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= Jane_Eyre =
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Introduction
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'Jane Eyre' ( ; originally published as 'Jane Eyre: An Autobiography')
is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published
under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder
& Co. of London. The first American edition was published in
January 1848 by Harper & Brothers of New York. 'Jane Eyre' is a
bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine,
including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the
brooding master of Thornfield Hall.
The novel revolutionised prose fiction, being the first to focus on
the moral and spiritual development of its protagonist through an
intimate first-person narrative, where actions and events are coloured
by a psychological intensity. Charlotte Brontë has been called the
"first historian of the private consciousness" and the literary
ancestor of writers such as Marcel Proust and James Joyce.
The book contains elements of social criticism with a strong sense of
Christian morality at its core, and it is considered by many to be
ahead of its time because of Jane's individualistic character and how
the novel approaches the topics of class, sexuality, religion and
feminism. 'Jane Eyre', along with Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice',
is one of the most famous romance novels. It is considered one of the
greatest novels in the English language, and in 2003 was ranked as the
tenth best-loved book in Britain by the BBC in The Big Read poll.
Plot
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'Jane Eyre' is divided into 38 chapters. It was originally published
in three volumes in the 19th century, consisting of chapters 1 to 15,
16 to 27, and 28 to 38.
The second edition was dedicated to William Makepeace Thackeray.
The novel is a first-person narrative from the perspective of the
title character. Its setting is somewhere in the north of England,
late in the reign of George III (1760-1820). It has five distinct
stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally
and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood
School, where she gains friends and role models but suffers privations
and oppression; her time as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she
falls in love with her mysterious employer, Edward Fairfax Rochester;
her time in the Moor House, during which her earnest but cold
clergyman cousin, St John Rivers, proposes to her; and ultimately her
reunion with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester. Throughout these
sections it provides perspectives on a number of important social
issues and ideas, many of which are critical of the status quo.
The five stages of Jane's life are as follows:
Gateshead Hall
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Jane Eyre, aged 10, lives at Gateshead Hall with her maternal uncle's
family, the Reeds, as a result of her uncle's dying wish. Jane was
orphaned several years earlier when her parents died of typhus. Jane's
uncle, Mr Reed, was the only one in the Reed family who was kind to
Jane. Jane's aunt, Sarah Reed, dislikes her and treats her as a
burden. Mrs Reed also discourages her three children from associating
with Jane. As a result Jane becomes defensive against her cruel
judgement. The nursemaid, Bessie, proves to be Jane's only ally in the
household, even though Bessie occasionally scolds Jane harshly.
Excluded from the family activities, Jane lives an unhappy childhood.
One day, as punishment for defending herself against the bullying of
her 14-year-old cousin John, the Reeds' only son, Jane is locked in
the 'red room' in which her late uncle had died; there she faints from
panic after she thinks she has seen his ghost. The red room is
significant because it lays the grounds for the "ambiguous
relationship between parents and children" which plays out in all of
Jane's future relationships with male figures throughout the novel.
She is subsequently attended to by the kindly apothecary, Mr Lloyd, to
whom Jane reveals how unhappy she is living at Gateshead Hall. He
recommends to Mrs Reed that Jane should be sent to school, an idea Mrs
Reed happily supports.
Mrs Reed then enlists the aid of the harsh Mr Brocklehurst, the
director of Lowood Institution, a charity school for girls, to enroll
Jane. Mrs Reed cautions Mr Brocklehurst that Jane has a "tendency to
deceit", which he interprets as Jane being a liar. Before Jane leaves,
however, she confronts Mrs Reed and declares that she'll never call
her "aunt" again. Jane also tells Mrs Reed and her daughters,
Georgiana and Eliza, that they are the ones who are deceitful, and
that she will tell everyone at Lowood how cruelly the Reeds treated
her. Mrs Reed is hurt badly by these words but has neither the courage
nor the tenacity to show it.
Lowood Institution
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At Lowood Institution, a school for poor and orphaned girls, Jane soon
finds that life is harsh. She attempts to fit in and befriends an
older girl, Helen Burns. During a class session her new friend is
criticised for her poor stance and dirty nails and receives a lashing
as a result. Later Jane tells Helen that she could not have borne such
public humiliation, but Helen philosophically tells her that it would
be her duty to do so. Jane then tells Helen how badly she has been
treated by Mrs Reed, but Helen tells her that she would be far happier
if she did not bear grudges.
In due course Mr Brocklehurst visits the school. While Jane is trying
to make herself look inconspicuous, she accidentally drops her slate,
thereby drawing attention to herself. She is then forced to stand on a
stool and is branded a sinner and a liar. Later Miss Temple, the
caring superintendent, facilitates Jane's self-defence and publicly
clears her of any wrongdoing. Helen and Miss Temple are Jane's two
main role models who positively guide her development despite the
harsh treatment she has received from many others.
