I read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (the sister of Emily Bronte, another romance novelist of the time) for the first time towards the end of my freshman year and I learned something about women that I had never thought of before. Us ladies buy romance novels because we seem to think we can fix every bad boy out there and this mentality has been going on for centuries. Just when I had thought the romance in Divergent was disturbing, Jane Eyre brings us a whole other romance where there are more red flags than the Beijing Olympics. Here are the pros and cons of reading Jane Eyre.
Pros:
Being written in the 1800’s, Jane Eyre has a certain voice to it that isn’t found in books anymore. It’s full of outdated vocabulary, so if you’re planning on reading it to expand your vocab (especially if you’re a teacher and want to also expand your students’ vocabulary) then look no further than this book.
The voice that this book has did remind me somewhat of Pride and Prejudice, but was still original in that it had a much darker and more mysterious theme that’s so common in gothic novels that make them a delight to read. Much of the aesthetic comes from Jane herself. Jane’s character starts off as very smart and even as a child, we are shown how clever and resourceful she is, giving somewhat of a dark academia feel. Her resilience during her stay at Brocklehurst Academy is impressive, and her greif adds to the gloomy atmosphere. As the romance continues when she meets Mr. Rochester – though it’s a crappy romance – she becomes a bit less gloomy and it feels as though the sun is breaking through heavy storm clouds as she becomes happier for a bit. The inclusion of ominous foreshadowing through everyday things also adds to the gothic feel and is one of the things that puts up a bunch of red flags concerning Mr. Rochester. That leads me to the cons.
Cons:
Mr. Rochester is really creepy and the fact that a lot people like the romance between him and Jane is absurd to me. Not only is he twenty years older than Jane (he could be old enough to be her father for crying out loud which I realize was common in the 1800’s but I still think is gross), but he is also a serial cheater! We end up finding out towards the middle of the book that he had a wife named Bertha who he’s still technicallly married to (in the 1800s you couldn’t divorce someone if they hadn’t commited adultry) and had had three other girlfriends before Jane, the 19-20-year-old governness that he tries to add to that list. In fact, the way that he tries adding her to that list is ridiculous. He knew that she kinda had a crush on him, so in order to officially make her his girlfriend and make her fall madly in love with him, instead of asking her out like a gentleman, he just dates another girl to make her jealous enough to date him. If I found out a guy did that to me, I would turn him down right then and there, but Jane is stupid enough at this point to fall for it, which destroyed her character, in my opinion.
Mr. Rochester is also incredibly abusive, emotionally and physically. During the early days of their relationship, Mr. Rochester guilts and shames Jane for her social standing and for not being good at certain things. He also pinches her and pulls her hair constantly, and when she has an intelligant moment after finding out he’s been lying to her constantly, he threatens “violence” (rape). The dude is an abusive narccisist and while I can understand why women would read this (it goes back to a time where men had to be aggressive to protect the woman from any threats), I don’t understad why this would be portrayed as ideal. It’s only when he is blinded by the house fire that his wife (the true hero of this story), Bertha Mason, started, that he becomes somewhat bearable and Jane marries him because she’s suddenly entirely reliant on her. If it were me, I would laugh in his face and run. He got what he deserved and doesn’t deserve sympathy. The fact that women often see this relationship and think it’s romantic and fantasize about dating that kind of bad boy is ridiculous. I can understand why they would, but the “I-can-fix-him” mentality is so stupid. I have seen where that’s gone in the lives of family memebers and it often leads to violence, restraining orders, and divorce. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good for guys to be aggressive so they can protect you, but it’s also important that they can be tameable and mature enough to understand when and where that aggression is acceptable. If they are turning their aggression on you constantly, you need to run from that relationship. The real moral of Jane Eyre should be, “Don’t marry the first guy you see because he called you pretty once.”
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 