The Rake Figure in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre Essay -- Charlotte Bro

The rip Figure in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre Edward Rochester, the male title-holder of Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre embodies a number of different mappings of masculinity. One of the least recognize but very influential roles played by Rochester is the riptide. The musical theme of the rip is communally related to the Restoration period in England yet this portend does not completely disappear during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Historical figures such(prenominal) as John Wilmot the second Earl of Rochester be described as leading(p) rakish lifestyles. Literature and Art also played an important role in defining the rake. The rake character is primarily defined by his sexual nature. A rake was concerned ab pop out his status among opposite men. He spent more or less of his time in search of sexual liaisons or relating tales of past sexual escapades. Harold Weber in The Restoration conk out-Hero explains that most rakes possess little identity outside of th e love game, their lives responding largely to the rhythms of courtship and seduction, pursuit and conquest, foreplay and release (Weber 3). However, as Weber further points out the rake is too complex and enigmatic a figure to be reduced to a sexual machine his love of disguise, need for freedom, and middle for play all establish the complexity of the rakish personality (Weber 3). The rakes sexual desires can be seen as a deal for freedom and a break from social order. He balks at the idea of marriage and family in pursuit of personal gratification. While a common characteristic of the rake is his pursuit of personal gratification there are a number of different types of rakes the Hobbesian libertine, best explained by Horner in The acres Wife the philosophical libertine, seen through th... ...rake was so strong that he continues to influence the perception of masculinity well in the twentieth century. Charlotte Bronte was attracted to rake computer simulation of masculinity and modeled Edward Rochester after this Restoration figure. Works Cited Cohan, Steven M. Clarissa and the Individuation of Character. ELH 43 (1976) 163-183. Johnson, Samuel. The Life of Cowley. The Penn State Archive of Samuel Johnsons Lives of the Poets. Ed. Kathleen Nulton Kemmerer. 3 March 2003. Norman, Charles. Rake Rochester. New York Crown, 1954. Weber, Harold. The Restoration Rake-Hero Transformations in Sexual Understanding in Seventeeth-Century England. capital of Wisconsin U of Wisconsin P, 1986. William Hogarth and Eighteenth-Century Print Culture. Northwestern University. 10 March 2003. William Hogarth A Rakes Progress. Haley & Steele. 10 March 2003.