Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a much longer
book than I was expecting it to be. This is partially because I read it
on my kindle and had no physical sense of how big the book was when I
started it. It was also not at all what I expected. I'd just finished Pride and Prejudice and Little Women
and for some reason I was expecting a similar story, which is part of
why I started reading it But right off the bat I had to toss my
expectations out the window.
The opening chapters of the book reminded me strongly of the beginning of Harry Potter. Ten-year-old Jane is an orphan living with her uncle's widow. She suffers from an abusive cousin and a neglectful aunt and can never seem to please anyone.
No one arrives to tell Jane that she actually has magical abilities, but she is whisked away to a boarding school for orphans where things get marginally better. And by better, I mean that no one beats her or locks her up, but they do still starve and freeze her. After a few months there's an outbreak of typhus and the evil headmaster is outed. Under new direction, the students are given enough to eat and appropriate winter clothing. Jane goes on to spend eight years at the school and thrives on the discipline and her love of learning.
When she's eighteen, Jane becomes the governess for a young girl named Adele. I understood less than half of what Adele said because most of her dialogue is written in French. This isn't a problem for Jane, who is fluent in French, but I was at a loss for some passages.
Once Jane's employer, Mr. Rochester, showed up the book seemed to become The Sound of Music. I could see exactly where this was going, with Jane and Mr. Rochester slowly falling love and eventually getting married. Adele would be ecstatic since she was already so fond of Jane and everything would end happily ever after.
You know how in Into the Woods, everyone gets their happy ever after and then it cuts to the intermission and you're suddenly dreading the second act? That's sort of what happened here.
See, while Jane and Mr. Rochester are flirting and slowly growing closer, a horror story begins to emerge in the background. Someone attempts to set Mr. Rochester on fire and then attacks his friend. There are weird noises and the servents are all acting mysterious. It was a layer I wasn't expecting, and it greatly added to my appreciation of the book. Gothic literature is a genre I keep meaning to explore more and here I had stumbled across a classic without realizing it.
As the horror ramps up, I found myself disliking Mr. Rochester more and more. At first he was just a bit eccentric. But then he started manipulating Jane. He flirted with another woman to make her jealous and disguised himself as a gypsy in an attempt to trick her into admitting her feelings. He plays this horrible game in an attempt to get Jane to admit her feelings first and I can't figure out why. Mostly I just wanted Jane to leave and never come back.
They finally manage to communicate and Mr. Rochester proposes and Jane accepts. Then he starts acting really possessive. He decides that he knows what's best for Jane and she has to fight to make him see that she doesn't want to be treated this way. Every scene he was in had me wishing that Jane would find a way to get out of the engagement because this was clearly not the guy for her.
And then Mr. Rochester reveals himself as a bit of a Bluebeard. He's got his lunatic first wife locked up in the attic. He's had a number of mistresses over the years, but he got bored with each and unceremoniously cut them off. So when he continues to profess his love for Jane I don't trust him an inch. And when she packs up and runs away in the middle of the night, I was cheering her on. I had no idea where the rest of the story was headed, but I was so glad Jane managed to get away from Mr. Rochester (first name Edward because of course. I'm surprised Meyer didn't reference this book in the Twilight saga).
Jane has no idea where she's going. She ends up in a small village, broke and friendless, with no idea what to do next. Just before she drops dead of hunger and the elements, a kindly pastor saves her. He and his sisters nurse her back to health and find work for her as a school mistress.
But things are about to get even better for Jane. Once St. John discovers her real name (she had been using an alias to hide from Mr. Rochester), he informs her that she is the only heir to a fortune of 20,000 pounds. I looked this up on wikipedia, because I don't know enough about the history of economics for that figure to make much sense. It turns out that it is roughly equivalent to 45.5 million pounds or 70 million US dollars. That is a whole lot of money to simply fall in your lap.
Thanks to the law of narrative causality, Jane also discovers that the kind family who took her in when she was on the brink of death are her long-lost cousins. I mean, of course she would randomly wander the country-side for three days and then just about drop dead at the door of her only living relatives. That makes perfect sense.* At any rate, it makes Jane happy. And, as I was now nearing the end of the book, I was prepared to see her settle in and live happily ever after.
Of course the story wasn't over yet. Jane has to deal with an awkward and rather persistent marriage proposal from her cousin who wants to take her to India as a missionary. Jane accepts the offer to go to India but refuses the proposal. Drama ensues and ends up pushing her right back into Mr. Rochester's arms.
No, seriously, that jerk she ran away from a year ago? She runs right back to him. And apparently she's still head over heels in love with him. Luckily for her, his wife has since committed suicide. She also burned down the house, blinding Mr. Rochester in the process. So he's free to marry Jane. And then they live happily ever after.
I...just...why, Jane? I honestly don't understand what she sees in him or why she's so hopelessly in love with him. This ending was really frustrating and I have all sorts of conflicting emotions about this book now. At least I can appreciate this comic, though.
