What I’m Reading – Jane Eyre

*Spoilers*

I recently finished reading Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847. It was first published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography edited by Currer Bell, a pen name Bronte often used because female writers were not very accepted back then.

The story is told by Jane as an adult reflecting on her life. She often references the reader during the book, “Gentle reader, may you never feel what I felt! May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heart-wrung tears as poured from mine.” This gives an impression of intimacy throughout the book. Jane is telling you her story and giving hindsight reasoning and justifications. Its almost like reading a diary.

Let me say I loved this book. It is an excellent coming-of-age story and a fantastic love story.

Jane shows independence, spirit, and resilience at a young age. She persevered from her unloved beginnings at Gateshead and Lowood to her sometimes lonely days at Moor House. She had ambition, a desire for adventure, and a genuinely kind, humble heart.

Jane starts off as a lonely orphan living with her dead uncle’s wife and children. There, she is bullied and neglected. After a violent confrontation with her cousin, she is given the chance to go to a charity school. Jane is eager to learn and get out of Gateshead. She thinks school will be her saving grace. However, Lowood turns out to be even worse.

Lowood is a religious school run by the hypocritical and harsh Mr. Brocklehurst. It is constantly freezing, and students are often given inedible food and only poor materials to learn with. There, Jane meets Helen Burns, a sickly, melancholy girl who teaches Jane about humility, forgiveness, and patience.

After a deadly outbreak of Typhus sweeps through the school, leadership changed, and conditions significantly improved. Jane becomes a teacher and soon desires to leave Lowood. She ends up at Thornfield Hall where she is a governess to a young French girl. There she meets Mr. Rochester the enigmatic and bitter Lord of Thornfield Hall.

They end up falling in love. Their romance is sweet and full of passion; I found it very swoon-worthy. When it turns out they can’t get married, Jane is devastated and runs away. She becomes homeless and friendless and wanders around until she is taken in by a small family consisting of a young man named John, his two sisters and a maid.

Jane endears herself to them and ends up working as a teacher for a new school John has opened up for girls. John, who is becoming a missionary, wants Jane as a wife and proposes a marriage that would be for God, not love. Not able to even contemplate such a thing after having been loved so deeply by Rochester, Jane refuses. She eventually finds her way back to Rochester.

The book has many references to Bible verses and Bible stories. Jane is sometimes at odds with what she wants and what religion or society says.

When Jane wants to leave Lowood, she has an interesting back-and-forth with herself. “I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing. I abandoned it and framed a humbler supplication… ‘Then’ I cried half desperate, ‘grant me at least a new servitude!’… ‘A new servitude! There is something in that. I know there is because it does not sound too sweet. It is not like such words as Liberty, Excitement, Enjoyment.'”

We can see that Jane is trying to suppress her true desires with what her religious upbringing and conservative society have instilled in her. She has a similar battle when Rochester tries to get her to stay with him after it becomes clear she cannot marry him. She wants to be with him desperately but also feels like she would be doing herself a disservice if she did. She felt like God would not approve of their union. She didn’t want to enjoy her life on earth but then be miserable after death.

When Jane and Rochester meet again, Jane is more comfortable and confident in their relationship because she sees it as a more equal union.

The book blends themes of romance, gothic mystery, religion, class, and self-discovery. I enjoyed it very much and can see myself re-reading it soon.

I highly recommend this book!

Rating: 10/10