jane eyre

Jane Eyre

A very good book. A book so good that it is accepted by all and read by few. Hence the reason for this revieuw. Instead of getting the scoop and the new and upcoming releases, this articles is designed to entice you to rediscover an old friend. Often the tried and true novels are forgotten because they simply are too familiar. However, the endless TV and video versions of this book alone would make it impossible to ignore. There are four versions alone
The story central to this book is familiar to the point of nausea. Young, friendless girl, alone in the world, meets rich older man with shady past. They fall in love, obstacles ensue, long passionate speeches are delivered, eternal love is declared. There is heartbreak, tragedy, but finally a restoration, true love and thirty five minutes of proposal speeches.
Yet beneath all the hyperbole, beneath all the Victorian clichés, one can still distinguish the heart beat of a young girl, friendless and alone in the world. Jane Eyre, the strange waif-like protagonist, somehow manages to worm her way into the hearts of the readers. Her independent mind and her loyalty and devotion to what is right is as uncommon today as it was when Charlotte Bronte wrote her one hundred and fifty years ago yet it is a mixture so satisfying that generation after generation turn to her for comfort.
One could argue that the reason for reading this book is not for the dramatic action, but rather, in a very modern way, for the pauses between the actions. The book moves slowly through time. Very little actually occurs. It is in the absence of action that the true beauty of the book can be found. Jane’s silent soliloquies on love and life, faith and despair, are more vital to the book than her engagement to Mr. Rochester. Her quick wit and her insights into the hearts of the people around her, even if occasionally mistaken, make her an admirable creation able to stand on her own.
Jane is the outsider coming into an already established community. Twice in the story she is the pivotal character, inserted into the lives of the other caracters in such a way that she can , sometimes unknowingly, push them towards their goal in life. She is the life-bringer and the restorer, though she herself is only aware of her role at the very end.
As such her character is forever down on herself while in fact aiding others. She strikes a realistic balance between the overstuffed hothouse beauties and the forlorn lost waifs so common to Victorian literature. She does not need rescuing, because she can earn her own way through life as a governess, yet neither does she exact pity from those she meets because she carries herself very well.
Reading Jane Eyre is about discovering friends. One learns to expect the quirkiness of Jane, and to look for the roughness of Mr. Rochester and StJohn’s perfection is in the end his down fall.
The book is an excellent read, filled with interesting ideas and concepts, some foreign to modern thinking, some strickingly similar. The caracters that populate it’s pages delight and exasperate by turns. Though somewhat longwinded (it is a book that is better the second time around) the story is still densly packed with people and events. It is an excellent book to read with a hot cup of cocoa in one hand, wrapped in a blanket sitting by the fire.