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  • Essay / Jealousy in "Jane Eyre", "For My Lover Returning to His Wife" and "After Lunch"

    Through Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and "For My Lover Returning to His Wife" by Anne Sexton, jealousy is presented as causing both self-deprecation and anger. Whereas in “After the Lunch” by Wendy Cope, a form of love that does not contain jealousy, but presents love in a way similar to the form of love that jealousy takes up in the other texts. Bronte presents jealousy as a cause for self-deprecation, while other modern writers maintain radically different views. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In Jane Eyre, Jane becomes jealous of Mr. Rochester's courtship of Miss Ingram. Brontë shows us that Jane has not yet realized her personal worth. Contextually, society in 1848 would have viewed the marriage of two individuals of different classes negatively, so Jane's jealousy is underscored by society's expectation that Mr. Rochester marry Miss Ingram. This jealousy manifests itself through a comparison by Jane of herself to Miss Ingram in which she focuses on aesthetics. Brontë highlights this aesthetic jealousy through Jane's portraits, where Jane overemphasizes the material differences between the two women. Under her portrait, Jane writes "Portrait of a governess, out of touch, poor and simple" and under her portrait of Miss Ingram, she writes "Blanche, an accomplished lady of rank." This shows that Jane has not yet learned the value of her own spiritual and intellectual superiority. Jane describes herself as "I am poor, obscure, simple and small", clearly showing self-deprecation as a direct result of her jealousy. Sexton also presents jealousy as a source of self-deprecation in the individual. “For my lover, return to his wife” presents the jealousy of the mistress towards her lover's wife. Jealousy itself can be seen in the possessive nature of the title, through Sexton's use of "my" and "his" which are possessive pronouns. This jealousy pushes her to blame herself, Sexton presents this through a semantic field of self-deprecation. In the 1960s when this poem was published, the sexual revolution was affecting Western culture and influencing society. This poem presents an aspect of an affair rarely seen before due to the sexually repressed society that existed before the mid-1900s. While this poem presents sexual liberation, it also presents the consequences of this love that the mistress has for his lover cannot continue because he is already married, leading to his jealousy. A contemporary reader would consider the presentation of the mistress's point of view to be shocking, as adultery was no longer considered taboo but still frowned upon. Likewise, due to the sexual liberation of the times, they may not be surprised by the voice of the mistress shown in the poem. However, jealousy is also presented as causing anger in these texts. In "For My Lover, Returning to His Wife", the speaker seems controlled, but sometimes explodes, "bitch" is used by Sexton to show her rage escaping from the stable, controlled structure of the poem. Additionally, Sexton wrote this in free verse, which allows the comorbid disjointed thoughts of jealousy to be presented through the voice of the mistress. In this way, anger is presented as being caused by jealousy. Additionally, in Jane Eyre, jealousy also manifests itself as anger and rage. Bertha dislikes Jane and Rochester's love because she is held captive by Rochester, making their love impossible. Concerning Jane and Rochester, Bertha..