The 80 pupils at Lowood are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals and
thin clothing. Many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes;
Helen dies of consumption in Jane's arms. When Mr Brocklehurst's
maltreatment of the pupils is discovered, several benefactors erect a
new building and install a sympathetic management committee to
moderate Mr Brocklehurst's harsh rule. Conditions at the school then
improve dramatically.
Thornfield Hall
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After six years as a pupil and two as a teacher at Lowood, Jane
decides to leave in pursuit of a new life, growing bored with her life
at Lowood. Her friend and confidante, Miss Temple, also leaves after
getting married. Jane advertises her services as a governess in a
newspaper. The housekeeper at Thornfield Hall, Alice Fairfax, replies
to Jane's advertisement. Jane takes the position, teaching Adèle
Varens, a young French girl.
One night, while Jane is carrying a letter to the post from
Thornfield, a horseman and dog pass her. The horse slips on ice and
throws the rider. Despite the rider's surliness, Jane helps him get
back onto his horse. Later, back at Thornfield, she learns that this
man is Edward Rochester, master of the house. Adèle was left in his
care when her mother, a famous dancer, abandoned her. It is not
immediately apparent whether Adèle is Rochester's daughter.
At Jane's first meeting with Mr Rochester he teases her, accusing her
of bewitching his horse to make him fall. Jane stands up to his
initially arrogant manner. Despite his strange behaviour, Mr Rochester
and Jane soon come to enjoy each other's company and they spend many
evenings together.
Odd things start to happen at the house, such as a strange laugh being
heard, a mysterious fire in Mr Rochester's room (from which Jane saves
Rochester by rousing him and throwing water on him) and an attack on a
house-guest named Mr Mason.
After Jane saves Mr Rochester from the fire, he thanks her tenderly
and emotionally, and that night Jane feels strange emotions of her own
towards him. The next day, however, he leaves unexpectedly for a
distant party and several days later returns with the whole party,
including the beautiful and talented Blanche Ingram. Just as she
realises that she is in love with Mr Rochester, Jane sees that he and
Blanche favour each other and starts to feel jealous, particularly
because she also sees that Blanche is snobbish and heartless.
Jane then receives word that Mrs Reed has suffered a stroke and is
calling for her. Jane returns to Gateshead Hall and remains there for
a month to tend to her dying aunt. Mrs Reed confesses to Jane that she
wronged her, bringing forth a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, Mr
John Eyre, in which he asks for her to live with him and be his heir.
Mrs Reed admits to telling Mr Eyre that Jane had died of fever at
Lowood. Soon afterward Mrs Reed dies, and Jane helps her cousins after
the funeral before returning to Thornfield.
Back at Thornfield Jane broods over Mr Rochester's rumoured impending
marriage to Blanche Ingram. However one midsummer evening Rochester
baits Jane by saying how much he will miss her after getting married
and how she will soon forget him. The normally self-controlled Jane
reveals her feelings for him. To her surprise, Rochester reciprocates,
having courted Blanche only to make Jane jealous, and proposes
marriage. Jane is at first sceptical of his sincerity, before
accepting his proposal. She then writes to her Uncle John, telling him
of her happy news.
As she prepares for her wedding Jane's forebodings arise when a
strange woman sneaks into her room one night and rips Jane's wedding
veil in two. As with the previous mysterious events, Mr Rochester
attributes the incident to Grace Poole, one of his servants. During
the wedding ceremony, however, Mr Mason and a lawyer declare that Mr
Rochester cannot marry because he is already married to Mr Mason's
sister, Bertha. Mr Rochester admits this is true but explains that his
father tricked him into the marriage for her money. Once they were
united he discovered that she was rapidly descending into congenital
madness, and so he eventually locked her away in Thornfield, hiring
Grace Poole as a nurse to look after her. When Grace gets drunk,
Rochester's wife escapes and causes the strange happenings at
Thornfield.
It turns out that Jane's uncle, Mr John Eyre, is a friend of Mr
Mason's and was visited by him soon after Mr Eyre received Jane's
letter about her impending marriage. After the marriage ceremony is
broken off, Mr Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of
France and live with him as husband and wife, even though they cannot
be married. Jane is tempted but realises that she will lose herself
and her integrity if she allows her passion for a married man to
consume her and she must stay true to her Christian values and
beliefs. Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love
for Rochester, Jane leaves Thornfield Hall at dawn before anyone else
is up.
Moor House
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Jane travels as far from Thornfield Hall as she can using the little
money she had previously saved. She accidentally leaves her bundle of
possessions on the coach and is forced to sleep on the moor. She
unsuccessfully attempts to trade her handkerchief and gloves for food.
