Female desire in literature - Essay Example

The translucence of the veil that shrouds female sexuality in fiction today derives its quality from the courage of these pioneer ‘feminists.’ Many first works—especially when they are works of great power—have an autobiographical quality. Charlotte Brontë appears to have recorded the truth of her own body and soul in Jane Eyre, her first published work. Jane Eyre is clear from the very beginning about one important thing—she will tell only the truth, whatever be the consequences. Given this, there is no way in which she can be selective about details such as which truths she will mention and which others she will conveniently forget or evade.

Telling the truth means telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth about everything that needs to be told. Before she leaves her aunt’s house, Jane’s heart almost bursts with the desire to tell her aunt the truth of what she thought of her, and with exemplary courage for a ten-year-old girl she does exactly that. To her aunt’s indignant question of how she dared to speak thus, she replies: “How dare I, Mrs. Reed? How dare I? Because it is the TRUTH. . . . I will tell anybody who asks me questions, this exact tale.

People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard- hearted. YOU are deceitful!” The most significant thing about this episode relates to the feeling that overwhelmed Jane immediately after making this speech: “Ere I had finished this reply, my soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt.” She realized that the truth had set her free, and having once experienced this supremely beneficent consequence of the act, she can be counted on to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about whatever she may need to tell.

In this spirit Jane continues as a votary of the truth all her life. She tells the truth always, to every one: to Rochester in answer to his questions, and to the reader,