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Money in Jane's Life
by Ángel Alberto Potenciano Pascual (2008-09, 5ºA)
It wasn't a long planned battle. In fact, it arose in an unexpected way. However, strange paradox, the contenders had known each other for a long time. On the one hand, Dignity, Integrity, Values and Moral Principles. Four massive towers, four deep-rooted foundations with their rocky walls, pride of the person who inhabited that impressive fortress. On the other hand, wealth, richness, fortune……….different masks for the same enemy……..MONEY. Cruel, ruthless, inhuman, impassive………incalculable was the number of enemies who had already knelt down before him. Jane, form her safe walls, observed her fearsome enemy. Not only, did she know its fierceness in the combat but its lack of mercy with his opponents. Despite having seen her enemy commanded an army formed by thousands of soldiers, she continued being sure of her victory. Poor and naïve Jane. What an unfair battle!. What an unequal duel!. What a strong imbalance between both fighters!.
The battle began. The fortress was assaulted. The walls shook, cracked, gave way due to the enemy's energy. There was no resisting its terrible strength. The walls collapsed. An unstoppable flood invaded the, at some other time, impassable bastion. Jane felt overwhelmed, defeated, outstripped. But that strange sensation began to be pleasant. Jane began to feel a weird shiver. For the first time in her life, she felt the pleasure of belonging to the dominant class, she savoured the sweet flavour of being dreaded instead of being afraid of afraid of others, she realized that it was high time to be predator and not an easy prey, and that her chance to order and not to be ordered had just come. At that moment, she gazed from the top and instead of perceiving the vertigo of the abyss she felt the pleasure of seeing how others supported the foundations she rested on.
Economic dependence. Financial inferiority. Slavery. Submission. Lack of autonomy. Those thoughts used to drill Jane's mind when she thought about her marriage to Mr. Rochester. If she had married Edward, she would have felt tied up to him, she would have been conscious that she owed him her welfare. But now things were different. It is money that had changed her role and her position in life. Having rejected Mr. Rochester's marriage proposal, now she belonged to a new social class. Jane can come back to Mr. Rochester without feeling she is maintained by him. She won't feel her marriage as a rough rope round her neck.