Abstract
Helen Burns, the saintly schoolgirl of Jane Eyre, has an interestingly ambivalent attitude to the execution of Charles I. Discussing the matter with Jane, she thinks 'what a pity it was that, with his integrity and conscientiousness, he could see no farther than the prerogative of the crown. If he had but been able to look to a distance, and see to what they call the spirit of the age was tending! Still, I like Charles-I respect him-I pity him, poor murdered king! Yes, his enemies were the worst: they shed blood they had no right to shed. How dared they kill him!
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© 2005 Terry Eagleton
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Eagleton, T. (2005). Jane Eyre. In: Myths of Power. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230509726_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230509726_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4039-4698-0
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-50972-6
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