While listening to the podcast, I thought it was interesting how much they talked about how the story of Charlotte Bronte's life relates to Jane Eyre's life.
PROS
Some things I enjoyed while listening to the podcast was that the people speaking talked about the readers and why they enjoyed it and how it became so popular so quickly. The novel has a small, plain girl as it's main hero. Usually the hero is this strong, powerful, beautiful man or woman. Personally, I have not read many, if any, Gothic novels and I was not sure how well I was going to understand this book or if I would enjoy it at all. I have really enjoyed reading it and the podcast was a great way to help me understand more about the plot and characters.
CONS
Since the podcast talked about her life so much, we learned more about Bronte and who she was as a child. We found out that Mr. Brocklehurst was based off of a man she had known in her real life. This creates some sympathy from the person listening to the podcast and reading the novel because you start to feel bad for both Bronte and Jane Eyre. We also learn that Jane and Mr. Rochester's relationship could have been based off her own life and own relationship.
One thing that I was able to understand more from listening to this was Jane and Mr. Rochester's relationship. They walked through from the time that they met to them finally getting married at the end. At first, Jane was the lesser to Mr. Rochester. She had less money, no house of her own and no family or anyone to live with. Eventually Jane receives an inheritance and her and Mr. Rochester are financially equals. When Jane finds out about Mr. Rochester's previous marriage, she decides to leave Thornfield Hall. He refers to his wife as a demonic lady, vampire, hyena, beast and a dog. Bertha is in someways everything that Jane is not. Bertha is also a representation of the dark side of Mr. Rochester.
The question that I had the most while reading the novel and listening to the podcast was how was Jane able to come back to Mr. Rochester after everything that happened and still get married to him? Jane finally inherited some of her own money from her uncle, so she did not need the support of Mr. Rochester, or the work and pay of being a governess. There was so much of an age gap between them and even with all that going on, Jane still came back to him in the end.
While I have not read all the story, did I listened to the podcast. I think Jane came back to Mr. Rochester because he was honest. The podcast really discussed a lot of Jane's character and how is self possessed she was. She knew herself, her strengths and weaknesses, even as a young child. This help give her an honest, innocent character, and a rational one. I think one thing she is really searching for throughout the book was someone who was honest like her. As a child she wanted to find a honest friend in her sisters and brother but found them unreceptive. She wanted the truth of her past from her Aunt. She went to Lowood and made friends with Hellen. Hellen was honest and open with what she believed and very genuine in her speech without having any ulterior motives. She then meets Mr. Rochester and finds that he offers her honest love, even though he deceived Jane, his love was true and Jane could tell. He eventually gets rid of his pride when his house burns down and shows he has nothing to hide, unlike I believe, the rest of the men throughout the story. So, I think Jane went back to the thing she knew was going to be truthful and honest, and that was Mr. Rochester.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of what you guys are saying. She goes back to Mr. Rochester because of the way he acted. He was honest about everything after it happened and made the wedding fall through. He deceived her to begin with, but ends up being honest and loving towards her. Jane needed the honesty and the truthfulness that Mr. Rochester showed her even though it was after she had already fallen for him. She still loved him through the thing with Bertha. It's like having a crush that you think went away and then having that person talk to you or smile at you all the feelings come back!
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