Intro. to Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, and The Burning-Glass

Fire in literature often symbolizes passion. Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea use the same motif, but in different ways. Wide Sargasso Sea explores a life where passion has no outlet, and Jane Eyre explores a situation where passion can be controlled. Both books agree that passion cannot be quenched; they simply explore different situations that allow passion to act in different ways. Antoinette has no way to control her fire; if she walks away from Rochester she will die of the cold, but if she stays she will die in the flames. Jane Eyre has the ability to control her fire; she cannot marry Rochester at first, because the fire would have destroyed her, but on the other hand she cannot marry St. John, because he had no flame. She finds the perfect center the second time with Rochester, because her passion can burn in a controlled way. In terms of fire Wide Sargasso Sea watches a woman trying to control a fire in the middle of a forest, while Jane Eyre observes a woman with a fireplace in which to control her fire. The Burning-Glass still uses fire to mean passion, but it introduced a new way of thinking about it. The speaker uses the glass to represent the "lens" of womanhood that makes him burn with passion for a woman, but then he talks about it as if that same thing that makes him burn passionately for the woman also seperates him from the woman. Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea don't really talk about what ignites the flame or what continues to make it burn. They focus on what the flame does once it is lit, while The Burning-Glass focuses on how the flame is ignited and what seperates the speaker as the flame and the person behind the glass.

Wide Sargasso Sea

In Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys uses her character Antoinette/Bertha to show that without a proper outlet, passion is destructive; a fire that is lit in a forest creates a wildfire. At the beginning of the book the native people burn as an expression of their passion. The people are tired of being oppressed by the white man. Their passion is expressed in rage as they burn down the house of the people who oppressed them. Being free from their slavery they realize that they now have the power to do what they wish. All the years of angry passion towards slavery and against their master smoldering in their souls finally begins to burn into a blazing fire. The passion of the people against the white people is portrayed by a blazing fire that burns down Coulibri. Later in the book there is an image of a moth flying toward a flame. In Rochester’s narration he says, “A large moth, so large that I thought it was a bird, blundered into one of the candles, put it out and fell to the floor. ‘He’s a big fellow,’ I said. ‘Is it badly burned?’ ‘More stunned than hurt’ (Rhys 48). Antoinette is this moth. At first she is just stunned to find how much her passion hurts her, but even when she discovers how hotly her passion burns, she cannot stop herself from flying into it head long. Her passion draws her like flame does a moth. Even though she knows that it will destroy her, she continues to dive toward it. And then it catches her, and it burns. For a moth there is no solving the problem of the flame. It is ever burning and ever attractive. The moth cannot put out the flame, because it is not in control of the flame. The flame will always be lit and will always burn the moth, and even though the moth gets burned, it cannot deny the urge to return to the flame. This scene of fire foreshadows the end of the book where Antoinette's fiery passion finally kills her. Antoinette dreams of a fire at her home in England, and when she wakes she knows what she must do. She says, "Now as last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do. There must have been a draught for the flame flickered and I thought it was out. But I shielded it with my hand and it burned up again to light me along the dark passage" (Rhys 112). In a final act of passionate hatred for Rochester, Antoinette burns down his house and herself. There is no turning back for the moth drawn to the flame. Eventually if the moth does not fly away, it will die. Antoinette is destined to be burned by her passion because of the nature of her situation; she cannot fly away from Rochester because she is a woman, she owns no land, and she has no ability to make a way in life by herself. Since she like the moth must stay by the flame, she is constantly drawn to it and is destined to die by it.

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre has different circumstances and therefore her passion has a different result than Antoinette’s in Wide Sargasso Sea. Through fire imagery the book Jane Eyre argues that uncontrolled passion and no passion are wrong, but a controlled passion is good. The character of Bertha represents uncontrolled passion, whereas St. John represents no passion. Jane Eyre finds herself at different points in the story to be too passionate and not passionate enough, but at the end of the book she finds a place where her passion can burn warm and bright instead of destroying what it touches. Bertha so passionately and insanely hates Rochester that she burns everything she touches. Her uncontrolled passion lights Rochester’s curtains on fire, and it destroys Thornfield and herself. She constantly burns against Rochester with no control, and Charlotte Bronte portrays this through fire. Almost every time Bertha escapes her cell she lights something on fire. Bertha has no control over her passion, and it destroys her. On the other hand St. John is also destroyed by burying his passion. His attitude is always cold. Instead of kindling his fire in a fireplace, he douses it with cool water. When Jane confronts him about his flame for Miss Oliver he says this: “I scorn the weakness. I know it is ignoble: a mere fever of the flesh: not, I declare, the convulsion of the soul. That is just as fixed as a rock, firm set in the depths of a restless sea. Know me to be what I am--a cold hard man” (Bronte Chapter 32). He refuses to love, because he believes that passion is wrong. He puts out his fire to be a cold man. What he does not understand is that the fire of passion cannot be put out. It can be subdued and ignored but never put out; Jane Eyre argues that the flames of passion used for the right reasons and controlled in the right way are useful and good. St. John does not understand this and therefore remains unhappy in his coldness. Unlike St. John and Bertha, Jane Eyre is able to find the balance of her fire.  At the beginning of the book she has too much fire and not enough control, but people along the way teach her to use her fire for her own gain.  After Helen is unjustly punished Jane "ran to Helen, tore it [a sign saying "Slattern"] off, and thrust it into the fire.  The fury of which [Helen] was incapable had been burning in my soul all day" (Bronte Chapter 8).  Jane is full of passion against injustice,  but she doesn't know how to control it as Helen does.  Helen and others along the way show her that there is more to passion than a roaring forest fire; perhaps if contained it can heat and shine without destruction.  Again Jane falls into the trap of too much passion when she falls in love with Mr. Rochester.  He tells Adele a story of where he will take Jane, and he says, "Fire rises out of the lunar mountains; when she is cold, I'll carry her up to a peak and lay her down of the edge of a crater" (Bronte Chapter 24).  Jane is learning to control her passion, but she comes to a precipice; she teeters on the edge when Rochester asks her to stay and be his mistress, but she has learned better than that.  She chooses to control her fire and walk away from the burning crater.  Rochester's passion almost swallows her, but she leaves instead.  Later in the book though Jane recognizes the death that comes with St. John's coldness as well.  She knows that to suppress her fire would be death as much as falling over the edge of the precipice.  Jane chooses to return to Rochester at the end of the book to find her fire and is able to let her passion burn in a right love for him.  

