#Rochester's redemption is possible because he has shown mercy to others

[thatscarletflycatcher]

The more the time passes, the more convinced I am that a reading of Jane Eyre that omits the theme of mercy as key to the story is incomplete at best and bad at worst.

#jane eyre #i think this is at the root of all the insidious and useless darcy vs rochester comparisons #because ultimately the wrong Austen heroes do is forgivable #the effects of their sins are more or less easily reversable #such as Darcy's pride and rudeness or Wentworth's pettiness #there is mercy being served with atonement #but it isn't a radical mercy #which I think is the point in Jane Eyre #Rochester's attempted bigamy is beyond justification #it can only be understood as sourced in stupidity and immaturity rather than in true wickedness #it can also be understood as part of the way he was raised up and the sins of his own father #but cannot be justified #Rochester can only be either hated and shunned or loved and forgiven #there's no possibility of indifference #the characters that create the most unhappiness to themselves and others in this novel are those who live without mercy #and those who act with mercy the opposite #Rochester's redemption is possible because he has shown mercy to others #at least sometimes like Adele and his first years with Bertha #st John can have everything in his favor and yet his mercilessness makes him a figure of fear for Jane #Jane's deliberate choice to show mercy again and again IS essential to the story #Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman AND a romance because of it #readings that seek to turn Rochester into a complete forever villain #i.e. he is a liar and he actually tortured Bertha into madness #are ultimately readings that want a reason to reject any sort of mercy for him #by making him incapable of good and repentance