Biographical and Literary Context for
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Here are some questions you should consider as you read Jane Eyre and some information to help you consider the questions. Be prepared to discuss some of this on Monday in relation to chapters one through sixteen.
I. The Author’s Biography & the Fiction of the Novel
Question: How are (the biography of) Charlotte Bronte and (the fictional autobiography of) Jane Eyre related?
Contextual Information:
Click here (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/brontbio.html) and here (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/brontetl.html) for skeletal biographies of Charlotte Bronte.
Click here (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/61brnt6.html) for a consideration of biographical elements in Jane Eyre. Other relevant biographical elements are alluded to in the aforementioned brief biographies and (if you have some familiarity with Bronte’s life) can be inferred as you read Jane Eyre.
II. Other literature and ideas of the time period in relation to the novel
Question: How is Jane Eyre related to other works literature written in English during the nineteenth century? In what ways does Bronte’s Jane Eyre share characteristics with Romantic, Gothic, and Victorian literature and in what ways does the novel deviate from other literature of the time?How is Jane Eyre related to social and political concerns in England during the mid-nineteenth century?
Contextual Information:
Here is some background on nineteenth century English-language literature that we can apply to Jane Eyre.
Romantic Era in English-Language Literature
(around 1770 to around 1870)
Historical Context
“…the Romantic period, beginning in 1798, the year of the first edition of Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge and of the composition of Hymns to the Night by Novalis, and ending in 1832, the year which marked the deaths of both Sir Walter Scott and Goethe. However, as an international movement affecting all the arts, Romanticism begins at least in the 1770's and continues into the second half of the nineteenth century, later for American literature than for European, and later in some of the arts, like music and painting, than in literature. This extended chronological spectrum (1770-1870) also permits recognition as Romantic the poetry of Robert Burns and William Blake in
The early Romantic period thus coincides with what is often called the "age of revolutions"--including, of course, the American (1776) and the French (1789) revolutions--an age of upheavals in political, economic, and social traditions, the age which witnessed the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution. A revolutionary energy was also at the core of Romanticism, which quite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry (and all art), but the very way we perceive the world. Some of its major precepts have survived into the twentieth century and still affect our contemporary period.”
Imagination
“The imagination was elevated to a position as the supreme faculty of the mind. This contrasted distinctly with the traditional arguments for the supremacy of reason. The Romantics tended to define and to present the imagination as our ultimate "shaping" or creative power, the approximate human equivalent of the creative powers of nature or even deity….Imagination is the primary faculty for creating all art. On a broader scale, it is also the faculty that helps humans to constitute reality, for (as Wordsworth suggested), we not only perceive the world around us, but also in part create it. Uniting both reason and feeling (Coleridge described it with the paradoxical phrase, "intellectual intuition"), imagination is extolled as the ultimate synthesizing faculty…Finally, imagination is inextricably bound up with the other two major concepts, for it is presumed to be the faculty which enables us to "read" nature as a system of symbols.”
Nature
“While particular perspectives with regard to nature varied considerably--nature as a healing power, nature as a source of subject and image, nature as a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization, including artificial language--the prevailing views accorded nature the status of an organically unified whole. It was viewed as "organic," rather than, as in the scientific or rationalist view, as a system of "mechanical" laws, for Romanticism displaced the rationalist view of the universe as a machine (e.g., the deistic image of a clock) with the analogue of an "organic" image, a living tree or mankind itself…Romantic nature poetry is essentially a poetry of meditation.”
Emotion & the Self
“Other aspects of Romanticism were intertwined with the above three concepts. Emphasis on the activity of the imagination was accompanied by greater emphasis on the importance of intuition, instincts, and feelings, and Romantics generally called for greater attention to the emotions as a necessary supplement to purely logical reason. When this emphasis was applied to the creation of poetry, a very important shift of focus occurred. Wordsworth's definition of all good poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" marks a turning point in literary history. By locating the ultimate source of poetry in the individual artist, the tradition, stretching back to the ancients, of valuing art primarily for its ability to imitate human life (that is, for its mimetic qualities) was reversed. In Romantic theory, art was valuable not so much as a mirror of the external world, but as a source of illumination of the world within. Among other things, this led to a prominence for first-person lyric poetry never accorded it in any previous period. The "poetic speaker" became less a persona and more the direct person of the poet. Wordsworth's Prelude and Whitman's "Song of Myself" are both paradigms of successful experiments to take the growth of the poet's mind (the development of self) as subject for an "epic" enterprise made up of lyric components. Confessional prose narratives such as Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) and Chateaubriand's Rene (1801), as well as disguised autobiographical verse narratives such as Byron's Childe Harold (1818), are related phenomena. The interior journey and the development of the self recurred everywhere as subject material for the Romantic artist. The artist-as-hero is a specifically Romantic type.”
