Research Paper Proposal

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Couse
Date
Ideas of Religion and Morality as Shown in Jane Eyre
I. Thesis: Bronte uses the characters that Jane interacts with to show that self-righteousness does not imply adherence to religion.
II. Throughout the text, Jane Eyre interacts with self-righteous characters who do not depict the true reflection of religion in their actions.
A. Aunt Reed is a religious individual, but she does not love Jane and even sends her to Lowood School so that she can be far away from her family.
B. Brocklehurst is in charge of Lowood School for the orphans, but he strives to make them go through hardship with the belief that religion is all about suffering and endurance (Bronte 65).
C. Rochester has a wife but gets into a romantic relationship with Jane. Jane Eyre ends the relationship.
D. Jane’s relation to St. John highlights how John’s interpretation alienates him from Jane.
E. St. John is a believer and a preacher of the gospel, but he does not practice what he teaches people. He blackmails Jane Eyre that if she agrees to his proposal, then she rejects his marriage proposal; thus she will not only be rejecting him but also rejecting God.
III. The society does not seem to pay any attention to the atrocities committed in the name of religion.
A. The education officials and the government only came to inspect Lowood after the death occurred due to the hardship conditions that the orphans were going through.
B. Miss Abbot believed that God would punish Jane for speaking out about her rights.

Jane was perceived as wicked for speaking out (Bronte 15).
Conclusion
Jane’s interactions with different characters in Jane Eyre reflect that self-righteousness is not the same as religion.

Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre (Third International Student Edition) (Norton Critical Editions). WW Norton & Company, 2016
Pearson, Sara L. “Critical Insights: Jane Eyre.” (2017): 158-161 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14748932.2017.1280947?journalCode=ybst20Shuttleworth, Sally. Jane Eyre and the rebellious child. 2014. https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/jane-eyre-and-the-rebellious-child. Accessed 20 Dec 2018.
Ward, Mary. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: a late 19th-century analysis. 2018. https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/literary-analyses/jane-eyre-charlotte-bronte-late-19th-century-analysis/. Accessed 20 Dec 2018.
Ciornei, Alicia. “Recociling Conflict: Species-Being and Spirituality in Jane Eyre.” https://course-journals.lib.sfu.ca//index.php/eng435/article/download/17/43?inline=1. Accessed 20 Dec 2018.