Summary:
In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë uses several characters as foils to Jane to reveal Jane's true persona. Characters with strong personalities, such as Georgiana Reed and Blanche Ingram, show a significant contrast to Jane's more docile nature. Brontë also creates foils in the characters that interact with Jane, bringing forth different sides of Jane's personality.
In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë uses several characters as foils to Jane to reveal Jane's true persona. Characters with strong personalities, such as Georgiana Reed and Blanche Ingram, show a significant contrast to Jane's more docile nature. Brontë also creates foils in the characters that interact with Jane, bringing forth different sides of Jane's personality. Mrs. Reed and Miss Temple are used to employ this technique. Her reactions to these characters allow the reader to delve into her true nature.
One of the first foils the reader encounters is that of the young Georgiana Reed, Jane's haughty cousin. She is beautiful, spoiled, and selfish, and makes it known that she does not consider Jane as part of their family. They see Jane as "a heterogeneous thing, opposed to them in temperament, in capacity, in propensities" (17). While Jane tidies and dusts like a family servant, Georgiana is enraptured with herself, dressing her hair with flowers and donning herself with dressy attire. The differences found in their partialities and occupations characterize the young Jane as a docile, obedient child who constantly suffers under the dominating Reeds. Their next encounter occurs many years later when Mrs. Reed sends for Jane on her deathbed, and Jane consents. Upon arriving at the house, Jane discovers that not much has changed. Georgiana retains her beauty, and the house is just as Jane remembers it. A striking difference between the two at this period in time is how they interact with Georgiana's sick mother. Whilst Jane spends time to converse with a barely sane Mrs. Reed, Georgiana can barely allot five minutes a day for her own mother. Instead, she focuses on the trifling gaieties of life, shunning all gloomy thoughts that threaten to encompass her. When constantly hearing Georgiana's reminisces of better times, Eliza sums up her sister's essence: "you must be admired, you must be courted, you must be flattered - you must have music, dancing, and society - or you languish away" (351). Jane's characteristics can be seen through the contrasting actions of her and Georgiana. She is seen as respectful enough to heed to her aunt's wish to see her again, and calm and collected when talking to her in her delirium. As a foil to Jane in both childhood and womanhood, Georgiana continues to bring out Jane's character as a foil until their final departure.
Another foil the reader encounters in Jane Eyre is that of Blanche Ingram. Like Georgiana Reed, Miss Ingram has a stunning beauty that contrasts to Jane's simple physical appearance. She uses this to her advantage, flaunting her good looks and graceful style to entice Mr. Rochester. Her ostentatious nature greatly differs from Jane's demure mien. Jane would rather sit undetected in a small corner, whereas Miss Ingram can be found flittering about to draw attention to herself, "evidently bent on striking them as something very dashing and daring indeed" (265). The two women also react to Adèle very differently. Since Jane first met Adèle, she has been consistently kind and patient towards her student. Upon Miss Ingram's first meeting with Adèle, she seems to mock her in a condescending tone. When Adèle accidentally gives her false information about Mr. Rochester's return, Miss Ingram snaps at Adèle, calling her a "tiresome monkey" (281). Another striking contrast between the two is how they express their feelings for Mr. Rochester. Jane speculates, "Surely she cannot truly like him...If she did, she need not coin her smiles so lavishly; flash her glances so unremittingly; manufacture airs so elaborate, graces so multitudinous" (277). This conjecture describes Miss Ingram's extravagant methods of capturing Mr. Rochester's attention. Jane, however, does not care about Mr. Rochester's money, and is only interested in his interior. As a strong foil to Jane, Blanche Ingram helps amplify her noble qualities. Jane is docile and modest; caring and tolerant; and is not affected by a character's lifestyle.
Although Jane is generally viewed as calm and serene, the foils of Miss Temple and Mrs. Reed bring out two very different sides of Jane's personality. Miss Temple acts as the chief maternal figure to Jane, providing love and support at a school where Jane has none. Jane described Miss Temple as always having "something of serenity in her air...which chastened the pleasure of those who looked on her and listened to her, by a controlling sense of awe...I was struck with wonder" (104). This veneration of Miss Temple was well deserved, for Miss Temple helped clear Jane's tarnished name at the school. Contrasting to Miss Temple's generosity, Mrs. Reed, when on her deathbed, said, "I disliked you too fixedly and thoroughly ever to lend a hand in lifting you to prosperity" (356). Since Jane was a young child, Mrs. Reed had always treated her as an inferior, never giving Jane the love every child should have. The animosity she received from Mrs. Reed eventually assimilated into an explosion of rage from Jane, her long suppressed feelings finally being released. Jane's reactions to Miss Temple and Mrs. Reed show very different sides of her personality. With Miss Temple, she is serene and calm; with Mrs. Reed, she is suppressed and angry.
Through the foils of Georgiana Reed and Blanche Ingram, Jane is depicted as a quiet and demure girl who is also compassionate and respectful. However, Brontë utilizes foils to bring out contrasting sides of Jane's personality. By employing this technique, she allows readers to see a different side of Jane; showing that Jane is a colorful character who will retain one's interest for the entirety of the novel.
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