jane eyre and the myth of cupid

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Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

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A short presentation about the similarities between Jane Eyre and The Myth of Cupid.

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Page 1: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

Page 2: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

How it all beganPeople always wondered how the notion of

love was created and how far would someone go to achieve it.

They are always interested in myths, and this paper revolves around Cupid and Psyche’s Myth, especially on the feminine part of this love story.

It will bring to light the fact that love can be very powerful and dangerous and that even the God of Love himself fell into love’s trap as well.

Page 3: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

Psyche’s beauty won her the admiration of many. It also won her the jealousy of Venus, goddess of love.

When it was time for Psyche to wed, Venus decreed that no mortal man would be her spouse; instead, Psyche would be abandoned on a cliff where a monster would claim her.

However, Venus’s son Cupid loved Psyche more than any other. In defiance of his mother, he rescued Psyche from her cliff-side perch, flying with her over the sea to a distant island. There, far from Venus’s reach, Cupid took Psyche as his secret bride. (Walder-Kris 83)

Page 4: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

This myth is very well known in the culture and literature since the early nineteenth century, and well represented in art.

Cupid still survives nowadays: we all know pretty well the naughty winged boy with the arrow and the bow.

While Cupid is quite popular, Psyche has not made a huge impression and few people know that she was and still is represented with butterfly wings.

But the myth is well known and it would have been impossible for a tireless reader like Charlotte Brontë to have been unaware of the myth.

Page 5: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

The connection with Jane Eyre

We can compare the story-line of Jane Eyre with the myth mentioned above. We could spell the heroine’s name differently: air, for example.

It now has a connection with the Latin word spiritus, meaning breath or spirit.

In Greek it means breath or soul, and also butterfly or moth.

Page 6: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

Driven out into the world by a vindictive mother-figure (Aunt Reed), the soul sets out in pursuit of its destiny. It receives moral and intellectual training (at Lowood), but is unsatisfied. In search of a wider world, the soul meets it’s true mate, love (Rochester), but owing to a chain of circumstances involving a visit to the „ugly sisters” (Eliza and Georgiana) it discovers love to be under a taboo, and chained to strange and disturbing forces (Bertha). It takes fright, abandons its partner and wandering desolate in the world, bears with it everywhere the feeling that love has engendered in it („like a suffering child in a cold cradle”). Fleeing from the influence of passion, the soul takes refuge with intellect (Rivers), only to find him becoming a more sinister tyrant than passion. The soul and love are now „in extremis”, one at the mercy of the designs of intellect, the other abandoned to irrational devilry. In desperation both appeal to a higher authority (God), who responds positively. The soul is recalled to love’s side to find that the vindictive evil has burnt itself out. The story ends in blissful union, and a child is born. (Imlay-Elizabeth 17)

Page 7: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

Jane and Psyche are created with a profound thematic complexity:

• The pilgrim, wanderer, Everyman/woman figure.• The heroine of a fairy-tale, Cinderella, Beauty etc.• The little girl, the child, inheritor of the Christian heaven.• The maker of pictures and dreamer of dreams.• The bird-symbol of the soul. • The rebel slave and displaced person. • The fairy, inhabitant of imaginary worlds.• The child of Nature, under the protection of the Moon, goddess of wild things.• Psyche – passionate soul in search of love.• Eve in the Garden of Eden. (34)

Page 8: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

Charlotte’s deepest level of sympathy and preference with this myth does not end here, but in fact, we can observe that for multiple reasons she suffered from the absence of Eros in her own reality making her capable of writing a love story that she would have applied to herself is she had the means. Brontë brings to light the fact that love cannot exist without sacrifice.

Jane sacrifices her own happiness in order to maintain the moral values she gained throughout her life. It also influences the argument about her being too passionate by following her nature: she prefers to run away than to face reality. Her actions puts her soul in danger, as well as Psyche’s actions destroys her happiness. Both women need to surpass a number of trials in order to become real women. Without the suffering, the final happiness could not be complete.

Page 9: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

If we compare the stories, we will surely find several similarities:

• First, there is Venus, the ultimate goddess, the cruel mother-in law. Her jealousy and hatred surpasses her goddess’ status, transforming her into a dangerous enemy. In Jane Eyre, we can assume that Venus’s equivalent is Aunt Reed - a woman that has no place in her heart but for her own children. She rejects Jane for not being part of her family and treats her poorly, like she is in exile. • We can find another similarity in the fact that both Psyche and Jane have two spiteful, arrogant sisters, who’s only desire is to make both heroines suffer and to bring misery in their lives. • Another resemblance in both heroines’ stories is that they first have to travel, to have a journey in which they discover themselves; in which they become real women - a journey that gives them the necessary experience to make the difference between fantasy and reality, to leave behind their childish part and to recognise true values.

Page 10: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

Charlotte brought to the reader a delighting and much modern version of Cupid and Psyche’s Myth encouraging us to believe that everything she wrote, she actually desired it in

her own life. We all want in life to

find our own unique love, our own Psyche or Cupid.

But in order to find true love, we have to pursue

it and fight for it.

Page 11: Jane Eyre and the Myth of Cupid

The End