Exhausted and starving, she eventually makes her way to the home of
Diana and Mary Rivers but is turned away by the housekeeper. She
collapses on the doorstep, preparing for her death. Clergyman St John
Rivers, Diana and Mary's brother, rescues her. After Jane regains her
health, St John finds her a teaching position at a nearby village
school. Jane becomes good friends with the sisters, but St John
remains aloof.
The sisters leave for governess jobs, and St John becomes slightly
closer to Jane. St John learns Jane's true identity and astounds her
by telling her that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her his
entire fortune of 20,000 pounds (equivalent to US $2.24 million in
2022). When Jane questions him further, St John reveals that John Eyre
is also his and his sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of
the inheritance but were left virtually nothing. Jane, overjoyed by
finding that she has living and friendly family members, insists on
sharing the money equally with her cousins, and Diana and Mary come
back to live at Moor House.
Proposals
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Thinking that the pious and conscientious Jane will make a suitable
missionary's wife, St John asks her to marry him and to go with him to
India, not out of love, but out of duty. Jane initially accepts going
to India but rejects the marriage proposal, suggesting they travel as
brother and sister. As Jane's resolve against marriage to St John
begins to weaken, she seems to hear Mr Rochester's voice calling her
name. Jane then returns to Thornfield Hall to see if Rochester is all
right, only to find blackened ruins. She learns that Rochester sent
Mrs Fairfax into retirement and Adèle to school a few months following
her departure. Shortly afterwards, his wife set the house on fire and
died after jumping from the roof. While saving the servants and
attempting to rescue his wife, Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight.
Jane reunites with Rochester, and he is overjoyed at her return, but
fears that she will be repulsed by his condition. "Am I hideous,
Jane?", he asks. "Very, sir; you always were, you know", she replies.
Now a humbled man, Rochester vows to live a purer life, and reveals
that he has intensely pined for Jane ever since she left. He had even
called out her name in despair one night, the very call that she heard
from Moor House, and heard her reply from miles away, signifying the
connection between them. Jane asserts herself as a financially
independent woman and assures him of her love, declaring that she will
never leave him. Rochester proposes again, and they are married. The
narrator breaks the fourth wall and in a famous metafictional manner
directly addresses the reader: "Reader, I married him." They live
blissfully together in an old house in the woods called Ferndean
Manor. The couple stay in touch with Adèle as she grows up, as well as
Diana and Mary, who each gain loving husbands of their own. St John
moves to India to accomplish his missionary goals, but is implied to
have fallen gravely ill there. Rochester regains sight in one eye two
years after his and Jane's marriage, enabling him to see their newborn
son.
Major characters
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In order of first line of dialogue:
Introduced in first chapter
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* Jane Eyre: The novel's narrator and protagonist. Orphaned as a baby,
Jane struggles through her nearly loveless childhood and becomes a
governess at Thornfield Hall. Small and facially plain, Jane is
passionate and strongly principled and values freedom and
independence. She also has a strong conscience and is a determined
Christian. She is ten at the beginning of the novel, and nineteen or
twenty at the end of the main narrative. As the final chapter of the
novel states that she has been married to Edward Rochester for ten
years, she is approximately thirty at its completion.
* Mrs Sarah Reed (née Gibson): Jane's maternal aunt by marriage, who
reluctantly adopted Jane in accordance with her late husband's wishes.
According to Mrs Reed, he pitied Jane and often cared for her more
than for his own children. Mrs Reed's resentment leads her to abuse
and neglect the girl. She lies to Mr Brocklehurst about Jane's
tendency to lie, preparing him to be severe with Jane when she arrives
at Brocklehurst's Lowood School.
* John Reed: Jane's fourteen-year-old first cousin who bullies her
incessantly and violently, sometimes in his mother's presence.
Addicted to food and sweets, causing him ill health and bad
complexion. John eventually ruins himself as an adult by drinking and
gambling and is rumoured to have killed himself.
* Eliza Reed: Jane's thirteen-year-old first cousin. Envious of her
more attractive younger sister and a slave to a rigid routine, she
self-righteously devotes herself to religion. She leaves for a nunnery
near Lisle (France) after her mother's death, determined to estrange
herself from her sister.
* Georgiana Reed: Jane's eleven-year-old first cousin. Although
beautiful and indulged, she is insolent and spiteful. Her elder sister
Eliza foils Georgiana's marriage to the wealthy Lord Edwin Vere when
the couple is about to elope. Georgiana eventually marries a "wealthy
worn-out man of fashion."
* Bessie Lee: The nursemaid at Gateshead Hall. She often treats Jane
kindly, telling her stories and singing her songs, but she has a quick
temper. Later, she marries Robert Leaven with whom she has three
children.
* Miss Martha Abbot: Mrs Reed's maid at Gateshead Hall. She is unkind
to Jane and tells Jane she has less right to be at Gateshead than a
servant does.