The Romantic Hero {"Byronic Hero"}
The Romantics asserted the importance of the individual, the unique, even the eccentric….The hero-artist has already been mentioned; there were also heaven-storming types from Prometheus to Captain Ahab, outcasts from Cain to the Ancient Mariner and even Hester Prynne, and there was Faust, who wins salvation in Goethe's great drama for the very reasons--his characteristic striving for the unattainable beyond the morally permitted and his insatiable thirst for activity--that earlier had been viewed as the components of his tragic sin. (It was in fact Shelley's opinion that Satan, in his noble defiance, was the real hero of
In style, the Romantics preferred boldness over the preceding age's desire for restraint, maximum suggestiveness over the neoclassical ideal of clarity, free experimentation over the "rules" of composition, genre, and decorum, and they promoted the conception of the artist as "inspired" creator over that of the artist as "maker" or technical master….Although interest in religion and in the powers of faith were prominent during the Romantic period, the Romantics generally rejected absolute systems, whether of philosophy or religion, in favor of the idea that each person (and humankind collectively) must create the system by which to live.
The Commonplace & the Alien
The attitude of many of the Romantics to the everyday, social world around them was complex. It is true that they advanced certain realistic techniques, such as the use of "local color" (through down-to-earth characters, like Wordsworth's rustics, or through everyday language, as in Emily Bronte's northern dialects or Whitman's colloquialisms, or through popular literary forms, such as folk narratives). Yet social realism was usually subordinate to imaginative suggestion, and what was most important were the ideals suggested by the above examples, simplicity perhaps, or innocence. Earlier, the 18th-century cult of the noble savage had promoted similar ideals, but now artists often turned for their symbols to domestic rather than exotic sources--to folk legends and older, "unsophisticated" art forms, such as the ballad, to contemporary country folk who used "the language of commen men," not an artificial "poetic diction," and to children (for the first time presented as individuals, and often idealized as sources of greater wisdom than adults).
Simultaneously, as opposed to everyday subjects, various forms of the exotic in time and/or place also gained favor, for the Romantics were also fascinated with realms of existence that were, by definition, prior to or opposed to the ordered conceptions of "objective" reason….
In the Lyrical Ballads… Wordsworth and Coleridge agreed to divide their labors according to two subject areas, the natural and the supernatural: Wordsworth would try to exhibit the novelty in what was all too familiar, while Coleridge would try to show in the supernatural what was psychologically real, both aiming to dislodge vision from the "lethargy of custom."
The Romantic (Hero) & Society
In another way too, the Romantics were ambivalent toward the "real" social world around them. They were often politically and socially involved, but at the same time they began to distance themselves from the public. As noted earlier, high Romantic artists interpreted things through their own emotions, and these emotions included social and political consciousness--as one would expect in a period of revolution, one that reacted so strongly to oppression and injustice in the world. So artists sometimes took public stands, or wrote works with socially or politically oriented subject matter. Yet at the same time, another trend began to emerge, as they withdrew more and more from what they saw as the confining boundaries of bourgeois life. In their private lives, they often asserted their individuality and differences in ways that were to the middle class a subject of intense interest, but also sometimes of horror….Unfortunately, in many ways, this distance between artist and public remains with us today.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html
Adapted from an adaptation of A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature, ©English Department,
Gothicism
1764 to 1820+
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole was published in 1764; the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was first published in 1818 (though a revised edition was published years later) and Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer was published in 1820.