*Why isn't there a sarcasm font?
The opening chapters of the book reminded me strongly of the beginning of Harry Potter. Ten-year-old Jane is an orphan living with her uncle's widow. She suffers from an abusive cousin and a neglectful aunt and can never seem to please anyone.
No one arrives to tell Jane that she actually has magical abilities, but she is whisked away to a boarding school for orphans where things get marginally better. And by better, I mean that no one beats her or locks her up, but they do still starve and freeze her. After a few months there's an outbreak of typhus and the evil headmaster is outed. Under new direction, the students are given enough to eat and appropriate winter clothing. Jane goes on to spend eight years at the school and thrives on the discipline and her love of learning.
When she's eighteen, Jane becomes the governess for a young girl named Adele. I understood less than half of what Adele said because most of her dialogue is written in French. This isn't a problem for Jane, who is fluent in French, but I was at a loss for some passages.
Once Jane's employer, Mr. Rochester, showed up the book seemed to become The Sound of Music. I could see exactly where this was going, with Jane and Mr. Rochester slowly falling love and eventually getting married. Adele would be ecstatic since she was already so fond of Jane and everything would end happily ever after.
You know how in Into the Woods, everyone gets their happy ever after and then it cuts to the intermission and you're suddenly dreading the second act? That's sort of what happened here.
See, while Jane and Mr. Rochester are flirting and slowly growing closer, a horror story begins to emerge in the background. Someone attempts to set Mr. Rochester on fire and then attacks his friend. There are weird noises and the servents are all acting mysterious. It was a layer I wasn't expecting, and it greatly added to my appreciation of the book. Gothic literature is a genre I keep meaning to explore more and here I had stumbled across a classic without realizing it.
As the horror ramps up, I found myself disliking Mr. Rochester more and more. At first he was just a bit eccentric. But then he started manipulating Jane. He flirted with another woman to make her jealous and disguised himself as a gypsy in an attempt to trick her into admitting her feelings. He plays this horrible game in an attempt to get Jane to admit her feelings first and I can't figure out why. Mostly I just wanted Jane to leave and never come back.
They finally manage to communicate and Mr. Rochester proposes and Jane accepts. Then he starts acting really possessive. He decides that he knows what's best for Jane and she has to fight to make him see that she doesn't want to be treated this way. Every scene he was in had me wishing that Jane would find a way to get out of the engagement because this was clearly not the guy for her.
And then Mr. Rochester reveals himself as a bit of a Bluebeard. He's got his lunatic first wife locked up in the attic. He's had a number of mistresses over the years, but he got bored with each and unceremoniously cut them off. So when he continues to profess his love for Jane I don't trust him an inch. And when she packs up and runs away in the middle of the night, I was cheering her on. I had no idea where the rest of the story was headed, but I was so glad Jane managed to get away from Mr. Rochester (first name Edward because of course. I'm surprised Meyer didn't reference this book in the Twilight saga).
Jane has no idea where she's going. She ends up in a small village, broke and friendless, with no idea what to do next. Just before she drops dead of hunger and the elements, a kindly pastor saves her. He and his sisters nurse her back to health and find work for her as a school mistress.
But things are about to get even better for Jane. Once St. John discovers her real name (she had been using an alias to hide from Mr. Rochester), he informs her that she is the only heir to a fortune of 20,000 pounds. I looked this up on wikipedia, because I don't know enough about the history of economics for that figure to make much sense. It turns out that it is roughly equivalent to 45.5 million pounds or 70 million US dollars. That is a whole lot of money to simply fall in your lap.
Thanks to the law of narrative causality, Jane also discovers that the kind family who took her in when she was on the brink of death are her long-lost cousins. I mean, of course she would randomly wander the country-side for three days and then just about drop dead at the door of her only living relatives. That makes perfect sense.* At any rate, it makes Jane happy. And, as I was now nearing the end of the book, I was prepared to see her settle in and live happily ever after.
Of course the story wasn't over yet. Jane has to deal with an awkward and rather persistent marriage proposal from her cousin who wants to take her to India as a missionary. Jane accepts the offer to go to India but refuses the proposal. Drama ensues and ends up pushing her right back into Mr. Rochester's arms.
No, seriously, that jerk she ran away from a year ago? She runs right back to him. And apparently she's still head over heels in love with him. Luckily for her, his wife has since committed suicide. She also burned down the house, blinding Mr. Rochester in the process. So he's free to marry Jane. And then they live happily ever after.
I...just...why, Jane? I honestly don't understand what she sees in him or why she's so hopelessly in love with him. This ending was really frustrating and I have all sorts of conflicting emotions about this book now. At least I can appreciate this comic, though.
 |
| Kate Beaton's take on the Bronte sisters in her webcomic Hark! a Vagrant |
*Why isn't there a sarcasm font?
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