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skein's Reviews > Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
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I don't think this is a 5-star book - I really, really don't - but oh, how I love it. Not because I love Jane (I do!) but because I lurve Charlotte Bront毛. I love her blind spots, her hopes and her fears and her stubborn-as-a-pig morality that (despite Lowood and Helen Burns) isn't really apparent until the "oh! all is utterly lost - love, life, hope! I must flee to the moors to find succor!" bit.
It's the same FUCK YOU, WORLD. I'M BETTER THAN THIS SHIT mentality that all the Bront毛 sisters wrote of, and I must assume really felt: Charlotte's Jane, Anne's mercy killings; Emily, just ... bein' Emily. They were willing to compromise andbe act like Proper Little Ladies up to a point -- and then they fought back. And how.
It's not a particularly Christian sense of morality, despite the vehemence of their claims to the contrary; it is instead a very simple, innate sense of worth and capability, and the right-ness of equality that will not be pushed aside.
Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!鈥擨 have as much soul as you,鈥攁nd full as much heart! ... I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;鈥攊t is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God鈥檚 feet, equal,鈥攁s we are!鈥�
PREACH IT.
(And then he kissed her, do-wop do-wop)
... and, because this is Jane Eyre, she does not swoon as I generally do, and certainly would do were I in the identical situation; she shoves him away and yells and says something suitably Janian about his lying lies. OH JANE. Let's be friends forever and never never fight.
It's the same FUCK YOU, WORLD. I'M BETTER THAN THIS SHIT mentality that all the Bront毛 sisters wrote of, and I must assume really felt: Charlotte's Jane, Anne's mercy killings; Emily, just ... bein' Emily. They were willing to compromise and
It's not a particularly Christian sense of morality, despite the vehemence of their claims to the contrary; it is instead a very simple, innate sense of worth and capability, and the right-ness of equality that will not be pushed aside.
Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!鈥擨 have as much soul as you,鈥攁nd full as much heart! ... I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;鈥攊t is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God鈥檚 feet, equal,鈥攁s we are!鈥�
PREACH IT.
(And then he kissed her, do-wop do-wop)
... and, because this is Jane Eyre, she does not swoon as I generally do, and certainly would do were I in the identical situation; she shoves him away and yells and says something suitably Janian about his lying lies. OH JANE. Let's be friends forever and never never fight.
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Reading Progress
January 31, 2009
– Shelved
February 8, 2011
– Shelved as:
5-star
March 30, 2011
–
Started Reading
March 30, 2011
–
0.0%
"can never decide on Rochester. he brushes off Jane's fears of caste: indifference or insensitivity? also: Mrs. Fairfax and her worryworting! Will she never TRUST IN LOVE?"
April 1, 2011
–
Finished Reading
April 10, 2011
– Shelved as:
year-2011
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by
skein
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rated it 5 stars
Feb 08, 2011 06:11PM
okay, so Rochester's a dick about a lot of stuff, right, but when he says "What, in the name of all the elves in Christendom, is that Jane Eyre?!" -- then, Reader, I have a well-defined urge to (as another reviewer so elegantly stated) bang him like a screen door.
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>bang him like a screen dooryes, it is one of my favorites! and, -- !!!! Jane Eyre!!!1
My favorite speech is the entirety of Rochester's verbal ramblings-about when he's preparing to propose to Jane; "So, I must leave, but you've been a good servant and a sort of friend and we should spend some time together don't fuss, that was a ladybug, and I'm going to marry Blanche Ingram, and are you anything akin to me, Jane?"
-the agitation of his mind gets at me.
ABSOLUTELY. Those bits make Jane very real, too; it evens out her moralizing. And it cements their relationship as ... as not just a power trip on either side. They can argue and tease, simultaneously. They don't need to (as the kids say) front.When he tells her to give him back 9 pounds and she's like haha, no! -- it tugs at my heart. (I'm such a sap.)
I don't like that I can only like the initial review. Can't I 'like' this entire conversation? This is my favorite book. Ever. And I've read it numerous times, and that part -- the one in the garden -- and the one in his room after the bed fire -- and the gypsy -- I think are my favorites. They're... comical, almost, and teasing, and he's testing the waters yet she's so naive yet also stuck in her socioeconomic class that she doesn't see it.Also, the musical was awesome.
wait, what, excuse me, MUSICAL?Why would she think he was wanting to marry her? and ... since he couldn't really marry her legally, he pretty much IS screwing with her.
WAIT -- You didn't know there was a musical?? OH GEEZ email me your address & I'm sending you a copy of the CD...
And then he also calls her a "mocking sprite" in the reunion scene -- changeling, "Fairy-born and human bred" -- it's awesome.
MRS DIONYSIUS O'GALL OF BITTERNUT LODGE. Even when I was ten, reading it for the first time, I read that and thought "....wait, what?" It's so absurd.
skein wrote: "Why would she think he was wanting to marry her? and ... since he couldn't really marry her legally, he pretty much IS screwing with her."Yeah, there's so much that's unspoken -- Bronte does that later with Lucy Snowe and M Paul, too.
Bronte does that later ...Relying on personal experience, perhaps? Ouch.
I love this review. Love LOVE LOVE!
Adore this review!
GR ate my comment notifications, so this is belated, but: Thank you!
GR ate my comment notifications, so this is belated, but: Thank you!
Skein, I never fully comprehended why I love the Bronte sisters so much, but that bit about "FUCK YOU WORLD, I'M BETTER THAN THIS SHIT" sums up EXACTLY why these old books resonate so deeply. :)
