First off, a moment of silence for Helen's death( ). Thank you. One of the amazing themes of this novel is most definitely feminism (like Maddie said). For one, Lowood showed un-heard of rule within the school for that time period. There isn't really any men in a lot of situations, so we get to see a society of women ruling and taking care of themselves. It's something that men had no appreciation for, and were probably completely oblivious to our own capability of survival (which makes me wonder why there wasn't a headmaster ((male)) on board at all times, but then at the same times points to why at both Lowood and Thornfield the main man is, well, a man). But then when the man comes in he just ruins their happy little world, (happy being a rhetorical word), however after him breaking little Jane's heart we see the head woman of Lowood (name is gone now) take great measures to ensure her happiness once again. This, as well as Mrs. Fairfax's welcome of Jane to TF (Thornfield), is an example of woman comrodery!! Yes!! Women unite!!
My most recent read section, skipping way ahead now, is the part with Rochester in his wine-drunken chatty mood is conversing with Jane. A LOT of that conversation is just ramble, but looking deeper there are these little skiffs of flirtation, as well as certain truths within men and women relationships. For one, he spends a lot of time talking of his mistakes and what not, and talking about how that was going to change. We know that in order for a man to truly change, he needs the power of a woman, and from the first time R&J meet we know that there is something going down. He keeps eluding to an angel taking his heart, which HELLO she's sitting right across from you!! She doesn't seem to get it (or she's playing a type of hard-to-get with us ((readers)) and Rochester). But we know things are going on. It's great at the end of the conversation when he seems offended by her taking Adele to bed, when the night before (or several nights before, I'm not 100% sure), he was so insistent on Jane taking the child to bed. This also shows men's dependency on women attention, and the trouble most couples with children face of the husband feeling less important with a child around.
Yay.
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2 comments:
Totally know where you are coming from. And about the flirtation between Rochester and Jane...they are totally going to get in on. Ha
A fun post (I enjoyed reading this one for its appropriate mixture of humor and analysis); however, I'm curious about your observation that, when a man comes into the scene (Lowood, Thornfield) he ruins it. Note how dissimilar Brocklehurst and Rochester's arrivals are. For one, B. asserts his "manly" prerogative (setting Jane upon the stool, cutting the curls from one of her classmates); whereas rochester, tellingly, is 'unhorsed' in his first encounter with Jane. It seems that their relationship might (as you proceed to note) progress on a different footing all together.
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