Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
604 pages - 1847 - fiction, classic, romance
March 22nd, 2024 — April 3rd, 2024
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
I have to be honest—for a reader, I have not read many of the classics. I have yet to read any Jane Austen novels; I have not read Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm… the list goes on. There are a lot of books that I’ve been meaning to get to for a long time, and this was one of them.
I think one of the daunting aspects of these books is their omnipresence in a lot of society. I know what happens at the end of Of Mice and Men, at least enough to get the references. Sometimes it can feel like it’s not even worth it to read them if you already know. (But I push back against that immediately—I think it is always worth it to read something.)
Some classic books can really surprise you, though. I remember the first time I read Frankenstein, as a high school senior, and I fell in love. It was completely different from what I expected. In popular culture, Frankenstein was a story about a bloodthirsty, terrifying monster with screws in his neck and a groaning, shuffling gait. In reality, the book is about a man playing god (starting right away from the subtitle, “The Modern Prometheus”) and a creature that was never meant to exist, but coming to terms with his existence and complete exile.
I vividly remember reading the creature’s tale for the first time, about halfway through the book, where he explains to Victor Frankenstein what he has been doing since he was banished from Victor’s lab and had to fend for himself in the wilderness. The creature is eloquent and intelligent, having spent the time learning from people. I was fascinated. This part of the story, so heartbreaking and beautiful, is never discussed in popular culture.
I realized about two chapters into Jane Eyre that I had no idea what the story of Jane Eyre even was. It was refreshing; I knew it was about a young woman named Jane Eyre, and I had heard the name Mr. Rochester, but that was the limit of my knowledge going into it. I think that is one of the aspects of this book that I greatly enjoyed; I was still surprised by the twists and turns of the story.
Summary (Spoilers!)
Jane Eyre, a young woman, was orphaned at a young age, and lives with her aunt, who despises her. She attends a boarding school for a while, finding herself under the care of yet another wealthy but cruel person, Mr. Brocklehurst. Eventually he is ousted, and Jane’s experience improves, becoming a teacher. But soon she wishes she could experience something new, and Jane becomes a governess at Thornfield, where she is hired to teach young Adele. The man of the house is the notable Mr. Edward Rochester, with whom Jane falls in love; she does not expect these feelings to be reciprocated, but, when she believes he will finally propose to Blanche Ingram, instead he proposes to Jane.
On the day of the wedding, though, a man who had briefly stayed at Thornfield as a traveler interjects and says that Rochester is married and, worse, he has locked his wife away in the manor. Rochester says that Bertha went mad, and we see her acting incredibly animalistic, crawling around and growling, with wild hair.
Jane, heartbroken, runs away in the night, devoid of all possessions including money. She begs for food and winds up on the doorstep of Mary, Diana, and St. John Rivers, who—miraculously—are her family, related to her by their mutual uncle, John Eyre. They discover this when John dies and leaves Jane a fortune, which she immediately shares with her newfound cousins.
St. John pressures Jane to marry him so that they can travel to India together, but Jane refuses; still in love with Rochester, she returns to Thornfield, but finds that it has been burned down. She learns that Rochester had been injured, losing his sight and one of his hands in the blaze, but he is still alive. Jane and Rochester reunite, and they are quickly married. The last chapter acts as an epilogue, explaining that the couple has been married for ten years and have a son together.
Reader, I Married Him
I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Jane Eyre. I think that the titular character is what I wanted Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady to be; Jane is independent, and confident, and she has a way of speaking that is powerful and exciting. I like that, from the beginning, she stands up to Mr. Rochester, especially in the period during which he is quite short with her and can be rather rude. A notable moment is when Rochester asks Jane what she thinks of his looks, and she calls him ugly. In this age, that is almost criminal, and yet he likes her honesty and her hard-headedness. I do, too.
I found Jane to be an incredibly likable character, and one that is very human in my mind. I could picture her moments with Adele vividly. I even rooted for her when she was in the difficult situations of her childhood and the boarding school. I felt that her character was fleshed out quickly and held steadfast. I liked how consistent Jane was.
One of my favorite moments in the story is when she learns of her uncle’s death through St. John, who also tells her that she has inherited a fortune and that they are cousins, in that order. He expects her to be thrilled about the money, but instead, she is almost solely thrilled about the family upon which she has stumbled. My favorite line of the book was in this section:
This was wealth indeed!—wealth to the heart!—a mine of pure, genial affections. This was a blessing, bright, vivid, and exhilarating;—not like the ponderous gift of gold: rich and welcome enough in its way, but sobering from its weight. I now clapped my hands in sudden joy—my pulse bounded, my veins thrilled.
St. John asks her why she was serious when she learned of her fortune but excited when she learns of her relations. Jane continues to reiterate that she has never had a family, and everyone she loves has been taken from her; this is the first time she has a family, and she wants to cherish them. It’s a beautiful moment that shows her character. And further, without hesitation, Jane decides to split the fortune amongst herself and her cousins, each of them earning 5,000 pounds, which would amount to about £560,000 in today’s money, or about $700,000. To go from begging for food and pennies to having thousands of pounds in a matter of moments is something that can show someone’s true character. For Jane to almost push that aside, and even immediately give away most of the fortune—I think that represents all I love about her. She loves hard, and she knows what she values in life.
Overall, I think the strongest part of Jane Eyre is her force of character. I found the love story somewhat compelling, but I was nervous towards the middle of the book when Rochester proposed, because I felt that it would cause Jane to fold into herself. I have read a few novels set in these times where a female character is strong and individual, but when she becomes a wife, she is completely and suddenly secondary to her husband.
I am sure that one reason this book is different is because it was written by a woman, and therefore has a virtue of the feminine perspective. The Portrait of a Lady was written by a man, and that is incredibly evident by the end of the book. This, though, has a depth that only someone with experience can introduce, and the female characters in this book were deep and interesting. When Bessie returned, I was excited; Helen offered Jane a warmth that she had never felt in her life; each female character in the book was unique and had personality and character. It is sad that this is something of note, but it is also wonderful that it is such a good example that has persisted through time.
I can see why Jane Eyre has persisted, too. It has quite a few twists and turns, along with a compelling story. There were parts that felt like they were dragging, and a lot of the conversations were quite circular in nature, but the writing was fun to read and portrayed the story incredibly well. I’m so glad I finally got around to reading it—and I’m excited to tackle a lot of the other classics that somehow have not crossed my desk yet!
Total pages read so far, 2024: 6,394
Total books read so far, 2024: 17
Next book: Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry