In Our Time- Jadin Vogler

Pros: 

• Talks about how Bronte's life impacted her novel greatly and helps understand the story a bit more.
• They talk about Bronte's father had a massive library and had them embrace literary and what books Charlotte read in her childhood years.
• Throughout the video, they talk about some of the different themes in the book like Autobiographical, Courtship, and Buildungsroman.

Cons:

• At times I got lost because they would randomly move to another topic.
• Sometimes difficult to understand and a bit bland at times.
• For myself, when I watch videos I like to see something going on so it keeps me interested instead of just having a picture as the background.

What I found Interesting:

I found two topics intriguing while listening to this podcast. The first one is Bronte's life and how it impacted her writing. I knew bits of information here and there from past research ,but what interested me the most was the books she read as a child. Charlotte Bronte read novels from her father's library that had powerful, older men falling in love with younger women in them. I think this impacted her life majorly not only in her writing but in her love life as well. She fell in love with an older professor in her own life and created the character Mr Rochester in her book, Jane Eyre, who was a wealthy, powerful, forty-year-old man who fell in love with an eighteen-year-old girl. Bronte wrote Mr Rochester as a ironic hero and a playful metaphor who was upsetting and funny. Then there is Jane who is short and plain. Being plain and simple was crucial to her novel and she expressed this through Miss Eyre. Writing her characters with such fiery nature impacted her novel greatly which cause great discussion for her book.

The next topic that interested me in this video was when they talked about the intensely emotional world around the characters. The thrills of Gothic mystery throughout the book and the danger of men surrounding young women (Jane Eyre) and how these themes influenced the characters. The dangers of men scatter through this novel. Jane getting abused by John Reed and then being shipped off to Lowood to be humiliated by Brocklehurst but then travel to Thornfield where she experiences love for the first time from the opposite gender. Jane now independent, can explore this area in life. The podcast goes into deeper thought on the relationship between Rochester and Jane and how it developed and became memorable. Their first meeting being a fairy tale entrance, Rochester, a dark, sturdy, masculine man, falling off his black steed and giving Jane a place to live and work. The shifting of powers between the two continues in the book. For instance, towards the end of the podcast, the talk about the couple switching places, Jane now being the wealthy, independent women who must tend to Rochester, a dark crippled man, you could say Jane is helping him come 'back to life'.

Overall I can relate this back to one of Foster's first chapters about quests. Throughout this book, both Jane, Rochester and maybe even Bronte go through ups and downs and have to find what they are truly looking for.