Jane Eyre:The First act of free will

In choosing to leave Rochestor Jane Eyre confirms her human independence by displaying her willingness to die for it. It is an idea which can be traced back to Socrates and the birth of free will. It would have been convenient to stay on at Thornfield hall and become Rochestors mistress, but in doing so Jane Eyre would loose the idealism her character is fundamentally built on; Intelligence, Independence, and the idea of being true to ones self. This pure chastity in Janes personality holds continuity throughout the novel.
The idea of Janes 'self' is important when considering the importance of god to her. Love in Jane Eyre, although humane and passionate can in many ways be seen as the eventual transcendence to god under the union of matrimony. In giving herself to Rochestor out of wedlock, when viewed in the context of the 19th century theological morality, would have been highly damaging to her soul. Christianity often ignored in favour of more dynamic modern paradigms of analysis plays an enormous role in the formulation of Jane Eyres character.
In leaving Rochester and Thornfield hall Jane abandons herself to the wilderness of pain, destitution and possible death. Is this a test of her faith or an act of self destruction or
what Freud called a [selbsterhaltugstrieb] the drive to self preservation through the encompassing of an ideal sense of self being? Often in the novel Jane will act to the point of self destruction through physical and psychological means. This almost religious asceticism can be seen as the darkness within Jane, the rejection she suffered as a child eventually manifested as attack on the self. A constant self questioning, self destructing and self reforming. It's not easy to be Jane Eyre. The world threatens to destroy her just as she threatens to destroy herself. There is a social neurosis within Jane. But the beauty of Jane is that she eventually comes to a resolution within herself, a triumph of the will, which can be viewed in the history of human nature as artistically equal to the beautiful self awakenings that one sees in the philosophy of Frederick Nietzsche and the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh.