Classics Bookclub - Jane Eyre

This month's book for the Classics Bookclub was Jane Eyre.

I have read several other reviews of Jane Eyre, describing the beginning of the book as tedious and depressing. For me it was not so. The first few chapters obviously described the horrible circumstances in which Jane found herself as a child, but I actually enjoyed the contrast of the deprived childhood with her good fortune at the end of the book. It reminded me a bit of The Secret Garden, and how Mary has such an unhappy childhood, but then blossoms under the right circumstances.

I noticed similarities in the description of John, the bullying cousin, to the character of Dudley from the Harry Potter series. Both had indulgent mothers who let them get away with anything, including beating up on their cousins.

As far as Jane being a feminist, I think that she expressed opinions that were forward-thinking for her time, but are out-dated in this day and age.

As a stay-at-home mom, I empathised with her when she talked about the expectation of women being satisfied in their "vocation" as women. "Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a constraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer."

Jane was also unusual for her time in that she wanted to support herself even after marriage, stating "I shall continue to act as Adele's governess, by that I shall earn my board and lodging, and thirty pounds a year besides. I'll furnish my own wardrobe out of that money." She wanted to retain her independence, and not be indebted to her husband.

I must include in this discussion about Jane, my pure disdain for St. John. Charlotte Bronte did an excellent job of creating this villain in disguise, and it has been a long time since I have been so angry at a fictitious character. His enormous ego, thinking that he was the only one who knew God's will, and that if she didn't agree to marry him she would face damnation, was incredible. His pretense that he was doing it all for her sake and salvation was equally disgusting.

I did find it interesting comparing her two love interests. St. John was the handsome and godly man, a sort of ideal, who wanted to mold Jane into a person he could respect. Mr. Rochester, while scarred and ugly, loved Jane for who she truly was. Both men, in their selfish interests tried to manipulate Jane, St. John through religious fervor, and Mr. Rochester with dishonesty.