Chapters 3–5
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* Mr Lloyd: A compassionate apothecary who recommends that Jane be
sent to school. Later, he writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming
Jane's account of her childhood and thereby clears Jane of Mrs Reed's
charge of lying.
* Mr Brocklehurst: The clergyman, director, and treasurer of Lowood
School, whose maltreatment of the pupils is eventually exposed. A
religious traditionalist, he advocates for his charges the most harsh,
plain, and disciplined possible lifestyle, but, hypocritically, not
for himself and his own family. His second daughter, Augusta,
exclaimed, "Oh, dear papa, how quiet and plain all the girls at Lowood
look… they looked at my dress and mama's, as if they had never seen a
silk gown before."
* Miss Maria Temple: The kind superintendent of Lowood School, who
treats the pupils with respect and compassion. She helps clear Jane of
Mr Brocklehurst's false accusation of deceit and cares for Helen in
her last days. Eventually, she marries Reverend Naysmith.
* Miss Scatcherd: A sour and strict teacher at Lowood. She constantly
punishes Helen Burns for her untidiness but fails to see Helen's
substantial good points.
* Helen Burns: Jane's best friend at Lowood School. She refuses to
hate those who abuse her, trusts in God, and prays for peace one day
in heaven. She teaches Jane to trust Christianity and dies of
consumption in Jane's arms. Elizabeth Gaskell, in her biography of the
Brontë sisters, wrote that Helen Burns was 'an exact transcript' of
Maria Brontë, who died of consumption at age 11.
Chapters 11–12
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* Mrs Alice Fairfax: The elderly, kind widow and the housekeeper of
Thornfield Hall; distantly related to the Rochesters.
* Adèle Varens: An excitable French child to whom Jane is a governess
at Thornfield Hall. Adèle's mother was a dancer named Céline. She was
Mr Rochester's mistress and claimed that Adèle was Mr Rochester's
daughter, though he refuses to believe it due to Céline's
unfaithfulness and Adèle's apparent lack of resemblance to him. Adèle
seems to believe that her mother is dead (she tells Jane in chapter
11, "I lived long ago with mamma, but she is gone to the Holy
Virgin"). Mr Rochester later tells Jane that Céline actually abandoned
Adèle and "ran away to Italy with a musician or singer" (ch. 15).
Adèle and Jane develop a strong liking for one another, and although
Mr Rochester places Adèle in a strict school after Jane flees
Thornfield Hall, Jane visits Adèle after her return and finds a
better, less severe school for her. When Adèle is old enough to leave
school, Jane describes her as "a pleasing and obliging
companion--docile, good-tempered and well-principled", and considers
her kindness to Adèle well repaid.
* Grace Poole: "…a woman of between thirty and forty; a set,
square-made figure, red-haired, and with a hard, plain face…" Mr
Rochester pays her a very high salary to keep his mad wife, Bertha,
hidden and quiet. Grace is often used as an explanation for odd
happenings at the house such as strange laughter that was heard not
long after Jane arrived. She has a weakness for drinking that
occasionally allows Bertha to escape.
* Edward Fairfax Rochester: The master of Thornfield Hall. A Byronic
hero, he has a face "dark, strong, and stern." He married Bertha Mason
years before the novel begins.
* Leah: The housemaid at Thornfield Hall.
Chapters 17–21
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* Blanche Ingram: Young socialite whom Mr Rochester plans to marry.
Though possessing great beauty and talent, she treats social
inferiors, Jane in particular, with undisguised contempt. Mr Rochester
exposes her and her mother's mercenary motivations when he puts out a
rumour that he is far less wealthy than they imagine.
* Richard Mason: An Englishman whose arrival at Thornfield Hall from
the West Indies unsettles Mr Rochester. He is the brother of
Rochester's first wife, the woman in the attic, and still cares for
his sister's well-being. During the wedding ceremony of Jane and Mr
Rochester, he exposes the bigamous nature of the marriage.
* Robert Leaven: The coachman at Gateshead Hall, who brings Jane the
news of the death of the dissolute John Reed, an event which has
brought on Mrs Reed's stroke. He informs her of Mrs Reed's wish to see
Jane before she dies.
Chapters 26–32
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* Bertha Antoinetta Mason: The first wife of Edward Rochester. After
their wedding, her mental health began to deteriorate, and she is now
violent and in a state of intense derangement, apparently unable to
speak or go into society. Mr Rochester, who insists that he was
tricked into the marriage by a family who knew Bertha was likely to
develop this condition, has kept Bertha locked in the attic at
Thornfield Hall for years. She is supervised and cared for by Grace
Poole, whose drinking sometimes allows Bertha to escape. After Richard
Mason stops Jane and Mr Rochester's wedding, Rochester finally
introduces Jane to Bertha: "In the deep shade, at the farther end of
the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether
beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell… it snatched
and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with
clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid
its head and face." Eventually, Bertha sets fire to Thornfield Hall
and throws herself to her death from the roof. Bertha is viewed as
Jane's "double": Jane is pious and just, while Bertha is savage and
animalistic. Though her race is never mentioned, it is sometimes
conjectured that she was of mixed race. Rochester suggests that
Bertha's parents wanted her to marry him, because he was of "good
race", implying that she was not pure white, while he was. There are
also references to her "dark" hair and "discoloured" and "black" face.
