Jane Eyre Discussion

I hope you enjoyed it!

I loved reading this book and it is now one of my all time favorites! It was an adventure to read -I found it to be a very high-emotion book. It expanded my thoughts and vocabulary, and did what I always hope a good book will do to me. At the end of the copy I read is a quote by William Makespeace Thackeray, a contemporary of Bronte's, which sums up my feelings too:

"I wish you had not sent my Jane Eyre. It interested me so much that I have lost (or won if you like) a whole day in reading it at the busiest period, with the printers I know waiting for a copy. ...Some of the love passages made me cry, to the astonishment of John who came in with the coals. St. John the Missionary is a failure I think but a good failure, there are parts excellent. I don't know why I tell you this but that I have been exceedingly moved and pleased by Jane Eyre."

The language and themes Bronte used could be analyzed in so many ways. I found dozens of websites with questions and notes. Some of them were interesting to think about, like the names of the characters. How the name Jane is just plain, but Eyre suggests "airy" and Rocherster often said how she was like a fairy or a spirit or carried by the wind. The other names - Lowood, Thornfield, Ms. Temple, etc., are all well chosen and descriptive.
But rather than go through a literary analysis I am simply posting questions I thought about after I finished, and I'd love to hear what everyone thought about it!

Did you have any favorite quotes?

Pg. 80 – “Such is the imperfect nature of man – such spots are there on the disk of the clearest planet; and eyes like Miss Scatcherd’s can only see those minute defects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb.”
Pg. 369 “Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation; they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?”

What did you learn from the book? What themes were prominent to you?

I don’t know if this was an intended theme, but sensitive to me as a mother, was the theme of how adults treat children. So many adults in the beginning of the book were so impatient and authoritative and unsympathetic to Jane. It was almost an unbelievable turn of good luck when Ms. Temple, after Jane had been publicly accused by Mr. Brocklehurst, went back to Jane to find out the full story and acquitted her of any blame. One thing that transferred to me from the book was the need to think of children as who they really are, and consider their potential.
Reading this book also made me think a lot about love. I thought Jane’s love for Mr. Rochester was inspiring. When he was coarse and cynical she said that made him who he was and she loved him for it. I think because her love was true and not just a passionate love made her able to leave him when she did and to go back to him after those years apart. I have to say, I was expecting a Jane Austen type novel, which this wasn’t at all. I like Jane Austen’s books too, and the love in them is rather lovey-dovey and flittery. But the love in this book between Jane and Mr. Rochester I thought was beautiful. Contrary to the customs of their day, Mr. Rochester loved Jane despite her lack of fortune and beauty, and Jane loved Mr. Rochester despite his looks and coarseness and social class. I loved the ending, and cried through the last two chapters! By the end of the book, after all they had gone through, I was so happy they could finally be together! And it was interesting how even though Jane had proclaimed them equals before, they were a little closer to equal now – Mr. Rochester’s strength had diminished, but he was more submissive and spiritural. And Jane had inherited a small fortune. I thought it was sweet that they had a child and that Mr. Rochester’s eyesight improved so he could see him. Bronte didn’t give many details about their lives after their marriage, but she gives the idea that they lived happily ever after and loved happily ever after. Overall, the book made me overwhelmingly grateful that I - to paraphrase – am loved by him who loves me best. It made me so grateful for my husband! Now he thinks I should read more books; I think he likes the change.

What did you think about the contrasting characters throughout the book – Mr. Rochester vs. St. John Rivers, the Reed children vs. the Rivers family, Mr. Brocklehurst and Ms. Temple.

I thought all the characters in the book were very realistic. Bronte was a very good writer! I suppose that’s why it’s a classic, and still being printed 150 years later. The contrasting characters reminded me of the characters in Anna Karinina, which I read a long time ago. There’s a couple that run off together and live a life of adultery that ends in ruin and there’s a couple who lack the beauty and grace and wealth of the first, but are married and truly love each other and live happily ever after. I think contrasts in novels are fun. Ms. Temple was obviously the ideal over Mr. Brocklehurst, and the Rivers sisters were obviously the ideal over the Reed sisters, but I am still a little puzzled about St. John as compared to Mr. Rochester. I was surprised in the book that Jane was even considering marrying him. I wondered if his religious zeal had some selfishness desiring after greatness in it. He was obviously religious and self-denying and Mr. Rochester was obviously not religious – even talked about pagan things like fairies etc. and he was indulgent rather than sacrificing. Their different kinds of “love” were puzzling to me too. And the ending was suprising to me to. Any thoughts about why Bronte ended the book with St. John Rivers’ letter? One review I read said it contrasted with the beginning of the book, which had Jane suffering abuse from St. John’s opposite, John Reed.

What do you think of Jane as a character, and how Bronte portrayed her?

Jane was a very real character to me, who had been through hard things that had shaped her character for the better. I liked how Bronte used present tense now and then – it made her more real as she could share her thoughts directly with the reader. She is a strong girl, and I admire her. She was true to herself. She was a self-made girl, and at the end of the book she seemed almost "untouched" by the world, even though she had certainly been though enough. Her strength of character had allowed her to be unspotted - by either passion or sorrow or self-pity or anything that weaker souls could claim as excuses.