REVISED Reaction

            Jane Eyre was quite the interesting book, although it was not personally my type of book, there were a few things throughout the novel that are noteworthy that represent a fairly good story.  Let me just say before I begin though that if Jane Eyre had been written a year ago in a current and modern fashion (same story and plot details) I most likely would have liked it more, the old English definitely throws me off.  That’s whatever though and overall Jane Eyre had some good.

            I personally liked the rise of Jane Eyre throughout the novel.  It was cool to see a representation of a woman having independence in a time period where women were not equal and treated the same as men and where not quite as independent.  Jane is a headstrong girl who goes after and gets what she wants.  She wanted to go to school as a child; she hated her aunt and felt she needed to change her scenery, so she did.  I feel like most women from that time period would’ve been portrayed as subservient and obedient, granted it wasn’t to a man it was to her aunt, bust still though.  The biggest representation of this independence had to be when Bertha Mason is revealed to Jane and Jane then decides to run away from Rochester.  I believe that Bertha was a metaphor for Jane Eyre.  Bertha represented the constrictiveness of Victorian Era marriage.  One might argue that Bertha being from a different culture was not obedient to Rochester and did not conform to the “Victorian norms” so she was locked up in Rochester making her fit and as a result went psychotic.  Jane isn’t the time of girl to just obey so I think Bertha accurately represented what could have happened to Jane if she had married Rochester at the time.  It was also funny to see how Rochester and Jane only got together after he was in need of her and not vice versa.  Rochester called out her name, blind and crippled, dependent on Jane to help him.  This was the end of Jane being dependent on Rochester for room and board, and his attention, now Rochester was in need of Jane’s room and board, her attention and time and energy.  This essentially set them on an equal footing that allowed their love to blossom into a happy marriage with a kid.  Had Jane married Rochester earlier on, I feel like she would have been doomed to the fate of Bertha Mason. 

            AS I said earlier though, Jane Eyre was not all kicks and giggles for me.  The most annoying thing about Jane Eyre was the ebb and flow of the book, its natural rhythm per say.  Jane Eyre had this monotonous flow of bad to good to bad to good.  First it sucks for Jane as she lives with her cruel aunt Reed and her cousins who practically torture her.  Then it gets better when Jane gets what she wants and goes to school at Lowood.  Then it sucks when everyone dies of typhus while Brocklehurst cheats the school out of its funds.  Then it was sunshine and rainbows when she went to thornfield which promptly dissolved into sadness with a struggle to connect with the aristocracy which led to a happy engagement between between Rochester and Jane that broke with the discovery of Bertha.  Anyways, you get my point.  I understand that most books have a flow but this was just too much, and it continues throughout the whole book.  Honestly, O.K. read, 5/10, would’ve rather read Jane Eyrotica.