Jane Eyre

[ipanemagirl]

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.

Brocklehurst

But Jane isn't always subservient. She runs away rather than submit to Rochester. She refuses to marry StJohn. At the end, when she finds Rochester again, she's financially independent and its he who is dependent on her - emotionally and physically.

Yes, she does sometimes assert herself in that way, but I don't think the fact that she retains a physical abilility - sight - when he does not is enough to alter the relationship. She says she loves him more when she can be really useful to him - in fact she is almost his nurse, he remains in many ways her master.

She lets him put her on his knee! Though actually I know tons of women would like Rochester to put them on his knee .

This thread caught my attention because just coincidentally have just re-read Jasper Fforde's Eyre Affair.

Attractive yet flawed male character of noble birth saved by impoverished but morally upright heroine is a remarkably successful plot formula. I can remember devouring books of this ilk as a teenager, lol-ing at Richardson's Pamela(wanted to see if the 1st book acclaimed a novel was any good - it isn't) and feeling compelled to boo hiss pantomime-stylee at Mrs Norris' cruel persecution of the noble, silent suffering Fanny Price (Edmund distinctly lacking in the hero dept), but Jane Eyre distinctly has an erotic frisson I agree.

The problem with this thread is I read one informed lit crit post and agree, then read a conflicting one and agree with that too!

Ok have not read whole thread (will do so now!) but Jane Eyre is my hero, i love the book, i love her, and i reread it at least once a year.

she is basically just an incredibly sexual being- and the whole book pulsates with it. the story is so far fetched it makes you laugh, and yet the feelings so believable... pure magic!

have read. too hard for me i am afraid :-( off to bed, and prob will start to reread JE tomorrow...

LOL Heated I'm like that too!

I loved this book when I was at school (maybe I was introduced to it too young, who knows) after watching the Tim Dalton version.

This thread has been fascinating, how do you all "know" so much?

I want to read Villette now too!

Jane Eyre isn't subservient at all. If there ever was a book about a woman striking out on her own and asserting herself, this is the one.

i always thought rochester regaining his sight was a bit of a weakness of the book. if his blindness is his punishment, does it mean he is somehow saved by marriage & father hood, or is it just a nod towards typical victorian romance? (pretty chiclit, alot of it)
doesn't his blindness kind of inversely symbolise his clairyt of thought. when he's at his most powerful, he attempts bigamy - defying even god's laws, but he is brought low & 'sees' things as they really are. he sees himself for a sinner & in need of an angel (jayne) to redeem him? once he has 'seen the light' he starts to regain phyiscal sight. it's part of the gothic trad - the contrast between dark & light, physical & spiritual ability to see the truth.

love th idea of JE (book) being a passive aggressive attack on vic middle classes!