Physiognomy and the Treatment of Beauty in Jane Eyre

Abstract

Like much nineteenth-century English fiction, Jane Eyre is conspicuous for reflecting the influence of physiognomy on everyday life and culture during that period. This is evident enough from the heroine’s presentation as an observer with a remarkable capacity for interpreting the facial and bodily features of her fellow creatures. It is, nevertheless, curious to note, more especially through her portrait of Rochester, that, where beauty is concerned, Jane is not only uncomfortable with the standards thereof generally upheld by the society of her day, but seems to flout a central principle as asserted by well-known physiognomists down the ages. All this raises the question of how far Jane’s standpoint in such respects is due among other things to her character and her social circumstances. Be that as it may, there can be little doubt that Charlotte Brontë’s treatment of beauty here is one of the most important aspects of her art as a novelist.