My book club decided to go back to the classics this month and read (or re-read, or try to remember reading) Jane Eyre. I still have my 1960 copyrighted edition with my middle-school looking handwriting marking it in my maiden name!! And yes, it has been about that long since I read it (probably high school in the early '80's!).
I cannot imagine that I understood what I was truly reading then. It is almost a tragedy that teenagers were asked to read this at that age. And also a tragedy that they are not introduced to it now. Oxymoron much??
My teenage daughters will never read Jane Eyre. They will find it way too old fashioned, maybe even offensive. There is no sex, but there is some violence. There is a twist, and there is definitely drama. There is a rags to riches arc, and an extremely strong heroine. But would they see Jane that way? As a strong woman? Ahead of her time? Opinionated and not docile? One of my friends at Book Club asked if I thought this book was even relevant today - asked SHOULD our young girls (and boys) read this novel from 1846?
I say YES. Because situational content is so important to the girls of today. How else will they really know how far women have come?? There was NO chance of divorce at that time. None. Ever. A governess position was about all they could hope for if they did not get married super young (usually arranged, rarely for love) or become a nun - what a choice!! Early sex or none at all??? They rarely owned property and if they did and they subsequently got married, guess who owned it then? It was very unusual that Jane should travel alone - gasp!! Not to mention the fact that Charlotte Bronte felt compelled, no required, to publish this under the name of Currer Bell. So no one would know it was actually written by a woman (another gasp!).
We complain that women are still oppressed, we don't have equal pay, we are marginalized and traumatized especially in this environment of #metoo. I do not dispute that. But please, go read Jane Eyre and for five minutes focus on how far we've come.
Yes, the language is flowery and romantic and the story is heartbreaking. Redemptive, but heartbreaking. No one but this particular character would have come out ahead - why? Because she RISKED EVERYTHING. She left. She begged. She worked. She stood up for herself and ultimately she held out for love. She did not settle. And she risked it AGAIN to leave again and go in search of answers. It worked out great for Jane - thank goodness for fiction! And yes, the drama levels are extremely high, especially in the break up scene when she first leaves Rochester and again when they are reunited - I could see my kids sticking their fingers down their throats in disgust (and maybe I did too!).
The language here is tiresomely descriptive - the author spends line after line describing the "lineaments" of her characters. And there are several references to the Bible, to high moral standards, to decorum. This would probably be offensive today (that and, again, there is NO SEX!!!). Rolling my eyes.
I have to say, I absolutely LOVED reading this again. I had forgotten parts of it, I substituted a movie scene for what really happened, I confused this one a bit with Rebecca (my other favorite gothic novel - don't bother reading the so-called sequel Mrs. DeWinter - yuck) and with Wuthering Heights by her sister Emily. But, how wonderful to really let myself go in a classic of English literature, a book which ushered in romance like no one else could.
Hmmm. Maybe Jane got a bit of her gumption, as well as her backstory, from Charlotte herself.