A number of writers during the Victorian period suggested that madness
could result from a racially "impure" lineage, compounded by growing
up in a tropical West Indian climate.
* Diana and Mary Rivers: Sisters in a remote moors house who take Jane
in when she is hungry and friendless, having left Thornfield Hall
without making any arrangements for herself. Financially poor but
intellectually curious, the sisters are deeply engrossed in reading
the evening Jane appears at their door. Eventually, they are revealed
to be Jane's cousins. They want Jane to marry their stern clergyman
brother so that he will stay in England rather than journey to India
as a missionary. Diana marries naval Captain Fitzjames, and Mary
marries clergyman Mr Wharton. The sisters remain close to Jane and
visit her and Rochester every year.
* Hannah: The kindly housekeeper at the Rivers home; "…comparable with
the Brontës' well-loved servant, Tabitha Aykroyd."
* St John Eyre Rivers: A handsome, though severe and serious,
clergyman who befriends Jane and turns out to be her cousin. St John
is thoroughly practical and suppresses all of his human passions and
emotions, particularly his love for the beautiful and cheerful heiress
Rosamond Oliver, in favour of good works. He wants Jane to marry him
and serve as his assistant on his missionary journey to India. After
Jane rejects his proposal, St John goes to India unmarried.
* Rosamond Oliver: A beautiful, kindly, wealthy, but rather simple
young woman, and the patron of the village school where Jane teaches.
Rosamond is in love with St John, but he refuses to declare his love
for her because she would not be suitable as a missionary's wife. She
eventually becomes engaged to the respected and wealthy Mr Granby.
* Mr Oliver: Rosamond Oliver's wealthy father, who owns a foundry and
needle factory in the district. "…a tall, massive-featured,
middle-aged, and grey-headed man, at whose side his lovely daughter
looked like a bright flower near a hoary turret." He is a kind and
charitable man, and he is fond of St John.
Context
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The early sequences, in which Jane is sent to Lowood, a harsh boarding
school, are derived from the author's own experiences. Helen Burns's
death from tuberculosis (referred to as consumption) recalls the
deaths of Charlotte Brontë's sisters, Elizabeth and Maria, who died of
the disease in childhood as a result of the conditions at their
school, the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge, near Tunstall,
Lancashire. Mr Brocklehurst is based on Rev. William Carus Wilson
(1791-1859), the Evangelical minister who ran the school.
Additionally, John Reed's decline into alcoholism and dissolution
recalls the life of Charlotte's brother Branwell, who became an opium
and alcohol addict in the years preceding his death. Finally, like
Jane, Charlotte became a governess. These facts were revealed to the
public in 'The Life of Charlotte Brontë' (1857) by Charlotte's friend
and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell.
The Gothic manor of Thornfield Hall was probably inspired by North
Lees Hall, near Hathersage in the Peak District in Derbyshire. This
was visited by Charlotte Brontë and her friend Ellen Nussey in the
summer of 1845, and is described by the latter in a letter dated 22
July 1845. It was the residence of the Eyre family, and its first
owner, Agnes Ashurst, was reputedly confined as a lunatic in a padded
second floor room. It has been suggested that the Wycoller Hall in
Lancashire, close to Haworth, provided the setting for Ferndean Manor
to which Mr Rochester retreats after the fire at Thornfield: there are
similarities between the owner of Ferndean--Mr Rochester's father--and
Henry Cunliffe, who inherited Wycoller in the 1770s and lived there
until his death in 1818; one of Cunliffe's relatives was named
Elizabeth Eyre (née Cunliffe). The sequence in which Mr Rochester's
wife sets fire to the bed curtains was prepared in an August 1830
homemade publication of Brontë's 'The Young Men's Magazine, Number 2'.
Charlotte Brontë began composing 'Jane Eyre' in Manchester, and she
likely envisioned Manchester Cathedral churchyard as the burial place
for Jane's parents and Manchester as the birthplace of Jane herself.
Adaptations and influence
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The novel has been adapted into a number of other forms, including
theatre, film, television, and at least three full-length operas. The
novel has also been the subject of a number of significant rewritings
and related interpretations, notably Jean Rhys's seminal 1966 novel
'Wide Sargasso Sea'.
A famous line in the book is at the beginning of Chapter 38: "Reader,
I married him." Many authors have used a variation of this line in
their work. For example, Liane Moriarty discussed and used the line in
her 2018 novel 'Nine Perfect Strangers'.
