Saturday, September 6, 2008
Jane Eyre to page 138
So far i can see that even though Jane is rather plain in her appearance, internally she strives for more. She can never be satisfied with her current purpose for life, she is always in pursuit of something new, exciting, a change of pace perhaps. At Gateshead she fleed to find purpose at Lowood, then from Lowood she went on to find purpose at Thornefield, now at Thornefield she feels it necessary to find purpose elsewhere. I am a little confused however, that at the end of the reading when she helps the man who fell off of his horse, and when she returned to Thornefield Mr. Rochester was there. Is Mr. Rochester the man she helped, because Mrs. Faxfield said the he was being seen to by a doctor for a sprain. I wonder if Jane and Mr. Rochester will get along romantically. She said the man she helped was not handsome, but she described him as not being completely unfortunate looking. I think Jane Eyre is far from a plain girl, she seems to be a revolutionist when she speaks of how women feel the same as men, and shouldn't be expected to fulfill their household duties for their entire life. She has evolved thus far from a passionate child, to an obedient student, to a knowledgable teacher, and now i can see she is beginning once again to alter her outlook on life.
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1 comment:
A brief, but productive post.
I think you're on to something insightful when you point out the disparity between Jane's outward appearance (plain) and her inner character (bold and vivacious). Keep your focus on this as we read forward (and keep in mind, too, that Bronte, in her preface) wrote that, "appearance should not be mistaken for truth" (!).
As for Rochester--yes that's him in both scenes (a surprise for both Jane and the reader). The key is Pilot, the dog, who greet Jane as she returns to Thornfield and whom she recognizes from the woods.
The incident of Rochester's 'unhorsing' is a pretty critical one--and one that we'll be looking at more closely as we begin our scene explications later this week (there's a LOT going on there) so be sure you've got those pages marked!.
Similarly, Jane's declaration that "women feel just as men feel" (129)--which, tellingly, comes just before her first encounter with Rochester--is pivotal--both for Bronte's contemporary readers and for current ones. It's good that you noted this (although I don't know that her outlook has been 'altered' so much as it has evolved on a consistent path of feminism).
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