But its influence can be seen throughout “Romanticism” in
History and Defining Characteristics
The Gothic begins with later-eighteenth-century writers' turn to the past; in the context of the Romantic period, the Gothic is, then, a type of imitation medievalism. When it was launched in the later eighteenth century, The Gothic featured accounts of terrifying experiences in ancient castles — experiences connected with subterranean dungeons, secret passageways, flickering lamps, screams, moans, bloody hands, ghosts, graveyards, and the rest….By extension, it came to designate the macabre, mysterious, fantastic, supernatural, and, again, the terrifying, especially the pleasurably terrifying, in literature more generally.
Closer to the present, one sees the Gothic pervading Victorian literature (for example, in the novels of Dickens and the Brontës), American fiction (from Poe and Hawthorne through Faulkner), and of course the films, television, and videos of our own (in this respect, not-so-modern) culture.
…
Influence on later literature
More pervasive signs of Gothic influence show up in some of the most frequently read Romantic poems — for example, the account of the skeleton ship and the crew's reaction ("A flash of joy . . . And horror follows") in Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (NAEL 8, 2.430)
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Norton Topics Online
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/topic_2/welcome.htm
More
More information about relevant gender issues, literary connections, political context, social context, religious context, scientific context, biographical context can be found here (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/eyreov.html).
Victorianism
“For much of the last century the term Victorian, which literally describes things and events in the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), conveyed connotations of "prudish," "repressed," and "old fashioned." Although such associations have some basis in fact, they do not adequately indicate the nature of this complex, paradoxical age that was a second English Renaissance. Like Elizabethan England, Victorian England saw great expansion of wealth, power, and culture. (What Victorian literary form do you think parallels Elizabethan drama in terms of both popularity and literary achievement?)”
…
“More than anything else what makes Victorians Victorian is their sense of social responsibility, a basic attitude that obviously differentiates them from their immediate predecessors, the Romantics. Tennyson might go to
the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.
but he refused to reprint his poem "Empedocles on Etna," in which the Greek philosopher throws himself into the volcano, because it set a bad example; and he criticized an Anglican bishop who pointed out mathematical inconsistencies in the Bible not on the grounds that he was wrong, but that for a bishop to point these things out to the general public was irresponsible.”
George P. Landow, Professor of English and the History of Art, Brown University
http://www.victorianweb.org/vn/victor4.html
Moriah O’Neil
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As many have probably established on their own, I think it is quite accurate in saying that Jane Eyre is a novel packed with deception, mystery, and romance. Re-capping on what we have encountered; what do characters that have deceived Jane, the uncertainties of the certain, and a tragic love story all have to create a masterpiece many have come to call, Charlotte Bronte’s best work? However, I think that the possibility for all of this lies within the life of the author. When authors go about in writing their novels, much of their ideas and thoughts come from their own life and experiences. Seeing that Charlotte Bronte grew up in the Victorian era, the life she lived is greatly reflected in her novels.
I have always enjoyed a good love story and though Jane’s may seem out of the ordinary, I think that is what makes it romantic in and of itself. During the Victorian era, courting was the proper term used when two people would begin their life together. Though Rochester isn’t exactly “courting” Jane, it is evident that an attraction between them is present. And though courting may be the proper way, this hasn’t stopped this secretive yet quietly scandalous relationship.
After realizing this, I have come across an idea pertaining to the ways in which Jane Eyre deviates from other pieces of literature of that time. It wasn’t just Jane who wrote such novels, but her sister Emily Bronte partook in the pastime of creating exceptional pieces of literature. In some ways, Jane Eyre reminds me of Emily’s Wuthering Heights. Both portray a mysterious love story that if both were true, it would certainly be disgrace to the Victorian Society. However I do not doubt that such romance didn’t take place during the 19th century. Aside from this, Emily’s Wuthering Heights also included an orphanage with ill-treatment towards the orphans as did Jane Eyre.
Overall, it is apparent that Jane Eyre is depicted as a very dark book. This era observing Gothicism and Romance has been clearly revealed throughout this novel due not only to the influential time period but also through Charlotte’s life. I hope to further explore Charlotte’s life and try to match similarities to that and her book. I’m sure that there will be and I am very interested to look into other biographies.
Tom M.
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By looking at the contextual information represented throughout “Jane Eyre” so far, I can see how great of a part Romanticism has played, a part I hadn’t noticed as much before. However, “The Commonplace and the Alien” notes represented here are what I believe have stuck out just as much so far in the novel. At this point, Jane and Rochester have developed a type of trusting and accepting relationship. Rochester trusts Jane to take care of Adele as well as he trusts her with secrets and confessions of his past as well as he accepts her for the common, non-objective person she is. On that same note, Jane trusts Rochester for the stories he has relayed onto her of his past, she believes and sees the honesty in his confessions. He also accepts the fact that there are some things about him, his past, and what’s going on at Thornfield that she can just not pry into. Jane is a very “commonplace” person, while at the same time, she is an alien in this different, unfamiliar environment. While she feels a bit of the pain Rochester feels, she still is not used to the particular manner of how Rochester handles his relationships with people and how he runs his household as a male figure head. And yet that is what has brought them together. The fact that Jane does not bother to constantly gossip and pry about what dark, looming secrets surround Rochester is what makes him attracted to her, trust her, and tell her all he has never told before. It’s a mixture of the “opposites attract” and the “compassionate relationship” theories. The two share a romantic passion for each other because they both accept each other’s flaws while still being compassionate towards what is bothering them. These themes of “commonplace” and “romanticism” stick out just as much as they do through literal literary definition. For most of the language Jane uses to narrate and tell of her story is in a mostly commonplace, easy to read manner yet with a romantic undertone. This is mostly due to the fact that Romanticism was a major literary genre and style of writing during the Victorian era. Also, I expect the style in which "Jane Eyre" was written is a common tone of most of Bronte's work. Throughout “Jane Eyre”, I expect there to be many reoccurrences of this style and context. I believe the “give and take” relationships Jane and Rochester share will continue to develop in differentiating ways. I also expect that Jane’s feelings of being the outsider will soon subside, as she needs to be an “insider” in order to expand her relationship with Rochester, if that’s the route she wishes to take. However, I do not mean she needs to assimilate herself to Rochester’s “culture”, she just will most likely need to be able to feel more at home, more “in the know” in order to have the compassion she shares with Rochester grow into a stronger and even more accepting bond.
Jacklyn Lisnky
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Charlotte Bronte uses different styles of diction to differentiate characters in the book and it also shows the type of person they are. When Jane is speaking she speaks in a literary form. This shows that she is smart, but also shows that she is reserved with her language. This also reflects Jane’s background because she has learned to speak this way at her school and she has become comfortable in that standard and is unwilling to change. The contrast shows greatly upon the meeting of Mr. Rochester who speaks in a colloquial manner that borders on slang and taboo. Though Mr. Rochester is a higher class than Jane it also shows a double standard. The fact that if a woman, such as, Jane was to swear , she would encounter scorn from people of upper classes. Mr. Rochester also shows that he is not as highly educated as Jane because he speech is not as refined and literary as hers. The servants use a standard form while in the company of their fellow servants. By the servants using a standard form of diction it shows that they are the least educated people in the book. However , Mrs. Reed also uses a colloquial form of speaking, but there is a harsher undertone when she is talking that is not present when Mr. Rochester is speaking. This also shows that Bronte is trying to show that though diction helps to explain a character that the undertone in which they speak shows most of the character’s true intentions and motives. Helen Burns and Mr. Broklehurst use a similar form of diction, though their characters are completely different it showed that they were at a similar intelligence level. With Jane being exposed to all of these dictions it shows that she remains true to herself as her diction remains the same thus far in the novel. The structure also varies with different characters. Jane uses a more abrupt sentence which shows that she likes to get her point across without trying to sound to intelligent. There are at some points however that she does in fact use a longer sentence and that is when she wishes to convey a thought that others would not understand, so once again it shows she is the most intelligent of the people around her. Mr. Rochester uses a lengthy sentence structure because he explains himself in more detail unlike Jane. It also because he is not as intelligent as Jane, which causes him to sometimes have to use more words to describe himself than Jane does.
