The relationship between Jane Eyre and Rochester Each of us carries within us the seed of a unique plant. When circumstances conspire to carefully nurture that seed in a way most appropriate to its true nature – circumstances which, unfortunately, are as rare as they are fortunate – the germ of our original self is likely to flourish. However, when this tender seed receives insufficient attention or attention that is antithetical to its essential inclination, growth is inevitably hindered in some way. Weaker or more sensitive seedlings may wilt completely; others will be hopelessly stunted. Stronger plants may still grow to towering heights, but they will be bent and twisted where their needs were not met, and they may feel eternally compelled to somehow loosen the knot of those warping deprivations, in order to get closer to their originally intended purpose. forms: Jane Eyre and Rochester are two of these plants; Guided by an indomitable will to find and follow their essential self, they discover in each other a vital key to the realization of that goal. As any conscientious parent knows, a child needs both roots - love and security - and wings - trust and encouragement in his or her autonomy, in order to mature. Although gifted with the latter – the previously mentioned drive for self-actualization – Jane and Rochester were severely deprived of the foundation of the former. They are both outsiders. The identities they have managed to forge therefore have a quality of rare integrity, since they come primarily from within, not from the external impulse to please and emulate others. At the same time, these characters lack the sense of security and connection that is the life support of such gifts. When the tw...... middle of paper ......r love: like two trees in a thick, dark forest, bending and twisting and intertwining to reach an opening of warm, sunlight bright, more beautiful in my opinion than their spotless brothers.Works cited and consultedBronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Penguin, 1985. Gordon, Lyndall. Charlotte Bronte: a passionate life. New York: Norton, 1994.Michie, Helena. The word made of flesh: female figures and women's bodies. New York: Oxford UP, 1987. Poovey, Mary. “Speaking of the Body: Mid-Victorian Constructions of Female Desire.” Jacobus, Keller and Shuttleworth 24-46.Rich, Adrienne. "Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman." Gates 142-55.Roy, Parama. “The Unaccommodating Woman and the Poetics of Property in Jane Eyre.” Studies in English Literature 29 (1989): 713-27.Sullivan, Sheila. Studying the Bronte. Longmann: York, 1986.