With the ending of the novel
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë came an
enormous emphasis on refusing to conform to the expected role of women during that time. I’m assuming it is
around the early 1800s because of the references to books and authors that are
made and sound to be fairly new to the readers. Jane seems to be battling with her
role as a female constantly, for she never wants to take part in the
inferiority that so many women are. The extent to which she wishes to be an
individual, autonomous person is revealed by her reaction to her engagement to
Rochester. For even though it was something she had wished for dearly, and even
though it made her extremely happy, she began to have misgivings when she
contemplated the fact that they were unequal in the eyes of society. She was a
servant to him, and he was a rich man who was to provide her with beautiful
jewelry and clothing and a comfortable place to live, and Jane feared that it
would feel almost as if he was doing her a favor by marrying him. Yet again,
like it was when she went to the school of Lowood, she would be a charity case;
a burden in the eyes of society. This obsession to be on equal footing with her
husband compelled her to write to her uncle and beg for the confirmation of her
inheritance of his wealth. This way she would at least have similar fortunes to
her potential husband. But, despite it all, as the split bench under the
chestnut tree predicted, the two were to break apart.
The
discovery of Rochester’s past, that he had already been married and that his
wife was still alive, led Jane to abandon the engagement and run away. It wasn’t
that she didn’t love him, but she couldn’t bring herself to be someone’s
mistress. She had too much respect for herself. Jane’s leaving Rochester was a
turning point for her autonomy, for she had proved to herself that she was capable
of being her own person, uncontrolled by men and by the rest of society. She
had discovered her ability to break free from the most influential aspects of
life itself. The rest of the book
puts an emphasis on that freedom, and eventually Jane finds herself able to
return to Rochester and be with him without jeopardizing her individuality. She was returning to a him as a wounded man, blinded from a fire. This put her in the
position of being the caretaker, and the roles had been reversed from their
previous engagement. Instead of being dependent on her husband, he was now
dependent on her. But as their marriage progressed and he began to gain back
his sight, Jane was able to experience the equality of love; the giving and taking
that was in continual balance of each other.
I
would definitely recommend this story to anyone who loves novels of the
seventeen and eighteen hundreds. It is an extremely compelling story, and it
gives the reader a lot of opportunity to figure out aspects of the story before
they are fully explained. This is a very exciting thing to do, because it makes
the reader feel almost apart of the process of the novel. However, it is very
difficult, but Foster’s How to Read
Literature Like a Professor was extremely helpful. There was sickness that spread around
the students at Lowood, there was an enormous amount of religion, there was
rain, there was blindness, and much, much more. Foster helped me to see how the
school was deteriorating the lives of the girls at Lowood, how much of Jane
Eyre’s life was influenced by people who were attempting to accept God into
their lives, he helped me see the way the rain could actually purify a person,
and how that purification could be corrupted by a storm. He helped me view
Rochester’s blindness as a representation of his situation when his true love had
abandoned him, and as she came back the despair was lifted, along with his
inability to see.
Another
reason to read Jane Eyre is directed more at female readers, for it has a lot
of emphasis on not conforming to society’s ideals on what is acceptable and
what is not. Jane’s role in life was, in society’s opinion, to marry well and
live under the shadow of her husband. Although she did marry well, it was under
her own conditions of equality, and this is something that can be very easily
transferred to the present. Even now, women are treated as inferiors to society,
as objects that have the sole purpose of objectification and exploitation. Jane's ability to refuse to conform to those expectations is something that every girl
in today’s society should strive to possess.
In the first post, your voice and style are introduced. You started with and maintained a very casual voice while still sounding academic. The way you approached the "in the process of reading" posts was more of a discussion of what you noticed and how you thought about things while you took the audience through the story and your ideas. I personally took a more formal approach because I'm so deep into the mindset of a one-pager format, but I kind of wish I did a more personal response to what I read like you did. You kept this mentality throughout the four posts, so that consistency made it much easier to flow from one post to another.
ReplyDeleteWhat I enjoyed most was how you described Jane and her relationship with Rochester. In the second post, I became acquainted with Jane as one who actually read the story would be. The conflict in values between her and Helen was a great way to truly show her character, and the ups and down of her relationship made me want to read the book. Maybe that’s just because I’m a girl, but whatever haha. In addition to the description, the connections you made gave your posts the depth that Ms. Romano is probably looking for here. Using the bench as a symbol for their love, and exploring rain, religion, and blindness through Foster tied the elements together. In my book, the grandfather goes blind and gives his son all of his precious books. In my story, blindness was a method of motivating maturity and intellect in another character while in yours, it was reflective of devastation from loss of love.
Questions: 1) What made you want to find parallels between Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre? Usually, when I'm reading, I come across things that I connect to any book that has a similar element, so I'm curious as to why you chose a specific book beforehand and actively sought out connections. 2) Do you think Jane was fighting more for her pride and dignity in terms of socioeconomic class or in terms of being a woman in that society? Both were mentioned and supported in your fourth post.
-Zari
First Post: Why is the connection between the writing styles of the two sisters significant? And what is significant about the Bronte sisters both beginning their novels with descriptions of rooms? This is an obvious parallel in style, so could it be indicative of deeper parallels between the two novels? Maybe Charlotte is trying to convey similar themes to those of her sister, and is trying to do so by making the reader connect her style to that of her sister. Which came first, Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights? Also, why is it important that Jane is imprisoned in the room where Mrs. Reed’s husband had perished? Is this indicative of anything deeper regarding the relationship between Mrs. Reed and Jane?
ReplyDeleteSecond Post: I think the insight of connecting Helen to Calvinism is a good one. But then, what is Bronte saying about Calvinism? It seems to me that she is critiquing it to the point of almost ridiculing. Jane is clearly confused and upset by the ideas of Helen. Maybe Bronte is hinting at the overall intolerance of religious beliefs that are not ones own. Also, the feelings that Jane has when she is sent to the school are similar to those of Gregor after his transformation in The Metamorphosis. She is faced with a terrifying, unfamiliar situation. She is nearly unable to eat. She is in a place where no one really cares about her; they simply provide her with the bare necessities for life. This parallel seems to get at the idea that alienation is a fundamental part of the human experience.
Third Post: What is the significance of their love for each other, especially since Rochester has a wife already?
Fourth Post: It sounds to me like Bronte is also hinting at the dual nature of man. Where Rochester was once powerful he becomes weak, and where once Jane was weak she becomes strong. This is also the opposite of one of the themes in my book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in which Mark Twain conveys the message that our positions in society are, for the most part, fixed at birth.