EdanL(FBlock)
ReplyDeleteResponding to Jacklyn, I agree that there are certain merits to analyzing the speaking habits of each character. However, I don't quite see much that hints toward each characters' level of intelligence. Don't get me wrong; I do believe that there may be subtle hints that poke at this within the novel's diction, but there must be more to it than that. An extensive vocabulary does not always signify brilliance; it directly suggests a certain deft in sharing one's emotions, ideas, ect. in an efficient, lucid manner. You say that Mr. Rochester's casual diction suggests an inferiority in knowledge. I pitch the idea that maybe one of Rochester's problems is not his intelligence, but his ineffectiveness in expressing his inner self. Jane shows brilliance in this area. She narrates in a expressive, authoritative manner. She is narrating the novel right? Rochester's intentions seem almost nebulous at times, which is making for interesting interactions between the two. Rochester displays brilliance during some instances, which nudges me to construct this theory. Anyway, he can sure read Jane like a book, and maybe this is similar to her open way of speaking. There are numerous instances of him studying her over, "his stare piercing" deep into her eyes. This is interesting as it shows the secretive man stealing away information from the open vulnerable heroine. Rochester really opens up to Jane when he reminisces about Adele's mother. Even then though, I can't fully interpret his feelings, one cause being his nebulous descriptions (like his past is a dream). The utilization of some french language phrases in there builds another obstacle that the contemporary English student must stumble over. Jane can be a bit ostentatious at times, and I feel that she may sometimes flaunt her vocabulary around in an attempt to suggest power, or as Jacklyn put it, knowledge. Jane is in a vulnerable state being the governess. She is not quite a servant, but not a guest at Thornfield either, stranded somewhere in between. Another point here, with so many references to the French language, I wonder if there are many barriers between what a character is trying to say in English and what they say in French. How would Adele interpret something compared to Jane? There seem to be several English connotations scattered around the novel, but are there any in French? I look forward into diving into this subject, looking at how what is being shared in each relate. Reading back though, I can say that what I attempted at in this passage was further interpretation of the disparity between Jane and Rochester's language styles provided by Jacklyn.
Louisa B.
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Following up on Edan's point about the use of french in Jane Eyre, I agree that it adds another level of formality to the text. It serves to demonstrate Jane's level of intelligence, as well as Adele's class status. Adele is essentially an illegitimate child, something that was very much frowned upon in the 19th century. However, Adele's heritage saves her from shame in English society. French culture is regarded as sophisticated and enlightened, and with the culture comes the French language. Adele's beauty and use of her native language is what makes her so appealing to Mrs. Eshton and Lady Lynn.
Brontë also uses French to establish her own level of education as well as Jane's. By writing in French, Charlotte herself is showing a level of sophistication that was only found in the higher classes. As a society, Americans have lost (or never had) this use of another language to demonstrate class. The upper class no longer borrows extensively from another language, instead only using a more refined version of English. However, in Brontë's day the ability to speak French was considered a sign of a high society upbringing. Jane speaks French not because she faces a language barrier, but instead to show her intelligence. Adele uses the language as her native language. Both characters use French for different means, but for both it implies that they might be from higher caste than that to which they ultimately belong.
Bronte effectively uses French to add to the character's personalities as well as to enhance the language of the book. French, in my eyes, is a beautiful language. It is referred to as a Romantic language for a reason and fits in with the already Romantic theme of the novel. As suggested by A Guide to the Study of Literature, Romantics tended to distance themselves from the public. A gap between the artist and the public began to emerge. It is easy to see how the use of another language only widens this gap. It became to be that only those who were educated and knowledgeable were the only ones who spoke French. Bronte confirms this with her use of the language, lower class members such as Mrs. Fairfax had no knowledge of French. In Jane Eyre, I think it is safe to say that Bronte used French to develop characters, further the reader's opinion of herself and (possibly subconsciously) to add to the Romantic theme.
