Jane Eyre - chapters 11-15

[Sarah]

Just getting the threads started...

[Alison, the guru of grace]

O.K., there are obviously SPOILERS here. Do not read until you have gotten through chapter 15.




To recap: Jane leaves Lowood and arrives at Thornfield. She meets Mrs. Fairfax and Adele. She meets Mr. Rochester and Pilot as he has had an accident on his horse. They get to know each other. We learn Adele's back story. Jane hears strange sounds and is told they are from Grace Poole, the servant ("a demonic laugh, low, suppressed and deep"). What did I leave out?

Jane makes a bit of a feminist speech here..."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 restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privledged fellow creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings..."

Interesting to find Jane & Mr. Rochester described by many as unattractive. But Jane says, "Was Mr. Rochester now ugly in my eyes? No, reader; gratitude and many associations all pleasureable and genial made his face the object I best liked to see; his prescence in a room was more cheering that the brightest fire."

[Tiffany]

I liked the line that comes right after that one Alison, "Yet I had not forgotten his faults: indeed, I could not, for he brought them frequently brfore me." Again, for a girl her age, I think she showed maturity beyond her years here because she didn't look for the sugar coating; she accepted him with all his flaws.

[Sarah]

Spoilers




Doesn't Jane save Mr. Rochester's life in chapter 15? She wakes in the night to discover he's bed's been set on fire and she douses the flames.

[Alison, the guru of grace]

At one point, Jane is described as not being liked by the Reeds as a child because she was always watchful and staring at them (I have no idea where that was...later, I think Bessie tells Jane). It makes you think that Jane was very observant and learned much about human nature and "why" people were the way they were by sitting back and observing. A bit of an introvert. Maybe this is how she came to be so "wise" about people and accepting of their flaws.

SPOILER: Yes, Sarah. That's in chapter 15. Jane hears "the laugh" and gets up and there's smoke coming from Mr. Rochester's opened door. His room is on fire and she wakes him and they put it out. "I knew, he continued, 'you would do me good in some way, at some time; --I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you: their expression and smile did not --(again he stopped)--'did not' (he proceeded hastily) 'strike delight to my very inmost heart so for nothing. People talk of natural sympathies; I have heard of good genii: there are grains of truth in the wildest fable. My cherished preserver, good-night!"

I think the (O.K., lengthy at times) exchanges b/t Jane & Mr. Rochester are the best writing in the book.

[Alison, the guru of grace]

Yeah, I think Mr. Rochester/Jane's standing with each other is as big a mystery for most of the book as the demonic laughing. Just when you think you've figured out their intentions with each other, you get the rug pulled out from under you.

[Joanie]

Okay, so I think I may have ruined the end of the book for myself. I didn't know the connection between 'Wide Sargasso Sea' and 'Jane Eyre' so I looked up WSS to read a description. In learning what WSS is about I learned something about JE that I didn't want to know yet! I hate when I do stuff like this to myself. I keep hoping that maybe that's not the big twist in the book (or at least that there's other big ones to come) but I'm a little bummed. To anyone else who hasn't read Jane Eyre, don't read the descriptions of WSS or any of the other books that are connected to Jane Eyre!

The book has definitely picked and and I'm enjoying it more and more. I'm glad I never saw a movie adaptation of the book because I don't have any actors in my head while I read. I'm interested to see what happens next with Jane and Mr. Rochester.

[Dottie]

Joanie -- I'm thinking you may end up loving this -- reading the three books you mention all in a lump would I think be a wodnerful first encounter for at the least JE and WSS -- I have my first encounter with TEA to experience this time around.

[Tiffany]

I'm reading all 3 -JE, TEA and WSS- for the first time too. I've got about 70 pages left of The Eyre Affair and then I'm starting Wide Sargasso Sea.

[Shannon, the founder of fun (back from sabbatical)]

I am really enjoying this thus far. The whole class system thing is really obnoxious to me. I know it is a part of the time period and a theme of the book, but it is very depressing at times. I couldn't imagine being Jane and having to deal with people who think they are superior to you. That would truly be a horrible way to live.

[Dini, the master of meaning]

I was supposed to be finishing some freelance project during the weekend but ended up spending most of it reading JE. I can't seem to put it down! Too bad my copy is too heavy for me to bring to read on the bus :(

I love this quote where Mr. Rochester was talking rudely to Jane but instead of taking offense she felt quite the opposite:

I sat down quite disembarrassed. A reception of finished politeness would probably have confused me: I could not have returned or repaid it by answering grace and elegance on my part; but harsh caprice laid me under no obligation; on the contrary, a decent quiescence, under the freak of manner, gave me the advantage. Besides, the eccentricity of the proceeding was piquant: I felt interested to see how he would go on.

I should remember this anytime someone acts rudely or undermine me! Very spunky.

Alison, I agree that Jane & Rochester's exchanges are very interesting, they tell a lot about their characters and make us intrigued to find out how their relationship would develop.

[Meghan]

A good lesson for us all. Thanks for pointing that out Dini!

[Summer]

I added some quotes I especially liked from chapter 14 to goodreads.

But I don't mean to flatter you: if you are cast in a different mould to the majority, it is no merit of yours: Nature did it. Mr. Rochester

I envy you your peace of mind, your clean conscience, your unpolluted memory. Little girl, a memory without blot of contamination must be an exquisite treasure-an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment: is it not? Mr. Rochester

To me, it's as if he seducing her by appealing to her compassion. He feels at once that he does not deserve her because of his lack of virtue and yet, that they are intrinsically compatible and he envies her.

[Alison, the guru of grace]

This quote: "I envy you your peace of mind, your clean conscience, your unpolluted memory. Little girl, a memory without blot of contamination must be an exquisite treasure-an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment: is it not?"...is also insight as to why Mr. Rochester falls for Jane in the first place, I think. She seems incapable of the kind of deceit that has brought about his ruin and misery. Also parallels the story in "Rebecca."

[Dini, the master of meaning]

Nice quotes, Summer. To me the last quote seems like he's saying that only Jane would be compatible to him as her pureness would save him from the man he's become -- to allow him to start over and be a better person. Somehow it reminds me of Tom Cruise saying to Renee Zellweger, "You complete me."