Bronte, Cervantes, and Swift on Human Nature

Charlotte Bronte, in her novel, Jane Eyre, writes that "it is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it." If Bronte's assessment of human nature is to be believed, human life is one continual quest for satisfaction; it cannot be arrived at, only sought after. Therefore, man is bound to an ephemeral existence, in which tranquility is transient and even that which brings happiness is soon abandoned.

Charlotte Bronte's assertion rings true, and is supported by an untold number of the most acclaimed pieces of literature from every era. A prime example of outside literary support for Bronte's analysis of humankind's inconstant nature comes in the form of Miguel Cervantes' classic, Don Quixote. The book's main protagonist, Don Quixote, is himself the virtual personification of Bronte's vision of mankind. He is never content to live life within society's expectations, and is ever in motion. Over the course of the book, Don Quixote goes to considerable lengths in search of adventure; he is never content to rest in comfort, choosing instead to seek action, in whatever form, wherever he perceives it to lie.

Quixote's motivation lies in the attainment of glory and fame, and also the more internal purpose of becoming the living embodiment of chivalry. Despite the fact that he lives a life of ease and comfort at his estate in the country, he slowly fritters it away in his efforts to reshape his life into one outside of the status quo. What is more, once he embarks on his quest, he encounters nothing but discouragement and negativity, seemingly an obvious indication that he would do well to cease his efforts. Often, as Bronte implies is true of all humanity, Quixote often fabricates his own opportunities for action where there would ordinarily be none, as in the case of the windmills, sheep herd, and funeral procession. None of these encounters produces favorable results, or allows Quixote to attain the glory he seeks. However his blind, dogged perseverance in spite of his setbacks is evidence that Quixote, like all of humanity, will "not be satisfied with tranquility," and chooses instead to seek to alter his paradigm and redefine himself.

The secondary protagonist of Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, is at once further affirmation of Bronte's opinion, and a foil to it. In one aspect, Panza falls prey to the same wanderlust as Don Quixote; he is willing to place his life on hold and leave his family behind for an indeterminate period to embark on ill-advised adventure's at Quixote's side. Also like the Don, he does so in order to improve upon his current circumstances. However, Sancho Panza's aims are less ideologically and more economically driven. He sets out on these crackpot sorties with Don Quixote not in search of moral and spiritual improvement, or even fame; Panza's ambitions are more pragmatic in nature. He hopes that by leaving the current paradigm of his peasant's life and seeking action in the world, he can raise himself above his present station, becoming rich and powerful (and gaining himself a new wife). Therefore, though his aims are similar in nature to Quixote's, Sancho Panza differs from the Don in terms of class. He seeks to elevate his station in life, whereas Don Quixote is already relatively wealthy, and leads a comfortable existence.

While it would seem that Sancho Panza is merely further validation of Bronte's theory, it is also evident that he varies from her proposed definition of human nature. Unlike Don Quixote, who relentlessly pursues his goals without pausing to reevaluate his actions, Sancho Panza questions the continual, ill-considered action of himself and his master. He acts as the voice of reason that simultaneously reminds Quixote and the reader that action without thought is a vain endeavor. An example of Sancho's more tempered, reasonable nature is to be observed in his query to Quixote after the encounter with the Yanguesans: "Senor, since these misfortunes are the harvest reaped by chivalry, tell me, your grace, if they happen very often or come only at certain times, because it seems to me that after two harvests like this one, we'll be useless for the third if God, in his infinite mercy, doesn't come to our aid" (Cervantes 106). The doubts Sancho expresses in this circumstance, as well as in the aftermath of a number of Quixote's ill-fated sallies, reveal Sancho's more introspective, methodical nature. He, unlike Quixote, is willing to reexamine his actions, and question whether they are worth the loss of his previous tranquility.

An additional source of literary support for Bronte's claim comes in the form of another classic work, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. As in the case of Don Quixote, the main protagonist is defined by his insatiable desire for action. Gulliver, in each of the novel's four parts, embarks on a journey precipitated by his inexplicable lust for travel, even stating at the outset of Part III, "the thirst I had of seeing the world, notwithstanding my past misfortunes, [continued] as violent as ever" (Swift 103). Like the would-be knight of Cervantes work, Gulliver is driven by the insuppressible urge to explore his surroundings, to attain experience and be involved in constant action. Because his home life does not afford him that kind of action, he is compelled to manufacture it himself by undertaking dangerous journeys. It is through the experiences gained on these journeys that Gulliver comes to define himself, even changing his entire outlook on the human race. In this way, in Gulliver's mind, he becomes a better man, setting himself apart from the other "yahoos" that constitute mankind. Had he not left the comfort of his previously tranquil (yet unfulfilling) life, he would never have come to redefine and fully realize himself.

Still another voice speaking in support of Bronte's anomic perspective of mankind lies in the historical document, the Communist Manifesto. In this document, originally a propagandist call to the lower classes of all industrialized nations to rise against the upper, the concept of mankind's inability to accept the status quo is again prevalent. Marx and Engels, in the Communist Manifesto, emphasize the injuries committed against the proletariat, and labor long over the faults and injustices of the bourgeoisie in an effort to incite the working class into revolution, and into the adoption of the communist system of government.

The revelations of the manifesto as a whole both support and detract from Charlotte Bronte's analysis. The very purpose of the document stands as evidence of her message; it was written as propaganda, to stoke the coals of revolution and incite sweeping change in the state of human affairs. However, it also reveals the complacency of the bourgeoisie, even as it condemns it. As Marx and Engels emphasize, the bourgeoisie are content to remain comfortably in the status quo; their existence is relatively carefree and effortless, due to the exploitation of the proletariat. As is the case in modern society, the middle class of Marx and Engel's day was a content one, not desirous of a revolution to interfere with their tranquility.

Perhaps then, in the light of the Communist Manifesto, Don Quixote, and Gulliver's Travels, Bronte's analysis of humanity holds true under certain conditions: that humanity may indeed be satisfied with tranquility, while that tranquility serves its own needs. When the tranquility, or stasis, of human beings' existence ceases to satisfy them, they will seek action in order to improve upon their lives, and "they will make it if they cannot find it."