In association with my A Block counterpart Edan, I agree that characters are not defined by the vocabulary they use, rather, they are defined by the thoughts they have. Unlike Wide Sargasso Sea, Jane is the only character within Jane Eyre we are given access to on a mental level, for she is the narrator. Her thoughts are laid out for us, along with her struggles (self vs. self, self vs. others, etc.), allowing us as readers to truly connect with her every word personally. Removing this aspect would render Jane identical to every other character; a mystery figure we are left to figure out through dialogue and human interaction. The short sentences Jacklyn referred to may be mistaken for ignorance if not for our extensive knowledge of Jane’s background. How can we know of the education and circumstances Mr. Rochester, or any other character for that matter, has been through in their lives? Is it fair to judge them on a first impression? Jane did not make a particularly impressive first impression, yet she if forgiven by most readers because they are aware of the harsh conditions she was unwillingly placed under. The preceding narration assures readers that Jane is more than she appears. For this reason, every character deserves the same amount of, for lack of a better term, respect, from the reader that Jane receives. In no way, shape, or form do I encourage a reader to ignore literary signals put forth by a newly introduced character, but instead, give a character benefit of the doubt before permanently labeling them. Let each character be innocent until proven guilty. Until their true colors are revealed, via self expression or otherwise, they should remain a mystery. Bronte attempts to reach this conclusion by slowly pacing the introduction of Rochester; while his language may come across as ignorant or crude, he is constantly depicted looking deeply into the eyes of Jane, seemingly “reading” her thoughts and feelings, creating a mysterious vibe about him. Can we be sure of what he will become at this point? It is debatable. On the other hand, we can insinuate that there is more to this man than meets the eye, and monitor closely the diction he uses, along with the register he is presented and described in.
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ReplyDeleteCaroline B.
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Love stories. An old age, Victorian age, love story. Love stories are so repetitive. The brilliant straight a student falls for the class delinquent. Best friends fall for each other, or prince charming comes to sweep his Cinderella off her feet in one romantic night that completely alters her values and personal dreams. A damsel in distress falls for the knight in shining armor that comes to rescue her. My favorite part of Romeo and Juliet was when they had their dramatic death scene—at that point I thought they deserved it.
Charlotte Bronte seems to have a fascination with ghosts and spirits—like her sister Emily did—which were very popular in the age of Gothicism. I can completely imagine Charlotte, in her Victorian get up, telling elementary aged campers ghost stories.
One of the most repetitive literary themes are love stories. Jane is Charlotte Bronte’s romantic, eccentric hero. A character who has been denied the love of family her entire life and received very little companionship. She is a loner who wants to be with someone, to make her feel loved… and along comes Rochester. Need I say the rest?
Charlotte captured the dominating Romanticism and Gothicism of her time. However, I personally believe that her sister Emily did a better job. The main difference between their works is that while Charlotte created a humble, unloved female hero waiting for a prince charming, Emily wrote about a selfish brat who toyed with her men’s affections ultimately leading to everyone’s demise by not freeing a lover from her manipulative control. Emily’s love story is a lot more original than Charlotte’s, and much more entertaining to read.
Yet even as I say that I find love stories repetitive and annoying, I love love stories. There is nothing better than snuggling under my blankets at night and reading a good old love story, whose end could obviously be predicted.
Andrew Mizzoni
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Language in literature is a definite key to how a character is portrayed. In novels you cannot see who and what the person looks, acts or speaks like. For an author to make the book come to life he or she must incorporate a certain style of language. Regarding Jane Eyre characters are put into their characters by their certain language and tone. Helen’s language of compassion and realism allows for the reader to view her character as intelligent. In my opinion it is not the style of language you use in your environment but how you express your language. Whether you are using French, Latin or slang I believe your intelligence comes from your presentation. Helens ability to express her ideas in a noble intelligent way overrides her lack of proper language. I am not saying that Helen does not speak formally but to me my opinion of her intelligence is based of her maturity. For a young girl her age to except her religion not as a chore but as a lifestyle separates her from many other girls her age. Her ability to control her emotions in an unfriendly environment is just as much intelligent as formally speaking. Mr. Rochester counters my argument however on the way he speaks. I feel that his language is neither informal nor formal. When reading chapter 13 I feel that Rochester was using a style of intimidation. I know we did not talk much about this style in class but I feel that it must be mentioned. I am not sure how accurate I may be but I feel Rochester’s ability to intimate gives him an intelligent style. To obtain fear from your associates I believe is a state of intelligence. His leadership ability places him into the intelligent category without the use of formal speaking. Rochester in chapter thirteen intimates Jane without actually threatening her. Regarding chapter 13 Rochester expresses his intimidation to Jane about her piano ability. The language he uses towards her drawings states a fear of influence. To me that is why I feel Jane is attracted to Rochester, she is attracted to his intimation and masculine physique, something she is not used to coming from Lowood. Lastly Bronte making Rochester the only male that you learn about in depth adds a sphere of intimation to the reader and Jane.
