Some spoilers here so don’t read if you’re not aware of the well-known plot points.
I finished Jane Eyre the other day and was really swept up into the story. The book is part coming of age tale, social commentary, and Gothic romance. I was a little surprised at how only a little over a third of the story takes place at Thornfield, Rochester’s estate. The famous romance is at the heart of the tale, but the novel, following the structure of a bildungsroman, traces Jane’s transformation from unloved orphan waif to independent young woman.
It’s obvious why Jane Eyre is a classic since so many of the ideas touched upon in the book are still relevant today, even the social commentary on religion and morality particularly with today’s current rise of Evangelicals in politics. There are definitely parts of Jane Eyre that feel contrived and are dated stylistically, particularly the style of conversation and the dwelling on moral issues, but the issues are ones people still think about now: how to be good after bad things are done to one, how to be good after having been the one who performed bad deeds, how to follow the dictates of conscience when one passionately desires the opposite. Jane answers these questions of goodness and duty, not by established religion or social conventions, but by her own moral compass, which I felt was a surprisingly modern outlook for a Victorian novel.
As for the romance, I did not care for Rochester. He’s pompous, manipulative, deceptive, and domineering. Even though he’s an ass, women do fall for men that aren’t quite good for them. Brontë does a good enough job of showing us how 18 year old Jane of very limited experience falls for a man with education and experience. Rochester provides her with the wider world view she hungers for, and he demonstrates an avid interest in her thoughts and opinions and listens earnestly to all she has to say. Although I didn’t like the relationship, I saw why there was an attraction. Also, Brontë conveys that this is a bad relationship for Jane, at least while they’re master and servant, and particularly after she learns his secrets. It’s not until Jane and Rochester can meet on more equal footing that they are brought together again. Still, I didn’t think the relationship was perfect in the end, but the ending fit.
After reading, I couldn’t help but compare Jane Eyre to more modern characters. Jane stands up well against modern iterations of her such as Bella Swan in Twilight or the second Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca, both books which were directly inspired by or at least have strong parallels with Jane Eyre. Jane has a sense of self worth that is non-existent in the others. She knows that she can make Rochester happy while the other two protagonists, both the nameless narrator in Rebecca and Bella, never understand why they are loved, often doubt that they can be loved, and can’t believe that they’re equal in any way to their romantic partners. Despite the obvious difference in social standing, Jane understands she is Rochester’s equal on an intellectual plane. Throughout the novel, different men try to dominate and control Jane but she finds ways to subvert their control rather than succomb to it. Importantly, when Jane finds out that Rochester locked up his lunatic wife in the attic, concealed it from her, and tried to commit bigamy, it changes their relationship. In Twilight or Rebecca, neither of the man’s past bad acts even make an impression on the female protagonists’ love starved minds. I find it rather disturbing that the Victorian heroine, with the constraints that society imposed on her, emerges much stronger and independent, a person in her own right, than these 20th and 21st century creations.
I’m not quite sure what I meant to say with this rant, but these are the thoughts that swirled through my head as I read. And with all this said, Jane Eyre is still a thoroughly 19th century novel, not a modern one, but it’s still one that readers today can enjoy.
