Many of the colonial values seen in the life of Livingstone are reflected in the character of St. John Rivers, the pastor-turned-missionary of Jane Eyre.  For example, in an early appeal, the London Missionary society asked for “messengers to the nations . . . to entreat [the foreigners] that they turn from their dumb idol to the living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.” Similarly, Rivers says his “great work” is to give “religion for superstition, the hope of heaven for the fear of hell” (471).

However, what is particularly telling is the hybrid of imperialistic and religious goals that are conflated in Livingstone’s work and similarly reflected through the character of St. John Rivers.  There is a sense that the missionary work and the exploration and expansion of Britain go hand in hand—and thus colonialism is endorsed by God. Livingstone himself writes that he was driven by the words of another missionary who said that in Africa was “the smoke of a thousand villages” yet to know Christianity. Yet his search for such villages, Livingstone also “pioneer[ed] a trade route” for African and European traders.  He received awards from geographical and science societies, and his maps and journals were used by the government to help expand British interests.  For Livingstone, these were not contradictory. He perceived British imperialism as both civilizing and Christianizing and therefore a benefit to the African people.  For Rivers as well, being British and being a missionary are intertwined. When he tells Jane of his goal to spread the gospel, he also speaks of “bettering his race” and substituting “peace for war, freedom for bondage” (471).  These points are not religious, but political in nature, and Rivers’ Christian devotion is mixed with an “austere patriot’s passion for his fatherland” (500).

The significance of the real-life Livingstone and the fictional St. John Rivers is that the imperative to spread Christianity—and the British way of life—were deeply embedded in the attitudes and minds of the Victorian people.

Sources: 

Laird, Michael. "Bogue, David". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2766. 

McDonald, Jared. "Southern Africans and the Advent of Colonialism." Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, eds. Livingstone Online. Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, dirs. University of Maryland Libraries, 2015. http://livingstoneonline.org/uuid/node/77590f20-a6f3-4721-85ff-22b52973f313.