Grant Weaver
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In Jane Eyre there are many moments that are studied often, not only by those of us in AP English, but by all other types of classes, schools, etc…While the moments studied are important there is one that I feel is under appreciated and full of incite into both the characters in the story, but also of the writer and how she uses language. This moment is when Jane arrives back at Thornfield hall after her walk to Hay on which she (unknowingly) met Mr. Rochester. In this moment she discovers that the random stranger she met was her master and yet somehow manages to ‘keep cool’.
In this scenario most of would be surprised to say the least. Many would be scared that they had not left the right impression or perhaps had offended their boss. When Jane sees Pilot though she is intrigued but not too emotional. She merely continues on with her normal business, while inquiring about the situation to Leah.
This brings up another point that I have wanted to discuss. The servants and even Mrs. Fairfax to an extent have treated Jane as if she was more than just another employee of Thornfield Hall. They answer her questions with respect and often do her bidding. It seems as if Jane realizes this too, asking the servants for things and continuing on the familiar, but not colloquial relationships and discussions. For example, the passage where Jane realizes that Mr. Rochester was the man who fell off of his horse Jane asks many questions of Leah who responds in turn with politeness and respect, the only difference between her discussions with Jane and Mr. Rochester for example is a sir or ma’am.
Jane Eyre has this reformed air about her that is always present whether she is talking to servants, Mr. Rochester, or even finding out surprising and, one would think, upsetting news.
Agreeing with Edan and Lousia, I believe that Charlotte Bronte’s use of French throughout Jane Eyre adds a level of sophistication to the novel. Adele is from France so she speaks French fluently, and Jane picked up some French when she was at Lowood School. As we know, Jane is orphaned and was later disowned by her Aunt after she was sent away to school. Adele was also orphaned, after her mother abandoned her and she has no know father (which was frowned upon in the English culture). When Adele and Jane first meet and Adele learns that Jane can speak French, there is an instant connection between the two of them. Adele needs someone to understand her and guide her and Jane is just the person. Bronte is using French to both show her levels of education and sophistication and also to show an immediate bond that only grows between Jane and Adele. Bronte uses French often throughout the book, almost every time Adele speaks. Though it makes it hard for most readers to understand what Adele is saying, it increases her level of beauty and elegance as a young child. Adele uses her French to impress Mr. Rochester’s lady friends who come to attend the parties he has. She grabs all of their attention and fascinates them. Charlotte Bronte uses French in her novel to portray a level of formality, while also showing the bond between Adele and her governess, Jane.
ReplyDeleteI believe in Jane Eyre that Charlotte Bronte uses each character’s language to reveal something about their personality. Mr. Rochester uses somewhat formal language because he as a character wants to be in control, he can be formal and has a position of power. Both Jane and Adele can speak French, and this draws them together. In this I agree with Michelle that Bronte’s use of French when Adele talks forces the reader to wonder what she is saying unless the reader understands French. I believe this does add a sophisticated air to Adele in that the reader can’t understand her well, and makes her seem deep and interesting. Also since Jane and Adele share the French language I believe Bronte wanted to show the reader how similar the characters are, and to remind the reader to pay attention to the parallels of the two. Both characters have little or no family, and have been rejected in some sense by society. Jane was disliked and unaccepted at her aunt’s house, and Adele has no father around. In Jane Eyre, Bronte uses language as a way to express certain character’s personalities.
ReplyDeleteAlso sparking ideas from Edan’s original post I can too see how it is important to analyze the speaking habits of the characters in the novel in order to judge their individual intelligence. What I don’t agree with is that we can go very in depth into each person's minds or take everything a character says to be too literal for it is too little information to base a whole person’s self on. The only exception to this in ‘Jane Eyre’ I would say would be Jane Eyre because what we are reading is her own very thoughts. We can see into her mind at all times and we know almost exactly what she’s thinking. Because of this we can judge her character and intelligence level almost to a tee. We know that she is scholarly and very independent and therefore can think for herself and has her own original thoughts. We know she is very bright by all means, but at the same time is adept to fall in love rashly and naively in my own opinion. She has many quirks, but at the same time can be a very rational thinker and we know all of this because she lets us into her mind and lets us see her deepest most inmost thoughts. With other characters though this is not the case. The only way we can see their own personalities is through Jane’s eyes and the way in which they converse with her. There is no way for us to know what goes on in their heads except for what they admit to Jane and who are we to even expect that they are ever telling the truth? To me the other characters in the novel besides Jane are a complete mystery and have proven to be so over time. We know not who they are truly infatuated with, what they are thinking or how they perceive Jane or any of the other characters. Because of this is would be completely rash for us to claim to know these characters and their very personalities and intelligence levels. For all we know they are holding out on Jane and are someone whom we would never expect. Like ‘Jane Eyre’ there are many other novels that also hide the personality of other characters besides their first person narrators and as we have learned through reading these other stories you should never think someone is who they truly seem unless you can see directly into their very thoughts. Take everything another character says with only a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteKelly B.
