Jane Eyre

and the
Myth of
Cupid

How it all began

People always wondered how the notion of

love was created and how far would someone go
to achieve it.
They are always interested in myths, and this
paper revolves around Cupid and Psyches
Myth, especially on the feminine part of this
love story.
It will bring to light the fact that love can be
very powerful
and dangerous and that even the God of Love
himself fell into loves trap as well.

Psyches beauty won her the admiration

of many. It also won her the jealousy of
Venus, goddess of love.
When it was time for Psyche to wed,
Venus decreed that no mortal man would
be her spouse;
instead, Psyche would be abandoned on a
cliff where a monster would claim her.
However, Venuss son Cupid loved
Psyche more than any other.
In defiance of his mother, he rescued
Psyche from her cliff-side perch, flying
with her over
the sea to a distant island.
There, far from Venuss reach, Cupid
took Psyche as his secret bride. (Walder-

This myth is very well known in the

culture and literature since the early
nineteenth century, and well represented
in art.
Cupid still survives nowadays: we all
know pretty well the naughty winged boy
with the arrow and the bow.
While Cupid is quite popular, Psyche
has not made a huge impression and few
people know that she was and still is
represented with butterfly wings.
But the myth is well known and it
would have been impossible for a tireless
reader like Charlotte Bront to have been
unaware of the myth.

The connection with Jane Eyre

We can compare the
story-line of Jane Eyre
with the myth
mentioned above. We
could spell the
heroines name
differently: air, for
example.
It now has a
connection with the
Latin word spiritus,
meaning breath or

Driven out into the world by a vindictive mother-figure

(Aunt Reed), the soul sets out in pursuit of its destiny.
It receives moral and intellectual training (at Lowood),
but is unsatisfied. In search of a wider world, the soul
meets its true mate, love (Rochester), but owing to a
chain of circumstances involving a visit to the ugly
sisters (Eliza and Georgiana) it discovers love to be
under a taboo, and chained to strange and disturbing
forces (Bertha). It takes fright, abandons its partner
and wandering desolate in the world, bears with it
everywhere the feeling that love has engendered in it
(like a suffering child in a cold cradle). Fleeing from
the influence of passion, the soul takes refuge with
intellect (Rivers), only to find him becoming a more
sinister tyrant than passion. The soul and love are now
in extremis, one at the mercy of the designs of
intellect, the other abandoned to irrational devilry. In
desperation both appeal to a higher authority (God),
who responds positively. The soul is recalled to loves
side to find that the vindictive evil has burnt itself out.

Jane and Psyche are created

profound thematic complexity:

with

The pilgrim, wanderer, Everyman/woman

figure.
The heroine of a fairy-tale, Cinderella,
Beauty etc.
The little girl, the child, inheritor of the
Christian heaven.
The maker of pictures and dreamer of
dreams.
The bird-symbol of the soul.
The rebel slave and displaced person.
The fairy, inhabitant of imaginary worlds.
The child of Nature, under the protection
of the Moon, goddess of wild things.
Psyche passionate soul in search of love.

Charlottes deepest level of sympathy and preference with

this myth does not end here, but in fact, we can observe that
for multiple reasons she suffered from the absence of Eros in
her own reality making her capable of writing a love story
that she would have applied to herself is she had the means.
Bront brings to light the fact that love cannot exist without
sacrifice.
Jane sacrifices her own happiness in order to maintain the
moral values she gained throughout her life. It also
influences the argument about her being too passionate by
following her nature: she prefers to run away than to face
reality. Her actions puts her soul in danger, as well as

If we compare the stories, we will surely find

several similarities:
First, there is Venus, the ultimate goddess, the
cruel mother-in law. Her jealousy and hatred
surpasses her goddess status, transforming her
into a dangerous enemy. In Jane Eyre, we can
assume that Venuss equivalent is Aunt Reed - a
woman that has no place in her heart but for her
own children. She rejects Jane for not being part
of her family and treats her poorly, like she is in
exile.
We can find another similarity in the fact that
both Psyche and Jane have two spiteful, arrogant
sisters, whos only desire is to make both
heroines suffer and to bring misery in their lives.
Another resemblance in both heroines stories
is that they first have to travel, to have a journey
in which they discover themselves; in which they
become real women - a journey that gives them

Charlotte brought to the

reader a delighting and
much modern version of
Cupid and Psyches Myth
encouraging us to believe
that everything she wrote,
she actually desired it in
her own life.
We all want in life to find
our own unique love, our
own Psyche or Cupid.
But in order to find true
love, we have to pursue it

The End