The Space In-between: Exploring Liminality in Jane Eyre

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism Volume 10 | Issue 1 Article 5 2017 The Space In-between: Exploring Liminality in Jane Eyre Megan Clark Brigham Young University, Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/criterion Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Clark, Megan (2017) "The Space In-between: Exploring Liminality in Jane Eyre," Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism: Vol. 10 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/criterion/vol10/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact , . The Space In-between Exploring Liminality in Jane Eyre Megan Clark From Mrs. Reed’s house to Morton, Jane Eyre is always singled out as otherworldly. Throughout the novel, Charlotte Brontë creates different spheres and worlds, especially through the means of social class and the way people are perceived and treated. These worlds are presented in juxtaposed pairs, but Jane never belongs to either world. She remains in her own realm, always separated from the others. Throughout the text, she is compared to an elf or fairy, emphasizing the otherworldliness that defines her. While some look at Jane as a social outcast due exclusively to class boundaries and other limitations outside of her control, it is important to recognize her agency in the matter. Despite what critics, such as Sarah Gilead and John Peters, have said about her “gaining social membership” by the end of the book, there is extensive textual evidence that Jane is always a part of this otherworld, a liminal place that belongs neither to one world nor the other. During each stage of her life, Jane’s reaction to her separation is the very thing that leads to her otherworldliness in the next stage. There are moments in the text where she seems to almost escape this liminal realm, but in the end she must remain there, with Rochester eventually joining her in the otherworld. We see the beginning of Jane’s separation and perpetual liminality during her time at Gateshead. She is singled out and excluded, made to feel lesser than her spoiled cousins. The importance of this separation Criterion is made apparent by Brontë’s emphasis of it on the first page of the novel. Within the first paragraphs, Jane has been “dispensed from joining the group” and described as unnatural (5). The Reeds, in the words of John Peters, “attempt to transform Jane into the other by excluding her from society and by labeling her as something other than human” (57). Jane then chooses to separate herself from the Reeds with a physical barrier, the red curtain, and encloses herself in her own realm of books and private thought. This is our introduction to Jane’s world. It is a place of imagination and artistry where Jane can escape the labels imposed upon her and form “idea[s] of her own” (6). She tells us that in this state, in her world, she is happy. This peace of mind is broken along with the removal of the physical barrier that she had established between herself and her hard-hearted family. John Reed’s arrival not only shatters Jane’s feeling of contented isolation, but it also creates a new environment of pain and terror. This fear is augmented when Jane is locked in the red-room, which becomes yet another physical barrier dividing her from the others in the house. This barrier, however, was not self-imposed. Peters describes this separation as a representation of “the physical and spiritual solitary confinement to which the Reeds relegate her” (59). Despite her previous desire to be isolated, Jane is now embittered and hurt by her forced isolation. In this state, her imagination running rampant, she begins to apply non-human labels to herself as the Reeds had done previously. While looking in the mirror she thinks to herself: All look colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp . . . (11) One could interpret these thoughts and acknowledgement of her nature as “other” as a mere submission to abusive words and behavior from the Reeds, but as Sarah Gilead argues, “the consequence of each [liminal] episode is to strengthen Jane’s selfhood” (305). Each life occurrence that seems only to isolate Jane from the group simultaneously allows her to further discover herself and to create her own world. Jane’s world is not simply a separation from the family, but a liminal sphere that is caught in between two worlds, that of the Reeds and that of the servants. Jane is not one of the Reeds as made consistently clear 20 Winter 2017 by Mrs. Reed, and even by Jane herself. She recognizes a discrepancy in her character and that of her cousins when she defiantly states that “they are not fit to associate with [her]” (22). The servants also disown her, saying that she is “less than a servant for [she] does nothing for [her] keep” (9). Two societies have been established, and Jane belongs to neither. Although she has felt the most happiness when in her own world of imagination, Jane still desires to be loved. She does not wish to be like the Reeds, thereby joining their world, but she does hope to be cared for by them. The Reeds, however, cannot accept Jane in her otherworldly state. It is this disapproval that embitters Jane and causes her to lash out at her aunt. Because of her behavior, Mrs. Reed tells Mr. Brocklehurst that Jane is a liar, thus “obliterating hope from the new phase of existence which [she] destined [Jane] to enter” (28). Through her reaction to her separation, Jane perpetuates this state into the next stage of her life. At Lowood school, Jane is singled out as a liar by Mr. Brocklehurst, thus separating her from the other students and reinforcing her liminality. He calls her a “castaway,” an “interloper,” and an “alien,” publicly marking her out as otherworldly. Although most of the teachers and students do not necessarily exclude Jane as Brocklehurst would have them do, she is still made separate from them by his declaration. In response to his speech, Miss Temple reaches out specifically to Jane, along with Helen. She treats them deferentially, giving them food and talking with them. Jane no longer belongs with the mass of Lowood girls, but becomes otherworldly yet again. Gilead recognizes this phenomenon when she says, “Jane is spoken to and treated as an adult. She enters a secret and largely hypothetical microcosmic society of intellectual and humane elite” (307). Thus, Jane is separated from the group both by Brocklehurst and Miss (...truncated)