Maureen Lee Lenker - Quicklet on Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

Jane Eyre , first published in London in 1847 under Charlotte Brontes pen name Currer Bell, is a classic three-volume novel that exemplifies the tenets of both Gothic and Romantic fiction. Though popular on both high school and college required reading lists, it has also been a book well-beloved by readers for generations.

Female readers make up the novels most ardent devotees, no doubt aided by the presence of a strong female protagonist and the undeniably alluring Byronic hero, Mr. Rochester. A novel indicative of the Victorian era from which it was produced, Jane Eyre holds readers enrapt with a classic Gothic mystery at its core and a heady romance between the two main characters.

The novel is often considered a proto-feminist text for its portrayal of Jane as a largely independent, free-thinking woman in an era that restricted female life. Many of the issues the novel raises, including the nature of morality and the concept of the madwoman in the attic, have provided fodder for literary criticism since the novels first edition. Despite its forward-looking stirrings of feminist thought, the novel clearly emerged from several well-established literary genres popular during Charlotte Brontes lifetime, and it employs many conventions of Gothic fiction and the German Bildungsroman.

Jane Eyre herself recounts the novel through a first-person perspective, implying that she is reflecting back on the story of her own life throughout the course of the novel. She begins with her childhood and significant events that occurred when she was approximately 8-10 years old. Beginning with her life at her aunts house, she continues on to tell the tale of her schooling and her adventures as a governess and school-teacher until the novel concludes with a summation of the current state of affairs in hers and supporting characters lives.

Filled with mystery, romance, and examinations of morality and religion, the novel is an enduring classic that has inspired countless films, plays, and literary spin-offs. As Jasper Fforde says in his own spin-off, The Eyre Affair, Governments and fashions come and go, but Jane Eyre is for all time.

Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot.Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings.knitting stockings.playing on the piano.It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

A cursory examination of Charlotte Brontes life makes it clear that Jane Eyre was in many ways an extension of herself: her thoughts, ideas, and experiences. C.D. Merriman provides an excellent biography on Charlotte Bronte on The Literature Network. Charlotte was born on April 21, 1816, and was the third of six children born to Maria Branwell and Rev. Patrick Bronte. Charlotte would be the eldest child to reach maturity in the Bronte family.

Charlotte and her sisters attended the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge, which many believe to be the inspiration for Janes experiences at the Lowood School in the novel. Later, Charlotte completed her studies at a school in Roe Head and would go on to become a teacher there. Charlotte also held a position as a governess for some time, but she disliked the work and left to travel and write with her sisters. This brief overview of her education is a clear indication of how the protagonist of the novel was undoubtedly inspired by Charlottes own life.

Charlotte and her sisters attempted to start their own school, but it failed, and Charlotte turned to her writing as a means of supporting herself and her family. Though Charlotte was the most prolific and the only sister officially welcomed into London literary society, the Bronte sisters were all writers, and Charlotte edited their work. Emily Bronte is most well-known for her own Gothic novel, Wuthering Heights.

In addition to Jane Eyre, Charlotte also wrote the novels Shirley and Villette , as well as exchanged correspondence with other literary greats, most notably William Henry Thackeray, to whom she dedicated Jane Eyre .

Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls in June 1854, but she passed away from pneumonia while she was pregnant in March 1855. In addition to the lasting legacy of her own writing, Charlotte Bronte was also memorialized in Elizabeth Gaskells The Life of Charlotte Bronte in 1857.

Iam no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.

Via elizabethdunn

The novel opens in medias res with Janes childhood at Gateshead Hall, the dreary manor where the orphaned Jane resides with her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her cousins Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed. Being the child of the late Mr. Reeds sister and the result of a marriage that many considered below Janes mothers station in life, Jane is detested and mistreated by her aunt and cousins. Furthermore, Jane is a misunderstood child; she is precocious, an avid reader, and overtly passionate both in her thoughts and outward demeanor.

Mrs. Reed sends Jane to Lowood School, but before Jane departs, she berates her aunt for her callous and hateful treatment of her.This is one of the first significant verbal outbursts that allows us to see Janes inner fire and emotional nature that will later deeply attract Mr. Rochester. Throughout the novel, Jane will strive to master her overabundance of passion and express it in more socially acceptable ways, while still not losing her remarkably passionate outlook on life and insightful understanding of the world.

At Lowood, a girl named Helen Burns befriends Jane and teaches her valuable lessons about spirituality and morality. Helen dies with Jane at her side, and this traumatic event has a lasting impact on Jane. After she completes her studies, Jane works as a teacher at Lowood until she secures the position of governess at Thornfield Hall.

Jane travels to Thornfield to take up the position of governess to Adele, the estate owners ward. Though Mr. Rochester, the estate owner, is not at the house when Jane begins her employment, she hears stories of him from Mrs. Fairfax, the housekeeper. She also begins to notice strange noises and a frightening laugh coming from the attic.

One day, when going to post a letter, Jane has a distressing encounter with a gruff man on a horse, whom she discovers is Mr. Rochester once she returns home. From these encounters, Rochester exhibits a blunt and ornery, yet insightful nature. Rochester is clearly intrigued by Janes forthright and honest nature. She does not dissemble to impress him as most women of his social standing do.

Though Rochester initially seems caustic, he and Jane share a clear rapport, and romantic tension arises as we see how like-minded they are. However, Jane continually tries to master her feelings as she knows that there is no hope that a governess and the owner of an estate might marry.