Jane Eyre was just the book I needed to restore my faith in this challenge! The past several books I have read for this challenge were difficult for me to get through and enjoy. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was clearly a one star pick for me and Northanger Abbey felt like a bore. Even before those books, it had been a while since I read a book I loooooved from this list. If you were wondering, my favorites thus far (that I had never read before this challenge) are Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, and The Tragedy of Richard III by Shakespeare. It has been over a year since I have read any of those, so it has been awhile since I really enjoyed a book from this list. I am happy to say Jane Eyre is one of my new favorites.
Jane Eyre is a staple of English
Literature and I do not know how I got to the age of 26 without reading it. It
was always one I knew I would read some day and kept pushing it off. Thank
goodness for this challenge! Rory recommends Jane Eyre to Dean in episode 8 after he returns her copy of Northanger Abbey. Even after he claims
he enjoys books like Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas (bleh), she still recommends him some Charlotte Bronte. I find
this a bit inconsiderate of Rory. You shouldn’t force someone to read a book
you love when it is clear it is not something the other person desires to read.
This may seem a bit hypocritical of me because I do make a career out of
forcing high school students to read books they do not want to read. It is for
their own good, though. And how many of them actually read the entire book? I
know most of them resort to Spark Notes, Schmoop, Cliff Notes (I know them all)
to scrape by. It makes me sad that very few of them know the joy of reading. If
they had to read Jane Eyre, I am not
sure how many would enjoy it because it does read at a slower pace, but I found
that enjoyable in this instance.
I have to
say that Jane Eyre is one of the most
enjoyable classics I have read in awhile. Some may say it is dark and
melancholy, but I think that dark Victorian tone makes it fun to read. It also
fits with this time of year (it has been so overcast and cold lately). Jane is
a much more relatable character than any of the Austen heroines. At the
beginning of the novel, Jane is living with her aunt and cousins. She is
treated like a burden because they make it clear that she is unwelcomed and
unloved. Her uncle was the one who adopted her when she was orphaned, but he
died shortly after. Jane grew up without love and comfort. She didn’t take that
poor, pitiful me attitude seen so often in tales; she knew what she deserved
and how she should be treated. Very early on, we see Jane stand up for herself.
Even when Jane was sent to boarding school (where she wasn’t treated much
better), Jane followed what she thought was right even when authority figures
claimed she was wrong. Despite these hardships and being treated like trash,
Jane still treats others with compassion. She risks her health by staying with
her friend and holding her as she dies from tuberculosis. If you know the
ending, you also know that Jane loves unconditionally. She doesn’t care about
money or about appearances; she cares about what is on the inside.
This brings
me to the topic of Mr. Rochester. I love the romance between Jane and Mr.
Rochester. Maybe I just love forbidden romances. Or maybe I just like grumpy
men. I don’t know. It makes sense because I love the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. Due to social
status and an age difference, Jane and Mr. Rochester shouldn’t be together.
Jane is the governess to his young ward, and, technically, Mr. Rochester is
still married to his crazy wife he hides in his attic. [SPOILER] He makes the
miscalculated call to propose to Jane and keep that fact a secret.
Unfortunately (or fortunately to Jane) his crazy wife’s brother reveals the
crazy wife’s existence to Jane right as she is about to marry Mr. Rochester.
Mr. Rochester tries to convince Jane to marry him anyways. He tries to
rationalize that he isn’t really married to his wife since she is mentally
unstable and she lives in the attic. He got himself in quite a pickle. In every
love story, there must be a hurdle, and in this story, that hurdle is a crazy
wife in an attic. (I have never used the phrase crazy wife this often before).But when you think about it, doesn’t everyone have a “crazy
wife” in their “attic”? What I mean is: everyone has some secret, insecurity,
or dark thoughts they keep hidden in the far most corner of their minds. We
don’t have a literal crazy wife in our attic, but there is always something we
shy away from sharing with the ones we love. There is an abundance of
psychological theory applied to this idea in Jane Eyre.
 |
| Of course I pictured Mr. Rochester as Michael Fassbender |
While the
novel does take several dark turns, Bronte makes sure to give her novel a happy
ending. After years apart, Jane returns to Mr. Rochester after learning that
his wife died from jumping out a window. However, everything isn’t neat and
tidy because his wife set his house on fire, burning and blinding Mr. Rochester
in the process. He isn’t the handsome and charming man he once was, but Jane
still loves him. And thus comes one of the most famous lines: “Reader, I
married him.” Jane has no qualms about marrying him now that he is not bound by
the ties of another marriage. She also does not care about physical
appearances. What she loves about Mr. Rochester is his mind and heart, not how
he looks. The fact that he is blind, lost a hand, and is not as handsome any
more does not bother Jane. And I think that is why I love this story and their
romance. Yes, there are many flaws in their relationship, but it is also very
pure. When it comes down to it, they love each other for what is inside and not
physical appearances or social status. They also find their way back together
after tremendous hardship. I do love a story with a happy ending!
Pictures
Book Cover - https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-na.ssl-images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F51KPlGsw7-L.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FJane-Eyre-Dover-Thrift-Editions-ebook%2Fdp%2FB008TVGG8C&docid=UmSAk5BRpnzl2M&tbnid=-AHsFeP5cMqGJM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwiwsq2x5tTgAhVLiOAKHX4ZBewQMwhrKAEwAQ..i&w=311&h=500&bih=642&biw=1280&q=jane%20eyre&ved=0ahUKEwiwsq2x5tTgAhVLiOAKHX4ZBewQMwhrKAEwAQ&iact=mrc&uact=8
Movie Still - https://s3.amazonaws.com/thumbnails.thecrimson.com/photos/2011/03/21/220237_1249081.jpg.800x533_q95_crop-smart_upscale.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment