Adventures in the world of blogging. . .
The first several chapters of Jane Eyre bored me, I actually fell asleep trying to read the other night. These first sections have been as plain of an autobiography as I've ever read. Her simple daily woes and thoughts make up 95% of the text. And then, as a sudden twist of plot, she wishes to do something different with her life; her idea of different though, is just going somewhere else to teach (her current occupation). Maybe this was all women could do back then, maybe this was radical and life-changing back then. A women probably couldn't pack up their stuff and stick out their thumb as they might today. I can imagine people reading this when it was first published, shocked at the daring and nerve of the young Jane Eyre, inspired by her actions. Literature is immortal, but its affect is ever-different. When I was reading about Jane's walk, I was tired of her thinking about her thinking, and when she met the random horse rider in the road, I thought it was the excitement of the chapter. But I found out later that the occurrence had more importance, the style of the book might be changing. I have much more to read, so I have yet to see...
1 comment:
Victor,
I'm interested in hearing more about WHY you thought the earlier sections of the book were so boring (yours is a perfectly legitimate reaction, but one that you should interrogate more closely). As for your response to Jane's first encounter with Rochester, I find it telling that your reaction so closely mirrored Jane's. Cool.
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