The Burning-Glass by: George William Russell

A shaft of fire that falls like dew,   And melts and maddens all my blood, From out thy spirit flashes through   The burning-glass of womanhood.   Only so far; here must I stay:         5   Nearer I miss the light, the fire; I must endure the torturing ray,   And with all beauty, all desire.   Ah, time long must the effort be,   And far the way that I must go         10 To bring my spirit unto thee,   Behind the glass, within the glow.

The Burning-Glass

Burning-glass: large convex lens that can concentrate the sun's rays onto a small area, heating up the area and thus resulting in the ignition of the exposed surface (dictionary.com)

     In the poem The Burning Glass fire is also used as passion, but in a bit of a different way.  The image here is of a woman's spirit being the ray of light that beams through a burning-glass to ignite a fire in a man.  The man who is being ignited is the speaker.  The fire of the woman's spirit "falls like dew" (line 1) and creates a passion in him.  He comes to the realization in the second stanza that if he moves farther toward the woman on the other side of the burning-glass that his passion along with the fire will die out.  He says,"I must endure the torturing ray, and with all beauty, all desire" (lines 7-8).  His passion lies in the fact that he is in the direct light of her beauty.  To move out from under the light of the burning-glass would be to remove all chance of being set on fire, and to move from the light of her beauty would be to snuff out his passion.  But in the third stanza of the poem, the speaker comes to a new realization: there is a burning-glass between him and his love.  If he doesn't make a move, his passion will continue to burn, but he will also never be with her.  He realizes that somehow he must find a way around the burning-glass in order to be with the woman he loves.  This man in love cannot stand to just get burnt; he must find the source of the light in order to be happy.  The man wants to spend his days with the real thing instead of just burning under the ray of her beauty.

Eternal Flame - The Bangles

Eternal Flame - The Bangles

Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling 
Do you feel my heart beating, do you understand? 
Do you feel the same, am I only dreaming? 
Is this burning an eternal flame? 

I believe it's meant to be, darling 
I watch when you are sleeping, you belong to me 
Do you feel the same, am I only dreaming 
Or is this burning an eternal flame? 

Say my name, sun shines through the rain 
A whole life so lonely, and then you come and ease the pain 
I don't want to lose this feeling 

Say my name, sun shines through the rain 
A whole life so lonely, and then you come and ease the pain 
I don't want to lose this feeling 

Close your eyes and give me your hand 
Do you feel my heart beating, do you understand? 
Do you feel the same, am I only dreaming 
Or is this burning an eternal flame? 

I thought of this song with the theme of passionate fire, because the "burning" in this song signifies passion in the heart of the song artist toward another person.  This artist sees the fire of passion a little differently than Bronte or Rhys.  The artist talks of her love as a flame.  This flame, if true, will burn eternally, but if false with flicker and die.  Perhaps this feeling she feels isn't true love, if so the flame and her passion will die out.  But if it is true love her passion will burn eternally.  This song also brings up the issue of requited and unrequited love.  Can the flame really burn if her love is unrequited, or can it only burn with a equally bright glow?  Is this perhaps part of Antoinette's problem in Wide Sargasso Sea?  This love that is unreturned will fizzle out and die like a fire does that is doused in cool water.  Rhys says differently though.  Antoinette's passion never dies; it only grows and grows until it can no longer be controlled.  And Bronter agrees with Rhys; Jane Eyre's passion never dies, although she is able to control it.  She returns to Thornfield because even when away from him, her passion for Rochester burns within her.  The question remains: can passion really die?  Bronte and Rhys seem to argue that the flame never goes out, it continually burns and either kills or satisfies, but this song disagrees.  Perhaps passion can die.  Perhaps the flame is not eternal.