Spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically, the
"archetypal journey" for Jane Eyre is a metaphor for her growth and development as an
independent woman.
As basis for this "journey," Carl Jung, the famous
psychologist, contended that people shared in what he termed a “collective
unconscious.”
Here lay dormant all of the knowledge we, as
humans, needed in order to know who we are and what is valuable and worthwhile in life.
Although we vary greatly in our conscious attitudes and goals, our unconscious minds,
revealed through dream studies and psychological research, are quite similar the world
over.
Thus, Jane Eyre's
journey is an existential one that has its beginnings as a non-entity who must be
boarded by Mrs. Reed, to a young girl who seeks an individual identity by rejecting the
passivism that her friend Helen suggests. On the other hand, Jane does acquire much of
the Christian values of humility, patience, and forgiveness from her friend. These
virtues serve Jane well in her experience at Thornfield Hall as she finds herself
confronted with the polarities of reason and passion, absolute and relative morality,
and, finally, love without marriage and marriage without love. After all of her
experiences in her journey of life, Jane Eyre emerges from the "dormancy of
knowledge." Once a forlorn child who sought friendship and love, Jane Eyre as a woman of
great individuality, strong and independent, yet passionate, caring, and fiercely
loyal.
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