In Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Bronte discusses the ambitions of Jane Eyre and St. John. Ambition can be defined as having the desire to accomplish a specific goal or intention. Bronte’s message throughout the book is that too much ambition can make you lose part of yourself, without considering the consequences. St. John’s goal was to fulfill the tasks God hashad laid on his hands as a missionary. Meanwhile, Jane’s goal was to seek happiness and a simple life. Bronte portrays St. John as overly ambitious as he suppresses his emotions, Rosamund Oliver, and Jane, while trying to satisfy his missionary duties. Though Jane and St. John have ambitions, St. John loses himself unconsciously through his desperation as he allows his ambition to have control over his life and himself.
One instantinstance in which St. John allows his ambition to have control over him is when he is delivering a catechism lecture to his students at the school. Jane describes how St. John looks at Rosamund Oliver as she enters the room during his lecture. They exchange glances and St. John “...with a sad and resolute look, if he did not say it with his lips, ‘I love you. If I offered my heart… But that heart is already laid on a sacred altar: the fire is arranged round it’” (p. 669). Bronte expresses how St. John’s ambition in pursuing his missionary duties costs him his happiness and possible marriage with Rosamund Oliver. It is evident they both love each other, given the exchange of looks, with helplessness and sadness. St. John knows he can’t have any relations with Rosamund because he has already devoted his life and heart to only God.