St John represents the antithesis of Rochester, both physically and mentally. While Rochester is rough, not handsome, and a warm enigma, St John is delicate, aristocratically handsome, and cool. It is clear that St John is a man devoted to God and his teachings, sacrificing his own love to be a missionary, as he does not believe that the woman he loves, Rosamond, would want to be the wife of a missionary. Thus, he asks Jane to be his wife instead, with no feelings of love behind this notion, merely a desire to be more proficient at spreading the teachings of God, as he finds Jane’s skills and temperament compatible with his lifestyle. It is as though St John is merely a cold vessel for Christianity, letting the religion consume his personality and human desires, to be replaced with cold sensibility. Hence, Jane’s rejection of St John is a rejection of a cold life of principle, akin to the one offered to her at Lowood, and her pursuance of Rochester instead is a rejection of the frigid cruelty of religion. Therefore, through St John and Jane’s rejection of him, Brontë condemns the detrimental effect that rigorous conformity to religion can create.
