Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is my latest classic novel read; already on to the next one. My first statement would be that the writing is superb–the use of the English language to so effectively paint a visual picture of settings and people. My second impression is the usual assessment that what makes great novels great is the ability to explicate emotions and behavioral motivation, and Ms. Bronte is excellent at that and there is a timelessness to that dimension of writing fiction. Humans haven’t changed that much in 200 or 300 years. Thirdly, for any country and certainly for England, one is struck by the social background that drives plot and characters–notions of class and status and proper behavior. The interaction of the social background with those aforementioned emotional and behavioral analysis drives much of what can be learned from these classic works.
The plot is fairly basic and somewhat in one of the standard frameworks. Jane is orphaned/abandoned to her aunt’s family; the aunt does not like or want her. She is eventually exiled to an initially cruel boarding school, but does well and finds a position as a governess to a wealthy man’s ward. As you might imagine she falls in love with this crusty character and he with her, but there is of course tragedy, on the day of their wedding she learns that he has an existing lunatic wife. She flees with nothing and is literally starving and bedraggled when rescued at a house occupied by a parson and his two sisters. She becomes a welcomed member of the household and eventually inherits wealth, but is always preoccupied by thoughts of Rochester, her love.
Unlike her sister’s classic Wuthering Heights, this novel has a happy ending, as the lunatic wife burns the house down, freeing Rochester, who is injured helping others escape the fire. Rochester was perhaps a little too literal in saying he would give his right hand for Jane. Jane has a mystical experience of hearing Rochester call to her, she returns and they are wed. The novel has significant religious overtones and I found the last fourth less satisfying than the remainder, but as I said the overwhelming impression is just the quality of the writing.
