Angel of the House, Essay Example

No Angel in the House: A Comparison of Jane Eyre and the Angel in the House

In The Angel in the House,Coventry Patmore describes his version of the ideal woman in great detail.The protagonist in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre both anticipates and challenges Coventry Patmore’s notions of womanly greatness.

Patmore describes his ideal woman, Honoria, as “perfect, pure and true.”(Patmore 45) She is, he says, “all mildness.”(Patmore 51) Honoria’s love looks over her mate’s faults. Indeed, says Patmore, ‘Truth without love were less than naught; but blindest love is sweet and warm.”(Patmore 71) Furthermore, Honoria is so perfect that she succeeds in both common aspirations and “holy course,”(Patmore 69) while her mate fails at both. She edifies him and makes him better. She is sadder than he is when he is sad and rejoices in his successes. She is a queen who makes him noble. She is beautiful – but beautiful in a way that others miss an only her mate sees. Patmore compares her to “A queen who may not find her peer in all the common earth.”(Patmore 72)

Jane Eyre, like Honoria is meek and mild. She does seem to make her matches better. Her main romantic interest, Mr. Rochester becomes warmer in her presence. And, indeed, Rochester admits that he is “the very devil” to women with pretty faces but without hearts. But, he declares the following:

To the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break — at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent — I am ever tender and true.(Bronte 275)

Jane, then, like Honoria, brings out the best in her mate.On the other hand, Jane is not willing to be blind in love. She will not let Mr. Rochester call her beautiful; because she does not believe she is beautiful. Furthermore, she declares that she does not find him handsome – even though she loves him dearly(Bronte 274).

Finally, Patmore calls his Honoria “The Angel of the House.”  He constantly describes the woman he loves in ethereal and noble terms. But when Mr. Rochester compares Jane to an angel she declares, “I am not an angel and I will not be one `til I die: I will be myself, Mr. Rochester.”(Bronte 275)

Jane Eyre has many of the traits Patmore admires. She is meek and mild and she brings out the best in men. Yet she will not allow herself to be turned into an object of fantasy and through her, Bronte rejects the fanciful ideal of The Angel in the House.

Works Cited

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Carleton, 1864.

Patmore, Coventry. The Angel in the House. London: John W. Parker And Son West Strand, 1854.