So I'm very surprised at how much I have enjoyed reading Jane Eyre so far. I have heard the title all throughout my childhood and I even had the "kids" version of the book (which I'm glad I didn't read, because how the heck do you make all this craziness into a kids book?!) but this is my first time actually reading it. How much I like it is a problem, though, because I really have to write a paper for one of my other classes and I can't really put Jane Eyre down...that being said, I haven't quite gotten all the way to chapter 27 but I'll be there by monday.
Soooo Jane reminds me of one of those characters from a horror movie. I feel like the whole book I'm telling Jane, "NO. DON'T GO DOWN THAT HALLWAY. DON'T OPEN THE DOOR." and what do you know, she does it anyway. Like we were talking about, how she keeps going to all these new places and they all have scary daunting names. The first two were acceptable because she was a little kid and didn't really have a choice in the matter, but when she went to Thornfield and was like "ooh, this is gonna be great!" Really, Jane, really?!
The perfect example: Mr. Rochester. To be honest, I would have gotten the heck out of there the moment I met Mr. Rochester. He creeped me out. Well, more fairly, he pissed me off before he creeped me out. He was all "Oh, right now I'm going to talk to you like you're my equal. But we all know how inferior you are to me." Like, cool. Glad you made yourself feel cool. And THEN Jane starts to go and get the warm and fuzzys for him. DON'T GO DOWN THAT HALLWAY, JANE. He almost has like a magical power over her, the way she acted sometimes. This is especially seen when he's the fortune teller. It's like he controls Jane and all of her emotions. She's kind of like a puppet to him. Or a doll. Even in his marriage proposal, he pretends that he's getting married to Blanche just to get Jane to be jealous. Why don't you just, I dunno...court her? But instead, he has to do it in the way that he has power over her. And then he even dresses her like a doll and she is repulsed because that's really not her, like, at all. He likes the fact that he's superior to Jane and she's torn because she's such an individual and she has been her whole life...she HAD to be, in fact, but at the same time, he's giving her the potential of a family and a home and someone to love her, which she's been looking for her entire life. What to do, what to do...?
Run, Jane. Run.
But now the name Thornfield makes even more sense. This whole life seems so beautiful to Jane, what she's always wanted, but she's getting herself further and further entangled into the thorns that are keeping her. And there are a couple of, umm, obvious signs, like the fact that Rochester's bed was on fire and that guy got stabbed and then maybe the fact that a creepy girl popped out of Jane's closet and ripped up her veil? Are those not obvious signs that this is not the happy home you crave, Jane? And then we're expected to just be okay with it being all hush hush? Jane, you need to get your mind out of your fairytales and get yourself the heck outta there.
I completely agree with you. As much as I love the book and Jane's character, I feel like she has just about made some of the worst choices possible, especially with Mr. Rochester. I liked how you talked about Mr. Rochester having some sort of magical power over Jane because I was trying to think of a way to explain why such a feisty, individualistic character like Jane would just abandon all reason for some guy. I like Mr. Rochester as a character a little more than you, I just think that his control issues are what makes him so creepy. The way that he manipulates Jane with the gypsy situation and the fake engagement is a huge red flag and Jane just forgives him for both of these enormous lies. I thought that Jane would be more angry with Mr. Rochester for making such a fool of her and treating her like a doll or puppet like you said since she also likes being in control. In this sense I’m kind of disappointed in Jane as a character because in the first part of the book I thought of her as such a tough, independent woman.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, you're right! The name Thornfield makes even more sense now that you explained it that way and since we've gotten further into the book. This place seems so perfect to Jane like a rose, but eeeevery rose has it's thorn, and for Jane that pretty much means that every place she goes that she think will be her home, ends up sucking on one level or another (that's the thorn part). But this place, THORNfield is trapped her and ensnaring her and pulling her in. Rochester is definitely a really big part of it, but I think it's the place too. The mystery captivated her. She wanted to make sense of what was around (much like our friend Darwin) and this ensnares her even more!
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