Christianity and Evangelism in Jane Eyre Essay -- Religion Religious B

Christianity and Evangelism in Jane Eyre There were great changes in the ghostlike arena during the time of Victorian England. John Wesley had his warm heart experience, India had been heart-to-heart to missionizing, and a Utilitarian and Evangelical shift had occurred. Charlotte Bront would have felt the effect of these things, being a daughter of the clergy, and by simply being a daughter of the Victorian era. Her novel, Jane Eyre, serves as a reaction to Utilitarianism, and the protagonist Jane emerges as an Evangelical figure. By using this novel as a scratch for Evangelism itself, Bront has a platform to fulfill moral obligations, and to have a intercourse with the socially held views of her time. Beyond this, it also addresses the intrinsic struggle between pagan religion and Christianity. The original position of the East India Company and the English Parliament was, the granting immunity against allowing missionary work in India, and that the clergy would be commissioned to serve just the European population there. They took this stance, because they felt the inhabitants would feel threatened and cause problems for those who had financial interests in the area. In 1813, with the passing of a new Charter Act, India was unfastened to missionary activity, and many jumped at the opportunity to sacrifice all for the interest of heathen souls. (Viswanathan 36) The very personification of this ideal comes in the form of Bronts character, St. John Rivers, Jane Eyres cousin and almost fianc. He expounds on this when he explains After a season of darkness and struggling, light broke and alleviation fell my cramped existence all at once break up out to a plain without bounds-my powers heard a call from paradise to rise, g... ... the great religious impact it is meant to have. Christ, should and will, win out in the contain as the last line of the novel says, Amen even so come, passe-partout Jesus Works CitedBrigit. Encarta Encyclopedia Online. 2004. http//encarta.msn.comBront, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard J. Dunn. naked as a jaybird York W.W. Norton and Company, 2001.Evangelism. Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online. 2004. http//www.m-w.com Holy tidings modernistic International Version. Grand Rapids, MI Zondervan Publishing House, 1995. Viswanathan, Gauri. The Beginnings of English literary Study. Masks of Conquest Literary Study and British Rule in India. New York Columbia University Press, 1989. Weber, Max. Luthers Conception of the Calling. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Trans. Talcott Parsons. New York, Dover Publications Inc.