even though "wuthering heights" was horrible, i decided not to judge an author by her sister and moved on to charlotte brönte. plus people are always raving about "jane eyre", its like the quintessential novel every young woman should read. though i never did.
before i continue with "jane eyre", i would like to share that growing up i read a lot but never read any of the classic romances by female writers. i have no idea why. so now as an adult i have a lot of books to cover.
the beginning "jane eyre" reminded me of one of my favorite books as a kid, "the little princess". both novels featured smart and sincere little girls who are mistreated at an orphanage. i was sadden by the living conditions of the orphanage and was surprised that brönte wrote so critically of the church.
but being the skeptic that i am, i was not surprised by the church abusing a situation. also miss temple reminded me of miss honey from "matilda" and i kept on thinking that in some way it would be exposed that helen was her daughter. but that may have been too much. (also i would like to suggest that you check out the 1943 movie version featuring orson welles, a screenplay co-written by aldous huxley, and a young elizabeth taylor as helen.)
anyone who has read "jane eyre" knows that it is pretty lengthy, it does span her life and there are a lot of twists and turns. and i will have to say that with every surprise twist i was genuine caught off guard. but i won't discuss them here cos then this entry will read like a sparknotes summary.
what i will discuss is my skepticism when it came to jane eyre and mr. rochester's love. as we have seen before, i am not always one for love. hate to be the grinch that stole romance but i felt that the only reason jane fell for mr. rochester was that he was the only male she interacted with in life. there was her abusive cousin and the evil mr. brockehurst but other than that no one. and like any good girlfriend, i was worried about jane because rochester was her first love ad her first relationship. i mean the poor girl was in an orphanage her majority of life and then falls for the first guy she conversed with. in my opinion, she fell in love because there was no other option. and you have to admit he was extremely rough around the edges so it wasn't like her falling for him seemed reasonable at first. but as it turned out, i was wrong. he was extremely sweet and worthy of her love. i mean he won me over with the following declaration of his love:
"i sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you--especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if i had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. and if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, i am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then i've a nervous notion i should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you--you'd forget me."
and even after being being against their love, i was extremely heartbroken when their first wedding didn't happen. i thought jane's running away from mr. rochester was a huge mistake. she saw the monster he was married too so she should have overlooked his marriage to it. if it was me, i would have married him but i do have less integrity than jane. but my sadness soon changed because in the end, jane and mr. rochester get their happy ending. though sadly rochester did lose a limb but thankfully charlotte gave him his sight back.
i was extremely grateful to charlotte brönte for restoring my faith in the classic romance novels, after i had read her sister emily's disastrous novel. and i have also decided to one day, force my teenage daughter to read "jane eyre" so she doesn't wait so long in life to experience a great story like i did.
