Unnecessary Symbiosis

She stared at me. "Mother!" she exclaimed, "there is a woman wants me to give her these porridge."

"Well lass," replied a voice within, "give it her if she's a beggar. T' pig doesn't want it."

The girl emptied the stiffened mould into my hand, and I devoured it ravenously.

As the wet twilight deepened, I stopped in a solitary bridle-path, which I had been pursuing an hour or more.

"My strength is quite failing me," I said in a soliloquy. "I feel I cannot go much farther. Shall I be an outcast again this night? While the rain descends so, must I lay my head on the cold, drenched ground? I fear I cannot do otherwise: for who will receive me? But it will be very dreadful, with this feeling of hunger, faintness, chill, and this sense of desolation--this total prostration of hope. In all likelihood, though, I should die before morning. And why cannot I reconcile myself to the prospect of death? Why do I struggle to retain a valueless life? Because I know, or believe, Mr. Rochester is living: and then, to die of want and cold is a fate to which nature cannot submit passively. Oh, Providence! sustain me a little longer! Aid!--direct me!"

(Page 308)

Throughout Jane’s life she had never experienced hardship such as she did now. When younger, when asked if she would have rather lived in poverty with her other possible relations or stay with the Reeds, she said she would choose to suffer the Reed’s torture than that of poverty. Even when Jane is suffering through starvation and the humiliation of begging and helplessness, she still thinks of Mr. Rochester and how he is fairing. Though Jane has not lived a luxurious life, it has been a privileged one where she has always had someone else to rely on, Bessie at the Reeds, Miss Temple at Lowood, and Mr. Rochester at Thornfield. This passage is indicative of how Jane’s life thus far has left her unprepared to be on her own, and how she relies on others for her survival.

In her worry to flee Thornfield, Jane brought very few possessions with her, and those she brought, she left in the carriage she had spent the last of her money on. She goes around looking for work or food, but ends up starving for three days. It is on the third day that she goes to the girl begging for the scraps of food. What she is given isn’t very edible, as “T’ pig doesn’t want it” and it is described as a “stiffened mould.” When she was at Lowood, the porridge was described similarly and she barely ate it though she hadn’t eaten anything prior. However, now that she has experienced true suffering, she “devoured [the porridge] ravenously.” The word devoured also brings the imagery of frantic movement, distancing Jane from the previous image of her where she is quite reserved and proper from her years at Lowood.

As Jane is considering her life when she is near-death, she is not satisfied with it, nor has she gained her independence yet. Jane is so helpless in finding how to keep herself alive she even wonders“ Why do I struggle to retain a valueless life?” She has never had to care for herself to such an extent that when she does, she wonders whether it is worth it. Also, even as she is contemplating her own death, she wonders about Mr. Rochester and keeps him as her will to continue trying to live. She still need someone else as support, even if it just the idea of them, for her to survive.

Jane is only able to have a successful relationship once she has become able to support herself without relying on another. When she returns to Rochester after her falling out with St John and receiving the money from her uncle’s will, she tells Rochester that she is an independant woman, surprising him. When they do get married, Rochester is reminding her that she will have to be taking care of him now that he is injured rather than him caring for her, but she is now capable to do so. Because Jane can care for herself, she can form healthier relationships with those around her where she isn’t fully dependent on them for survival.