Discussion - Week Two - Jane Eyre - Chapter XII - XX

[Jim]

This discussion covers Chapter XII – XX, page 128 – 253



To avoid spoilers, please restrict your comments to page 9 – 253.

[LindaH]

Lest we ever think that the Jane character is in Bronte's book to show off the Rochester character, I just have to note her initial response to him, after she lets him use her shoulder to pull himself up. (Chapter Xii)

“it was an incident of no moment, no romance, no interest in a sense; yet it marked with change one single hour of a monotonous life. My help had been needed and claimed; I had given it: I was pleased to have done something; trivial, transitory though the deed was, it was yet an active thing, and I was weary of an existence all passive.”

I'd say he is there to define Jane.

[Lily]

Linda wrote: "I'd say he is there to define Jane. ..."

Which is a large part of why his role in the book has long troubled me deeply. In what ways does Rochester typify a man capable of exerting a magnetic influence on a woman who, in some ways at least, is still fairly naive when she comes into contact with him. To what continued risk and to what growth does her heroine's journey take her is part of what we can consider in the pages ahead.

[LindaH]

Rochester is such a detestable control freak that if Jane were merely "marking time", this novel would have no interest for me. Given the hurdles in her way up to 18, Jane seems to be moving forward at a regular clip.

When Rochester interrogates her that first night he keeps assuming that she, being female, has had help...drawing her sketches, occupying herself, finding her current position:

Roch: “Who recommended you to come here?”
Jane: “I advertised, and Mrs. Fairfax answered my advertisement.”

She comes off this interview sounding resourceful and intelligent, if not unconscious of her own ability to spar, given his insults.

[Cecily]

Linda wrote: "She comes off this interview sounding resourceful and intelligent, if not unconscious of her own ability to spar, given his insults"

There's plenty more of that to come. It's what makes Jane such an endearing and inspiring character to many, and one reason why it's such a startling novel from the pen of the spinster daughter of a Victorian parson.