The book 'Reader, I Married Him: Stories inspired by Jane Eyre', a
2016 anthology of short stories, edited by Tracy Chevalier, was also
inspired by this line. It was commissioned to mark the 200th
anniversary of Brontë's birth, and is published by The Borough Press,
an imprint of HarperCollins.
Thai novel 'Ruk Diow Kong Jenjira' was adapted by Nida in 1993. In
1996, it was made into a television drama on Channel 3 starred by
Willie McIntosh and Sirilak Pongchoke.
The novel 'The French Dancer's Bastard', by Emma Tennant, reimagines
the back story of Adèle, exploring whether she was Rochester's love
child and what her relationship with Jane Eyre is.
The most recent film adaptation, 'Jane Eyre', was released in 2011,
directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, and starred Mia Wasikowska as Jane
Eyre and Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester. The film, actors, and
costume design team were nominated and won various awards from 2011 to
2012.
Contemporary reviews
======================
'Jane Eyre's' initial reception contrasts starkly to its reputation
today. In 1848, Elizabeth Rigby (later Elizabeth Eastlake), reviewing
'Jane Eyre' in 'The Quarterly Review', found it "pre-eminently an
anti-Christian composition," declaring: "We do not hesitate to say
that the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and
violated every code human and divine abroad, and fostered Chartism and
rebellion at home, is the same which has also written 'Jane Eyre.'"
An anonymous review in 'The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
Instruction' writes of "the extraordinary daring of the writer of
'Jane Eyre'"; however, the review is mostly critical, summarising:
"There is not a single natural character throughout the work.
Everybody moves on stilts--the opinions are bad--the notions absurd.
Religion is stabbed in the dark--our social distinctions attempted to
be levelled, and all absurdly moral notions done away with."
There were some who felt more positive about the novel
contemporaneously. George Henry Lewes said, "It reads like a page out
of one's own life; and so do many other pages in the book." Another
critic from the 'Atlas' wrote, "It is full of youthful vigour, of
freshness and originality, of nervous diction and concentrated
interest ...It is a book to make the pulses gallop and the heart beat,
and to fill the eyes with tears."
A review in 'The Era' praised the novel, calling it "an extraordinary
book", observing that "there is much to ponder over, rejoice over, and
weep over, in its ably-written pages. Much of the heart laid bare, and
the mind explored; much of greatness in affliction, and littleness in
the ascendant; much of trial and temptation, of fortitude and
resignation, of sound sense and Christianity--but no tameness."
'The People's Journal' compliments the novel's vigour, stating that
"the reader never tires, never sleeps: the swell and tide of an
affluent existence, an irresistible energy, bears him onward, from
first to last. It is impossible to deny that the author possesses
native power in an uncommon degree--showing itself now in rapid
headlong recital, now in stern, fierce, daring dashes in
portraiture--anon in subtle, startling mental anatomy--here in a grand
illusion, there in an original metaphor--again in a wild gush of
genuine poetry."
American publication 'The Nineteenth Century' defended the novel
against accusations of immorality, describing it as "a work which has
produced a decided sensation in this country and in England... 'Jane
Eyre' has made its mark upon the age, and even palsied the talons of
mercenary criticism. Yes, critics hired to abuse or panegyrize, at so
much per line, have felt a throb of human feeling pervade their veins,
at the perusal of 'Jane Eyre'. This is extraordinary--almost
preternatural--smacking strongly of the miraculous--and yet it is
true... We have seen 'Jane Eyre' put down, as a work of gross
immorality, and its author described as the very incarnation of
sensualism. To any one, who has read the work, this may look
ridiculous, and yet it is true."
'The Indicator', concerning speculation regarding the gender of the
author, wrote, "We doubt not it will soon cease to be a secret; but on
one assertion we are willing to risk our critical reputation--and that
is, that no woman wrote it. This was our decided conviction at the
first perusal, and a somewhat careful study of the work has
strengthened it. No woman in all the annals of feminine celebrity ever
wrote such a style, terse yet eloquent, and filled with energy
bordering sometimes almost on rudeness: no woman ever conceived such
masculine characters as those portrayed here."
Twentieth century
===================
Literary critic Jerome Beaty believed the close first-person
perspective leaves the reader "too uncritically accepting of her
worldview", and often leads reading and conversation about the novel
towards supporting Jane, regardless of how irregular her ideas or
perspectives are.
In 2003, the novel was ranked number 10 in the BBC's survey The Big
Read, a survey to find British people's favourite novel.
Romance
=========
Before the Victorian era, Jane Austen wrote literary fiction that
influenced later popular fiction, as did the work of the Brontë
sisters produced in the 1840s. Brontë's love romance incorporates
elements of both the gothic novel and Elizabethan drama, and
"demonstrate[s] the flexibility of the romance novel form."
Gothic
========
The Gothic genre uses a combination of supernatural features, intense
emotions, and a blend of reality and fantasy to create a dark,
mysterious atmosphere and experience for characters and readers. Jane
Eyre is a homodiegetic narrator, which allows her to exist both as a
character and narrator in the story world, and her narration
establishes an emotional connection and response for the reader. This
intentional, narrative technique works in tandem with Gothic features
and conventions. Jane and the reader are unaware of the cause behind
the "demoniac laugh--low, suppressed, and deep" or "a savage, a sharp,
a shrilly sound that ran from end to end of Thornfield Hall," though
the reason comes from Bertha Mason. The element of the unknown works
in conjunction to the possibility of the supernatural. The intensity
of emotions and reactions to Gothic conventions can solely exist in
the protagonist's imagination. Instances that a protagonist interprets
to be their imagination turns into reality. Jane's experience in the
red room represents an aspect of Gothic conventions as Jane feels fear
towards being punished in the red room because she believes and
imagines that her dead uncle haunts the room.
The Gothic genre uses the Gothic double: a literary motif, which is
described as the protagonist having a double, alter ego, or
doppelgänger interpreted between Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason, where
Bertha represents the other side of Jane and vice versa. The commonly
used Gothic literary device, foreshadowing, creates an environment
filled with tension, ominousity, and dread. After Jane agrees to marry
Rochester, a horse-chestnut tree in an orchard is struck by lightning,
splitting the tree in half. The lightning strike is ominous and
foreshadows Jane and Rochester's separation.
The Gothic Genre in tandem with Murphy's the "New Woman Gothic"
establishes an opportunity to go against the Romantic's concept that
the antagonist is usually a villainous father. The Gothic genre allows
there to be a complex consideration of who or what hinders Jane's
happiness. The barriers Jane experiences, whether related to social
class, societal and cultural norms, Bertha Mason, or Rochester, have
antagonistic elements.
Bildungsroman
===============
The Bildungsroman representation in 'Jane Eyre' uses romantic elements
that emphasise the journey of one pursuing the discovery of one's
identity and knowledge. Jane Eyre desires the thrill and action that
comes from being an active individual in society, and she refuses to
allow the concept of gender and class to hinder her.
Bildungsroman was primarily viewed through male life progression, but
feminist scholars have worked to counteract the male norm of
bildungsroman by including female development. Experiences that deem a
female narrative to be bildungsroman would be the female protagonist
discovering how to manage living in a restrictive society. The novel's
setting is the English society of the early 19th century, and with
that time setting come specific restrictions women encountered during
that time, such as the law of coverture, the lack of rights, and the
restricted expectations placed on women. Jane Eyre does not
specifically and directly deal with the restrictions of, for example
coverture, but her character lives in a society where coverture
exists, which inadvertently impacts social and cultural norms and
expectations. Progression in the bildungsroman does not necessarily
occur in a linear direction. Many narratives that employ bildungsroman
do so through the protagonist's development of maturity, which is
represented through the protagonist's experiences from childhood to
adulthood; this progression is in conjunction with the novel's
narrative technique set as an autobiography. Temporally, the beginning
of the novel begins with Jane at age ten and ends with Jane at age
thirty, but Jane's development of maturity goes beyond her age. For
example, Jane's emotional intelligence grows through her friendship
with Helen Burns as Jane experiences and processes the loss of her
friendship with Helen.
Many times, the 19th-century female bildungsroman can be interpreted
as the heroine's growth of self and education in the context of
prospective marriage, especially when, in the context of 19th-century
womanhood, a wife experiences new knowledge in the private sphere of
her role. Jane develops knowledge and experience regarding a romantic
journey before her almost marriage to Mr. Rochester; a physical,
spiritual, and financial knowledge during her time with St. John; and
lastly, with her marriage with Mr. Rochester at the end of the novel.
Jane's search for excitement and understanding of life goes beyond her
romantic journey. In the text, Jane's childhood beliefs about
religion, as seen in her interactions with Mr. Brocklehurt, shift
considerably in comparison to her friendship with Helen in Lowood as a
child and in her marital and missionary rejection of St. John as an
adult woman.
Race
======
Throughout the novel there are frequent themes relating to ideas of
ethnicity (specifically that of Bertha), which are a reflection of the
society that the novel is set within. Mr Rochester claims to have been
forced to take on a "mad" Creole wife, a woman who grew up in the West
Indies, and who is thought to be of mixed-race descent. In the
analysis of several scholars, Bertha plays the role of the racialised
"other" through the shared belief that she chose to follow in the
footsteps of her parents. Her apparent mental instability casts her as
someone who is incapable of restraining herself, almost forced to
submit to the different vices she is a victim of. Many writers of the
period believed that one could develop mental instability or mental
illnesses simply based on their race.
