Thursday, December 8, 2016

"In Our Time" Podcast

PROS:
  • Insightful
  • Know their stuff
  • Make good connections

CONS:
  • Sometimes hard to understand
  • Accents got annoying
  • Very long and boring

Charlotte Bronte is familiar with rejection, and that is visible in Jane Eyre. Her first novel, The Professor, was rejected 9 times. She did not give up though. She then wrote Jane Eyre, which was a hit, and is now revered as a classic.
Many popular writers have experienced very similar situations, including George Orwell and J.K. Rowling. They are both wildly successful. The Harry Potter series is extremely popular, and has a large franchise, and Orwell’s Animal Farm is used in most high schools.
Elements of The Professor are in Jane Eyre. There are similarities, as well as things that are opposite. A young girl falling in love with an older man is a similarity. However, instead of a male narrator, like in The Professor, it is a female. Jane is a revolutionary character, yet she sticks to some Victorian roles. She still calls Mr. Rochester “master” even when she says they are equals.

Jane rejects being Mr. Rochester’s mistress. Later in the book, *SPOILER ALERT* Jane rejects St. John Rivers as well. Charlotte Bronte knew what it was like to bear the sting of rejection, and that transfers over into Jane Eyre.

3 comments:

  1. I agree that Charlotte knows what it feels like to be rejected and how to handle it. Charlotte never gave up no matter how hard she tried. One example is when Jane is in the town and she is starving and tired but no one will accept her into their house and she gets rejected several times.

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  2. I think the idea of rejection in Jane Eyre helped show Jane's character. She had two opportunies to marry successful men yet she doesn't go through with either marriage. In St. John River's case, Jane knew she deserved to marry for love so she declined his offer. This showed that she wasn't willing to settle, just like with Rochester. If she couldn't be his wife then she wasn't going to be anything to him.

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  3. It seems like rejection was also a strong theme in Jane Eyre, which supports the theory that JE was autobiographical. Bronte went through a lot of rejection which she wrote about through her stories, and it made Jane a stronger character.

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