What Jane Eyre Does for Me
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, has a unique ability to engage me and evoke strong thoughts and emotions largely thanks to its depiction of complex characters, themes and symbols. Jane Eyre is a very large and long storyso there is room in it for the author to explore reality on various levels. We see Jane as a young girl and what it is like to go through the sort of trials she has to experience being essentially an orphan without a loving mother or family. We see her at her boarding school, and then as she grows up and has to learn to fend for herself as a tutor at Mr. Rochesters house. It is a story that plays with genre (gothic romance), mystery (who or what is in the attic and why is Mr. Rochester so strange), and the coming-of-age drama (we see Jane mature into a real woman). It is also an intense love story as well, with a morality to it that is understandable and sincere. There is, on top of all this, a God angle that brings all this earthly drama into focus by touching on the divine commandments and principles that should inform a Christian society.
Plus,...
For instance, we hear her say what most likely every intelligent young woman of that day and age thought: Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need
exercise for their faculties,...
…the reader to feel everything alongside her in real time as it is happening to her. Plus, one gets to go at ones own pacenot like a TV show or
movie, which moves along whether you are paying attention or not. One has to be engaged with the novel if one wants to get anything out of it. Then there are the excellent symbols that get one thinking on another levelsuch as the recurring image of fire, which symbolizes passion and desire, while the imagery of
nature tends to represent freedom and
escape from societal constraints. These symbols help to create the tension in the novel from one chapter to the next. It is beautifully done and a testament to the
power of the novel that Bronte is able to do it…
