Margaret M - (having a challenging time and on GR as much as I can)'s Reviews > Jane Eyre

If there is such a thing as the perfect book. For me ‘Jane Eyre’ would define it.

5 ✨ brooding, uncompromising, passionate, but tormenting stars, for my favourite book of all time. I love this book for the way it depicts the strength of the human spirit, the importance of being yourself, the rights of women, and the explicit yet beautiful way the story is told. Dramatic, uninhibited, and evocative.

Jane Eyre is best known or described as a ‘gothic love story’ but for me it is so much more. It is an emotional life story that contrasts the extremities of love and hate, where the principled and incorruptible mind battles the unscrupulous and most brutal of beasts and rules. Jane Eyre is an unapologetic feminist story, like no other. It is an emotional story where one woman’s soul was forever tormented by the people she tried to love and cursed by those who did not deserve to own nor judge her. However, the standout is the rawness in which the author expresses Jane’s feelings of love, hurt, and anguish, and the many themes it embraces particularly for its time.

A burning question is ‘why do I love this book so much?’ The storyline? the love story? the many themes it embraces? or is it Jane Eyre, the character I love the most? All will be revealed, but first the plot.

The Plot

The story begins with Jane, orphaned after the death of her parents and further isolated when her uncle dies leaving her in the hands of his heartless family. After an unpleasant and bloody exchange with her cousin, and then aunt, Jane is sent to Lowood. A charitable but educational institution.

It is at this point in the book that we get an early insight into the character of the 10-year-old Jane, her principles and unwavering determination to speak up for what is right and just, when she admonishes her aunt

“I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed….. “How dare I, Mrs. Reed? How dare I? Because it is the truth. You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity…. you are bad, hard-hearted. You are deceitful!”.

Jane’s early battle with life’s cruel reality was to continue with the death of a beautiful and kind pupil Helen, but her resolve saw her through 8 years at Lowood at which point and now educated, she applies to Thornfield Hall for the position of governess. The home that is to become hers after falling in love with its master, Edward Rochester. Yet lady fate was to have her day again when Jane discovers in the most humiliating wedding scene that Rochester’s wife still lives, but insane.

After one of the most touching exchanges between these two very different lovers. The characters of Jane and Rochester are laid bare; their passions, principles, and virtues are exposed for us to savour and appraise. He a brooding and selfish man asks Jane to live on as his mistress, while Jane’s honour prevents her from embracing such an immoral life, which would be contrary to her principles. She wants more for herself, not driven by ambition but by virtue and the right to think and love freely.

Fleeing Thornfield Hall, Jane finds solace in the sequestered Moor home, with St John and his sisters. St John, a devoutly religious man also seeks Jane’s affections and help as a missionary, but not love. Once again we hear the painful and agonising words from Jane, that can only but leave an imprint on the mind and the heart of the reader…

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart”

And yes, she does. Jane Eyre is one of the most fascinating characters in fictional history, and if you don’t love the book, you will at least love this character.

Review and Comments

This is my sixth time reading Jane Eyre (although twice at school) and every time I read it, I get something different from the story. However, this is the first time reviewing and the first time I have challenged myself to explaining why this story means so much to me, apart from it being the first classic book I ever fell in love with, which will always have its rightful place in my book history. No film adaption has done it justice and no words that I write can capture the beauty that lies within these pages. Of course, I can write words, so inspiring is this book, but cannot express how I truly feel with this book the way Charlotte Bronte can write with such rawness. I also need to restrict myself to covering the key themes and elements otherwise I would be writing a book about a book. So first up is the character development.

‘Jane Eyre’ sets the bar in character development and is one of the best I have ever read for this. There is nothing left to the imagination and the explicit way emotions and feelings are portrayed is remarkable, sentimental but also appropriate. The character traits of the two key male characters, Rochester and St John are evocative and ignite frustration and even slight anger in the reader. One man would turn his back on the laws of God and society for the love of the young Jane, whilst the other obsessive and devout has expectations of self-sacrifice for God, his own vanity and ambition.

Whilst different, both men possess the same unwavering sense of entitlement, and lack humility and understanding when they offer Jane a life contrary to her beliefs, honour, and feelings. St John says to her

“… you are formed for labour, not for love. A missionary’s wife you must—shall be. You shall be mine: I claim you—not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s service.”

While Rochester’s disregard of what Jane represents is equally as distasteful, he does draw sympathy from the reader because there are displays of kindness towards others and his love for Jane is unquestionable if not selfish.

Religion and Class are constant themes through the novel. However when Jane meets St John, religion is central and crucial to the story and once again it is Jane’s response that was to ignite a wave of emotions in me

“Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour”

Feminism is one of the most important themes through the novel where the eponymous Jane tells her own story. If you consider the period in which this book was written; the content and storyline, the uninhibited expressions of love and anger as well as the uncensored view of feminism, then you can begin to appreciate just how incredibly provocative this book might have been for the times. On many occasions, Jane describes herself as someone’s ‘equal’ not to be caged in a social class nor defined by society’s expectation of the role of women. It is this freedom of expression, independence of mind, and moral commitment that consumed me so much in this story.

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

For its times, image how the male readers felt when reading this next quote. Fabulous….

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. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. 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, to 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 and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. 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.

At this point I reveal that the reason I love this book so much is because of Jane Eyre’s character. It is the most extraordinary story about an ordinary young woman, although a heroine in my eyes. A woman guided by honour, influenced, and dedicated but not cosseted by religion. An independent woman who is highly principled and determined yet loving and generous, and passionate but not vindicative. A young woman who wants to live, love, and think freely, and in that lies the beauty of this book. How groundbreaking, daring, and courageous from the incredibly gifted Charlotte Bronte.

Second to that is the uninhibited depiction of the characters, their emotions, and the inner battles they must conquer in the face of temptation. All of this of course is brought to life with Bronte's perfectly chosen words, vivid descriptions and unbridled but elegant prose. There is such a rawness to the writing, although some would say overly dramatic but for me it is another beautiful and remarkable aspect to this book, because it works.

Jane Eyre is a book that is bold for the way it inspires feminism, courageous in the way it challenges the accepted norms of society and religion but is also respectful. There is beauty in the storytelling, sincerity in these righteous but flawed characters, and artistry in the way the themes have been woven into the story – an epic masterpiece in literature.

“I have for the first time found what I can truly love—I have found you. You are my sympathy—my better self— my good angel.” Says Rochester.

And my GR friends, I too have found (in books) what I truly love, and it is this timeless classic that is likely to remain as my #1 book of all time, for all time. In the dawn of a new year in books, what better way to have started my new reading year than with Jane Eyre, the principled, loving feminist, and her story.

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I just finished 'Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys, a prequel or retelling of sorts that I would highly recommend for readers and lovers of Jane Eyre. It is an accompaniment to Jane Eyre and provides some context to the events leading up to and the marriage of Bertha to Rochester, which Jane Eyre does not explore in any depth. Haunting, vividly depicted and a lens on Bertha that is somewhat different to the image created by Rochester. Fabulous.