Jane Eyre

 

In my thoughts on Wuthering Heights, I gave Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre faint praise, which is rather unfortunate. It does not deserve it. Indeed, Jane Eyre may be as beloved as Emily’s presumably darker tale.

Is Wuthering Heights indeed darker? I do wonder about that on reflection. In many ways Charlotte’s debut novel is as dark as Emily’s sole novel, both published in 1847. That said, Wuthering Heights, despite its intermittent unreliable narration, is a far more straightforward tale, however coloured by Heathcliff’s earlier abuse and latter brutality. (If you have not read it, I highly recommend it to you.) Jane Eyre, on the other hand, was notable for its social commentary (not that Wuthering Heights does pull punches in that regard) seen through rather Calvinistic Jane’s eyes.

One should not diminish Jane, however. She is a strong female character, written at a time I expect this was a rare thing. She endures prejudice, exclusion, “banishment,” loneliness, and uncertainty. She also radiates strength, overcoming all these setbacks, and decides to make her way in the world.

It is when she accepts a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall that this novel truly begins and becomes the Gothic tale it is probably most noted as. Things are not as they seem in Thornfield Hall. Not that we are aware of this to begin. Jane settles in, and eventually catches the eye of dark, strong, and stern Edward Rochester. One wonders about the attention he directs towards her. He ought not to; he’s her employer, after all…. Things progress.

But as I mentioned earlier, all is not as it seems. 

 

I can’t not spoil this novel if I’m to do it justice.

Beware below if you haven’t read this novel and don’t want the story ruined. 

 

What lies beneath (on in this case, locked in the attic) is the darkness that shadows Rochester: Bertha. Rochester has a dark past, one rooted in the sunny Caribbean. Rochester, a 2^nd son, was sent to Jamaica to marry an heiress. He does. While there, his father and his elder brother pass away, and he becomes lord of the hall, twice over rich now.

But Bertha’s family has a history of madness, one she herself can’t escape. She goes mad, and Rochester decides to take her away from the West Indies back with him to England, where he hides her away, his marriage secret.

This explains Rochester’s sullen nature, and why he spends so little time at his ancestral seat, preferring to spend his time in London and on the continent, flirting much, but never marrying, gaining the reputation of a philanderer while at it, one imagines.

Rochester returns to Thornfield, becomes smitten with Jane. Our story unfolds.

It is dark indeed. 

It’s quite a tale. I found Charlotte’s prose less engaging than Emily’s. I also thought the dialogue that passes between Jane and Edward wooden. To be fair, the novel is over 200 years old. And I wonder how much experience she herself had with romantic love. Charlotte was a governess, and only married years after this novel was published. Take that as you will.

I might note that another novel is linked to this one: Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. Published in 1966, Ms. Rhys sought to tell the tale of the mad woman in the attic, fleshing her out, humanising her. It is defiantly a feminist take on what lies before and beneath Charlotte’s classic novel, but a believable one, a decidedly powerful one.

I’ll speak on this later.