
decent person by doing the morally sound option, which can influence her
trustworthiness.
It is the case of three instances throughout the novel where most seem to question
her reliability. These are when she claims to not remember what she did with her hands
when she attacked her cousin, when she is in the red room and blacks out, and when she
skips over eight years of her life. As readers, we can infer her honesty to be truthful, and
because of this, these instances must be truthful as well. Just because she had blackouts
and did not remember exactly what happened does not mean her memory is not truthful.

Belser 8
If she has been so bluntly and often times harshly honest to the readers directly and to
other characters she interacts with, so questioning her reliability of these instances seems
to be unfair. While she does skip over eight years of her life, she also tells the reader what
she had been doing within those years, so it must be unimportant if she left it out. As we
learn to trust Jane throughout the story by her consistency of her word being honest, we
can also trust that she is not only remembering her story in a truthful manner, but telling
it in a truthful manner as well.

Belser 9
Works Cited
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Harper Collins. 2010. Print.
Freeman, Janet H. Speech and Silence in Jane Eyre. Studies in English Literature,
1500-1900 24.4 (1984): 683700. Web. JSTOR.
Knies, Earl A. The "I" of Jane Eyre. College English 27.7 (1966): 546556. Web.
JSTOR.