This means that those who were born of ethnicities associated with a
darker complexion, or those who were not fully of European descent,
were believed to be more mentally unstable than their white European
counterparts were. According to American scholar Susan Meyer, in
writing 'Jane Eyre', Brontë was responding to the "seemingly
inevitable" analogy in 19th-century European texts which "[compared]
white women with blacks in order to degrade both groups and assert the
need for white male control". Bertha serves as an example of both the
multiracial population and of a 'clean' European, as she is seemingly
able to pass as a white woman for the most part, but also is hinted
towards being of an 'impure' race since she does not come from a
purely white or European lineage. The title that she is given by
others of being a Creole woman leaves her a stranger where she is not
black but is also not considered to be white enough to fit into higher
society.
Unlike Bertha, Jane Eyre is thought of as being sound of mind before
the reader is able to fully understand the character, simply because
she is described as having a complexion that is pale and she has grown
up in a European society rather than in an "animalistic" setting like
Bertha. Jane is favoured heavily from the start of her interactions
with Rochester, simply because like Rochester himself, she is deemed
to be of a superior ethnic group than that of his first wife. While
she still experiences some forms of repression throughout her life
(the events of the Lowood Institution) none of them are as heavily
taxing on her as that which is experienced by Bertha. Both women go
through acts of suppression on behalf of the men in their lives, yet
Jane is looked at with favour because of her supposed "beauty" that
can be found in the colour of her skin. While both are characterised
as falling outside of the normal feminine standards of this time, Jane
is thought of as superior to Bertha because she demands respect and is
able to use her talents as a governess, whereas Bertha is seen as a
creature to be confined in the attic away from "polite" society.
Scholars have also noted the novel's overt references and allusions to
slavery, arguably its North American iteration.
''Wide Sargasso Sea''
=======================
Jean Rhys intended her critically acclaimed novel 'Wide Sargasso Sea'
as an account of the woman whom Rochester married and kept in his
attic. The book won the notable WH Smith Literary Award in 1967. Rhys
explores themes of dominance and dependence, especially in marriage,
depicting the mutually painful relationship between a privileged
English man and a Creole woman from Dominica made powerless on being
duped and coerced by him and others. Both the man and the woman enter
marriage under mistaken assumptions about the other partner. Her
female lead marries Mr Rochester and deteriorates in England as "The
Madwoman in the Attic". Rhys portrays this woman from a quite
different perspective from the one in 'Jane Eyre'.
Feminism
==========
The idea of the equality of men and women emerged more strongly in the
Victorian period in Britain, after works by earlier writers, such as
Mary Wollstonecraft. R. B. Martin described 'Jane Eyre' as the first
major feminist novel, "although there is not a hint in the book of any
desire for political, legal, educational, or even intellectual
equality between the sexes." This is illustrated in chapter 23, when
Jane responds to Rochester's callous and indirect proposal:
Do you think I am an automaton? a machine without feelings?...Do you
think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless
and heartless? You think wrong--I have as much soul as you,--and full
as much heart...I am not talking to you now through the medium of
custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;--it is my spirit
that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the
grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,--as we are.
The novel "acted as a catalyst" to feminist criticism with the
publication by S. Gilbert and S. Gubar's 'The Madwoman in the Attic'
(1979), the title of which alludes to Rochester's wife. The Brontës'
fictions were cited by feminist critic Ellen Moers as prime examples
of Female Gothic, exploring woman's entrapment within domestic space
and subjection to patriarchal authority, and the transgressive and
dangerous attempts to subvert and escape such restriction. Both
'Wuthering Heights' and 'Jane Eyre' explore this theme.
Social class
==============
Throughout the novel, Jane undergoes various social class transitions,
in response to her life's varying situations. As a child, she mixes
with middle class people through the Reed family, though Jane is not
at the same level of social class as the rest of the Reed family.
While at Lowood, she experiences the life of children whose guardians
can afford the school fees of "fifteen pounds per year" but
nonetheless are "charity children" "because fifteen pounds is not
enough for board and teaching", living in poor conditions, and later
working there as an adult as a teacher on a salary of fifteen pounds.
She has an opportunity to be a private governess, and in so doing
double her salary, but her governess position makes her aware of her
ambiguous social position as a governess to a child with a wealthy
guardian. After Jane leaves Thornfield Hall, she is stripped of her
class identity as she travels across the moors and arrives at Moor
House. But Jane receives an inheritance which she shares with her
new-found family, and this offers a different form of independence.
({{NoMoreLinks}})
===================
*
*
*
* [
https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22jane+eyre%22
'Jane Eyre'] at the Internet Archive
* [
http://www.bl.uk/works/jane-eyre 'Jane Eyre' at the British
Library]
License
=========
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License URL:
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre
