If you like fantastically depressing subject matter that would make Dickens cry (think orphans, typhoid-infested boarding schools, and crazy people locked in attics) and an annoying protagonist who can't decided if she's independent or submissive,...
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Christinaand an annoying protagonist who can't decided if she's independent or submissive
Pretty much agreed here. I enjoyed the way it was written for the most part, and the "depressing subject matter" wasn't all that depressing for me but my god. Her romance with Mr. Rochester was really ridiculous, her shows of independence were more annoying than they were successful, and all the the blatant religiousness started to grate badly for me.
And yet I somehow can't justify rating it lower than I did. I think that moment where she rips off the punishment from her friends forehead and stamps on it is probably making me swoon a bit. Childhood friendship loyalty gets to me, every time. Sheesh.
7 years ago
Madeline
Don't get me wrong, I loved Jane when she was little. Her sense of justice, her complete refusal to take any crap from anyone...and her discussion with Helen about "when people strike us we must strike back, to keep them from ever doing that again" (paraphrasing) gets me every time. But then as soon as she grows up, Jane loses her awesome in record time. Suddenly she's all, "yes Mr. Rochester sir, whatever you say sir, I'm going to assert myself and not marry you but I'll still be really submissive sir, and oh please let me take care of you for the rest of your life sir may I clean your boots again?" etc.
7 years ago
Sean
I remember loving (even while hating) the first part, before she arrives at Thornwood Manor. And then... it got weird. And then weirder. And then even weirder and more depressing and then it ended.
But her hair-tearing fight with her cousin and her imprisonment in the Red Room will always stay with me.
7 years ago
Sarah
That cartoon is so great! You don't see a lot of literary humor these days.
I really should try Anne sometime. I have a feeling she would be my favorite, --though I never seem to like anything from that period...
7 years ago
Madeline
I'm officially obsessed. The woman who does the cartoons has a history degree and obviously reads a ton, so she has a lot of drawings like those.
Sean
You already posted the Brontë comic, which is one of my faves-I MUST get the shirt!—but I'm also in love with Poe & Verne and Victoria & Albert. And pretty much all of the others.
7 years ago
Madeline
I love the "History is Very Serious" shirt, myself.
7 years ago
Jesse
That's more or less the main reasons for my own two-star ratings. Though I almost gave it another star just for all of the intellectual gymnastics I've come across attempting to justify Jane's decision to return to Rochester at the end--I just don't get how you can condemn a Bella Swann on one hand and then hold up Jane as a progressive feminist heroine on the other.
I didn't need anything to distract me today, but I have a feeling I'm going to be clicking through Hark a Vagrant for the rest of the afternoon... :)
Tilly
I knew I added you as a friend with good reason :) EVERYTHING you said. I reread this book recently to prove myself wrong... I remember hating it the first time round and feeling like the odd one out whenever this classic was brought up. (Sort of like Sex and the City, I may be the only female I know who calls bullshit and bursts into laughter whenever it's on... ) Anyho, I reread and yes.. Still hate it. She was a very strong character as a kid, I was looking forward to more.. She had opinions. Then she just let everyone else lead her... Everything just sort of happened to her, the St John period makes me cringe, poor guy! She just floated through life and sighed a lot.
Rochester hates women. Everything he said and did was despicable, he flaunted his past affairs, and only really became a human being after he lost his arm and eye sight (but of course he gets this back, of course). To think he invented a relationship to test her, to think he blamed her for leaving him when he basically hid his wife in an attic! Why on earth did we not get more information on his wife? Poor woman! It's not her fault she has a mental illness, why did Rochester act like her mental illness happened to him!!!
The only nice thing Jane did in this whole book involved sticking up for her childhood friend, and later splitting the inheritance (which she only got out of spite for her cousins parents, so technically, she could have given it all to them and run off to the very rich Rochester. Just saying!) I was also pretty disturbed by all the swooning at the end, it seemed to me she loved him more for being blind, crippled and dependent on her attention. If she came back to find him fine, married to that other woman, or even just keeping mistresses as he told her he would 'have to do' if she wasn't around, would she have pouted, married St James and run off to India?
6 years ago
Madeline
...if you hated Jane Eyre why did you give it 5 stars?
6 years ago
TillyMadeline wrote: "...if you hated Jane Eyre why did you give it 5 stars?"
OH I did? Ooops.. I must have changed pages or something whilst rating! Thanks for looking out. :)
6 years ago
Michael
I finished the book this very day and posted my review. One of my first thoughts was that this story was, at least in the early portions, much like Oliver Twist..mgc
6 years ago
Paige
Really? You read this in 12th grade? I read Jane Eyre in 9th grade and it wasn't even required. I've loved the book ever since. The entire beginning, when Jane is young, is similar to Charlotte's life as a young girl.
6 years ago
Paige
In response to Sean's comment towards the beginning to middle: it's Thornfield Hall, not Thornwood Manor. (shows how much you paid attention to the book).
6 years ago
Jaime
I actually do love fantastically depressing subject matter that would make Dickens cry :)
6 years ago
DeAnna
Madeleine, you must check out Jane Slayre sometime, if only to read the Readers' Guide questions at the end. They reminded me of some of your Shakespeare parodies.
5 years ago
deleted user
"I was also pretty disturbed by all the swooning at the end, it seemed to me she loved him more for being blind, crippled and dependent on her attention. If she came back to find him fine, married to that other"
In reply to Tilly, I felt that this part proved to the readers how strong her love for Rochester was since she loved him still even though he was broken. It's not that she loved him more because he was crippled, it's to prove to us that love is there through thick and thin. She will love him no matter what.
Even when he locks his secret wife in the attic and acts like a total dick to everyone.
4 years ago
deleted userMadeline wrote: "She will love him no matter what.
Even when he locks his secret wife in the attic and acts like a total dick to everyone."
She wanted to light him on fire! Imagine you were forced to marry someone who wanted to light you on fire.
Also, it's not like he enjoyed having his wife locked up in the attic, what else could he have done? He was forced into marrying someone who was insane!
Pretty much agreed here. I enjoyed the way it was written for the most part, and the "depressing subject matter" wasn't all that depressing for me but my god. Her romance with Mr. Rochester was really ridiculous, her shows of independence were more annoying than they were successful, and all the the blatant religiousness started to grate badly for me.
And yet I somehow can't justify rating it lower than I did. I think that moment where she rips off the punishment from her friends forehead and stamps on it is probably making me swoon a bit. Childhood friendship loyalty gets to me, every time. Sheesh.
7 years ago
But then as soon as she grows up, Jane loses her awesome in record time. Suddenly she's all, "yes Mr. Rochester sir, whatever you say sir, I'm going to assert myself and not marry you but I'll still be really submissive sir, and oh please let me take care of you for the rest of your life sir may I clean your boots again?" etc.
7 years ago
But her hair-tearing fight with her cousin and her imprisonment in the Red Room will always stay with me.
7 years ago
I really should try Anne sometime. I have a feeling she would be my favorite, --though I never seem to like anything from that period...
7 years ago
Here are more of my favorites, because I like sharing:
Holmes and Watson!
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php...
Pompadour!
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php...
Napoleon and Josephine!
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php...
Nietzsche!
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php...
Like I said - OBSESSED.
7 years ago
7 years ago
7 years ago
I didn't need anything to distract me today, but I have a feeling I'm going to be clicking through Hark a Vagrant for the rest of the afternoon... :)
7 years ago
7 years ago
EVERYTHING you said.
I reread this book recently to prove myself wrong... I remember hating it the first time round and feeling like the odd one out whenever this classic was brought up.
(Sort of like Sex and the City, I may be the only female I know who calls bullshit and bursts into laughter whenever it's on... )
Anyho, I reread and yes.. Still hate it. She was a very strong character as a kid, I was looking forward to more.. She had opinions. Then she just let everyone else lead her... Everything just sort of happened to her, the St John period makes me cringe, poor guy! She just floated through life and sighed a lot.
Rochester hates women.
Everything he said and did was despicable, he flaunted his past affairs, and only really became a human being after he lost his arm and eye sight (but of course he gets this back, of course).
To think he invented a relationship to test her, to think he blamed her for leaving him when he basically hid his wife in an attic! Why on earth did we not get more information on his wife? Poor woman! It's not her fault she has a mental illness, why did Rochester act like her mental illness happened to him!!!
The only nice thing Jane did in this whole book involved sticking up for her childhood friend, and later splitting the inheritance (which she only got out of spite for her cousins parents, so technically, she could have given it all to them and run off to the very rich Rochester. Just saying!)
I was also pretty disturbed by all the swooning at the end, it seemed to me she loved him more for being blind, crippled and dependent on her attention. If she came back to find him fine, married to that other woman, or even just keeping mistresses as he told her he would 'have to do' if she wasn't around, would she have pouted, married St James and run off to India?
6 years ago
6 years ago
OH I did? Ooops.. I must have changed pages or something whilst rating! Thanks for looking out. :)
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
6 years ago
5 years ago
In reply to Tilly, I felt that this part proved to the readers how strong her love for Rochester was since she loved him still even though he was broken. It's not that she loved him more because he was crippled, it's to prove to us that love is there through thick and thin.
She will love him no matter what.
4 years ago
Even when he locks his secret wife in the attic and acts like a total dick to everyone.
4 years ago
Even when he locks his secret wife in the attic and acts like a total dick to everyone."
She wanted to light him on fire! Imagine you were forced to marry someone who wanted to light you on fire.
Also, it's not like he enjoyed having his wife locked up in the attic, what else could he have done? He was forced into marrying someone who was insane!
She was very dangerous guys, come on.
4 years ago