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Original poster

Jane Eyre

85 replies

ipanemagirl · 06/01/2009 21:58

I've got a horrendous cold and have spent 3 days mostly in bed. So I started to read this again, starting at Thornfield. It's just so so so so so good. I love this book. It's a few years since I've read it, I can't believe I'm OLDER THAN MR ROCHESTER. When I first read it he was like an Ancient Old Man. It's so weird! He's 35! And there are loads of stout women in their 40s! I so don't want to be one of those stout women like Grace Poole!
I read books so differently now, I used to just skim landscape and interior descriptions, now I really read them. It's a different book.
Also, why does Jane accept his Parisien stories and the description of his general dissipation? Wouldn't a girl at that time be genuinely horrified? She's as unbothered as if it was 2009! Strange Brontes.

OP posts:
NancysGarden · 08/01/2009 00:22

I love this thread! I have always hated Jayne Eyre and been fairly public about the fact but Threadworm's post articulates feelings I wasn't even aware I had

Pan · 08/01/2009 00:02

Jayne Eyre is beyond Nietzsche. He is small change in comparison. Yes, one can provide the anaysis that Threadworm applies, but the writing that is brought to the story is heady and grabbing on a level that the Big N. could never guess at.

Original poster
ipanemagirl · 07/01/2009 23:57

God Threadworm, respect to your tight grip on Nietzsche, it sounds a good theory, I need to ponder it some more.

I've reread it loads of times too. But I'd forgotten about Bertha coming to Jane's room and trying on the veil etc Surely Bertha would just murder Jane wouldn't she? Why would she spare her?

Those poor Brontes surrounded by those moors and that graveyard, and they all looked so small judging from their frocks in Haworth.

Expat, I think she says he's 35, I just can't believe I'm older than him, it just seems so wrong, shouldn't I always be younger than Mr Rochester like until I die in a happy old age?

I don't want to suddenly realise that the only literary figure I'm the same age as is bloody King Lear! How old was he?

OP posts:
BitOfFun · 07/01/2009 11:51

Interesting post Threadworm, rather gloriously flattened by Expat

I always found Jane a bit wet myself, but I do like the book. I loved Rebecca too, which can be read as a re-working of it.

expatinscotland · 07/01/2009 11:38

i thought he was 38.

Threadworm · 07/01/2009 11:36

Can I just say that although I like the book I really really despise the character Jane Eyre. She is a perfect instance of the 'slave morality' that Nietzsche imputes to Christianity. A woman in a position of weakness, abused by all those around her, she spites her abusers, not by acquiring strength but by buying in on strength vicariously -- by associating herself with a strong man who can raise her up and damn her enemies.

And then, in a final piece of spite, she (or rather her author) crucifies blinds her revenging lord, so that in her weakness she can triumph even over her saviour.

The analogy with the Nietzsche view of Christian slave morality is striking: weak believers ally themselves with a powerful god who will avenge them against their enemies and then, despising all strength, they celebrate the crucifixion of their god.

'Slave morality' transltes well to the similarly debased morality of oppressed women. Oppression makes us base not noble.

Bink · 07/01/2009 11:24

Oh, if you want bizarre Parisien emotional turmoil, have a go at Villette. That's freaky.

Bleuravin · 07/01/2009 11:16

I've read both Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea and I've also read the Eyre Affair by Jasper FForde. They're really great.

I got Jane when I was 13 and at first I thought my grandparents were being really old fogies for giving it to me, but I loved it was I tried it.
I read Sargasso in Uni (because that's when I found it) and ended up doing a paper on it and Jane...Mad Woman in the Attic is a great book to look at if you're interested in literary comparesions, discussions.
The Eyre Affair I picked up because I love Jane and thought it would be interesting to see what/why Fforde would write about it. It's a very funny gum-shoe novel that pulls Jane's story into a modern setting (kinda). You might consider that too for a quick, good read.

I think all three of the fiction books are brilliant!

Shitemum · 06/01/2009 22:19

Have you read 'Wide Sargasso Sea'?
It's the mad wife's story.

AnnVan · 06/01/2009 22:15

Ah. i LOVE Jane Eyre. One of my favourite books, and I would say I read it about twice a year. As for why she's not horrified - the Bronte's were incredibly ahead of their time. Think about it. Jane Eyre is about a relationship between a married man and another woman, and is sympathetic to it. Not exactly in keeping with Victorian values. Anne Bronte's Tenant of Wildfell Hall is about a woman who leaves her abusive husband and falls in love with another man. Totally scandalised people at the time. Mind you - Jane doesn't precisely accept it, she just isn't horrified - she does tell him in her calm way that he can right his wrongs etc.