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When Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, I am almost positive she forgot it was a made-up story and began to tell us her own autobiography. After reading the biography written about her, I believe that she is just like Jane Eyre in so many ways. Immediately beginning with her mother dying. Charlotte seems to be just as much a lost orphan as Jane is, maybe even more so. Then it goes on to say that she was a governess and moved from place to place, just like Jane. The way that Ms. Bronte depicted Jane was almost like saying her life, with an extra “umph” to it. She may have not had a romantic connection to her husband in real life, but in her novel life, she fell for a man who was anything but ordinary. Yet in order to make the book go on she had to make a conflict.
I also wanted to touch on fate, something that is more than relevant to the topic of Jane’s marriage. After Rochester proposes so magnificently in the “Edan-like” garden where the honey dew is perfectly dropped on the grasses (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/61brnt6.html) they soak up each other’s love under a chestnut tree. Only to find out later that the tree had been struck by lightning and spilt in complete halves. That to me is a key hint that, in simplified form, the tree with the unification of both Rochester and Jane, and the burst of lightning that split the tree is what tears them apart.
My last input is the way the book was written by such an intricate author. Bronte obviously came from a slightly torn family, with all the casualties, and it certainly bothered her enough to bring gloom into the book. As this book was written in the nineteenth century, it was also written in a time of death and sad remberances. She made a point to include the darkest of the darkest, and the scariest things that will scare you to go into your attic; seriously. Her deep writing reflected her own life so much, it made every aspect of what she wrote even more interesting, and after further reading I’m hoping to see is she can still coincide with Jane.
Hilary E
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When reading Jane Eyre I found that Bronte shows development through her word choices. For example during the chapters containing Helen Burns Jane refers to her as “Helen Burns”. As time passes she begins to address the character as just “Helen” dropping her last name. I interpreted this change as a movement toward friendship and a state of complacency.
Another example is found in the popular topic of the use of French in the novel. While many are sharing the thought that the French was used to add the illusion of sophistication to Jane’s new home, I saw the opposite. Because Adele is said to be a plain girl who has no talents, her use of French seems to shows a level of incompetence. In contrast the dialogue between her and Jane implicates the idea that Jane had worked hard to learn the language, even though she was once in Adele’s position (orphaned and working against the odds). The French forces the reader to compare and contrast Adele, the poor orphan Jane once was, and the new woman Jane has evolved into.
Upon reading some biographical information about Charlotte Bronte’s life, I noticed some similarities between her life and the life of Jane Eyre. One comparison right off the bat is that both Jane and Charlotte have lost members of their immediate family at young ages. Charlotte growing up had no mother and eventually her father and all her siblings died before she did. Maybe Bronte gave Jane no family in order to reflect upon her own family situation?
ReplyDeleteAlso, both Jane and Charlotte are sent to boarding schools, left them, and then ended up returning to life in education. Jane runs a school in the village school while Charlotte attempts to open a school with her sisters. Both Bronte and Jane were governesses. They came and went from their positions as governesses due to emotional reasons; Jane left and went back to Thornfield due to her love for Mr. Rochester, and Charlotte left her governess position due to homesickness. Both try to use pseudonyms during their lives, Jane Eyre – Jane Elliott, Charlotte Bronte – Currer Bell.
In the end, both Bronte and Jane have the same approach towards death. They let death come to them instead of trying to control it in order to earn their places in heaven. My final question is this: due to a number of similarities in lifestyles that can’t possibly be mere coincidences, could it be that Jane Eyre is (in a way) like a testimony or a memoir of Charlotte Bronte’s own personal experiences?