Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

“The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter - often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter - in the eye.” 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a gothic romance novel that has become a classic. It is the story of Jane Eyre a strong, fierce, passionate, educated, god-righteous woman as seen by her eyes. Jane was an orphan, she was sent to a boarding school for the destitute when she was 10 by her neglecting aunt. There, she received quite a good education and found a teacher that really inspired her. Jane always wanted to travel and discover the world so after completing her schooling and teaching there for two years, she becomes a governess to a rich family with a mysterious master. The story is her struggle in finding the balance between the morally right thing and her own passions, between being obedient but independent and free-willed. Jane critiques the social class division however sticks to it and believes in it all through her life.

Charlotte Brontë made my thoughts on old novels change. Through Jane Eyre I found that there can be classic that I become absolutely enthralled. Sure, it still had some of the conventional language found in older and gothic books: long paragraphs describing something that appears to be insignificant (I’ll confess that sometimes I end up skipping a line or two when it is too descriptive) and the complete opposite, when a scene changes without notice that you are left to wonder what is going on.

I think that Brontë used Jane Eyre to explore concepts of social hierarchy and if status and behaviour is innate. However, she did not use the protagonist to challenge these concepts but rather, through her writing, gave the readers a ‘challenge’ to ponder for themselves in this issue. Jane Eyre was a strong, independent woman however she never saw herself as an equal.

Eyre disputed the legacy of the rich and insulted the honour and ability of the poor, the people who she admired were those that were poor but were determined to better themselves. Eyre, herself, had gotten an education and had become an equal in thoughts to her master however she said she would never become a true equal because of her background and poverty. This of course I do not agree, and I wonder if Bronte herself agreed or was trying to use a sort of reverse psychology on her readers. Jane only believed herself an equal after she became richer and that Edward Rochester had gone through a trauma that left him dependent on others. But did all of this really make a difference on how ‘equal’ they were? Mr. Rochester loved Eyre just as much in both situations and they would’ve lived just as well if Jane Eyre had just decided to stay.

Now, this blog is already quite long so I won’t bore you by writing any more on themes and language. (Though, if you do want to read an analysis, Sparknotes is always helpful!) But, I will mentions the ideas that stuck to me, the idea of education being the key to improving one’s self (I had always thought highly of education), the idea of a balance between religion (whether it be in one god, multiple gods, or the universe itself) and one’s materialistic as well as passionate wants and lastly, finding an equilibrium between being independent and being able to count on others and having strong relationships.

I really loved the novel, Jane Eyre. Since reading the book I am eager to watch the movie! I have just seen the trailer and was quite surprised at the cast because I found that all the actors – especially from the 2011 version – were quite good looking in comparison to the book descriptions. And if you do decide to read the book I suggest that you change the age of the character, the movies already do a little bit of this, so that it isn’t such Rochester and Eyre’s feelings and relationship isn’t such a shock (I read it as Jane being 20 and Edward being 30).  Overall, a great book to add to my reading of the gothic genre!