The protagonist and titular character of Jane Eyre faces an interesting decision in the final chapters of the novel. Jane's cousin, the missionary St. John Rivers, presents her with the proposal to marry him and accompany him on a mission to India; however, her heart is with Mr. Rochester, the master of the manor where she worked. This presents Jane with a dilemma: if she abandons missionary work, she may appear to be abandoning God. In this struggle between conscience and passion, passion is victorious, a victory that fits well with the rest of the novel. However, the element of conscience that lost ground to passion may not have truly represented conscience in the first place. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay It is clear that Jane has made the decision of passion in her choice between conscience and passion in the final chapters. St. John continually tries to push Jane to come with him to India for missionary work, also saying, "Do not forget that if you refuse [my offer], you do not deny me, but God." Jane, however, does not want to accompany him; much less does she want to accompany him as his wife, since she does not love him. In fact, he clings to someone else's love: “I heard a voice somewhere cry: “Jane! Jane! Jane!» – nothing more… It was the voice of a human being – a voice known, loved, well remembered – that of Edward Fairfax Rochester; and he spoke with pain and woe, wildly, strangely, urgently. 'I am coming!' I cried. 'Wait for me!'” Clearly this demonstration is an illusion that Jane has imposed on herself, an illusion that reflects her passion and establishes her willingness to return to Rochester as a decision of passion, as opposed to a decision of conscience in accompanying St. . John. Jane, however, is his own woman, and despite St. John's insistence to the contrary – i.e. “The interest you love is unlawful and unhallowed” – Jane's passion is unshakable. Returning to Rochester, Jane has clearly made a passion-driven decision. John Rivers and Jane's supposed trip to India with him represents a conscientious decision, but in reality it is something of a farce. St. John Rivers is not presented as the best or most moral character in the novel, not by a long shot. In fact, Jane describes him like this: “He had actually become no longer flesh, but marble; his eye was a cold, bright, blue gem; his tongue a speaking instrument, nothing more. Such a description certainly does not evoke the image of a determined man of the Lord; it actually goes back to Mr. Brocklehurst's description: "I looked up at a black pillar... the grim face at the top was like a carved mask, set like a capital upon the tree." Recall that Mr. Brocklehurst was a person of blatant hypocrisy, who preached modesty, poverty, and self-inflicted shame and subsequently engaged in exactly the opposite, as noted by the narrator in the following passage: “'I must teach [the girls] to dress with shame and sobriety, not with braided hair and expensive clothes...' Mr. Brocklehurst was here interrupted: three more visitors, sir, now entered the room. They should have come a little earlier to hear his lecture on dress, for they were splendidly dressed in velvet, silk, and furs... These ladies were received with deference by Miss Temple, as were Mrs. and the Misses Brocklehurst. The similarity in the descriptions of Mr. Brocklehurst and St. John Rivers is certainly not a clear endorsement of him and his journey. As such, it seems entirely possible that the conscientious decision Jane might have made would not have been a decision of the anyway.