Discussion - Week One - Jane Eyre - Chapter I - XI

[Jim]

This discussion covers Chapter I – XI, page 9 – 127



To avoid spoilers, please restrict your comments to page 9 – 127.

[Ellen]

Still seems like the most romantic opening to me ever. It's hard not to compare it to later scenes but will do. Jane is so strong, a victim and yet also a fighter. Very melodramatic but still persuasive, at least to me. The description of the chamber her uncle died in is very hallucinatory.

[Cecily]

Ellie wrote: "The description of the chamber her uncle died in is very hallucinatory."

Yes! The chamber is so important - literally and metaphorically - but it's often underplayed when people talk about the book or even adapt it for stage or screen.

[Ellen]

I first read Jane Eyre when I was 10, so the chamber had a big effect on me. I've read it many times since and it continues to seem important.

[LindaH]

I'm enjoying rereading Jane Eyre in the context of your questions, Jim...I hope I can jump into this Project even if I haven't been part of the larger discussion? One of the first things I noticed (because of those questions) was that the ten-year-old Jane was not exactly the victim I remembered from my teens. That girl was powerless. The girl Bronte is describing thinks of herself as a "rebel slave" and "infantine Guy Fawkes". Hardly weak role models. I'd say, in these opening scenes establishing the unfairness with which she is treated, she is interchangeable with a boy similarly mistreated, say Harry Potter.

I've just finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte, and

[LindaH]

I just accidentally hit the DONE button. I meant to delete that last sentence...has nothing to do with discussion.

[Anik]

This is my first time with the book, and Im loving it.
I think Jane is a very strong and lonely character but at the same time she wants to be liked.
Jane knows what is wrong and is not afraid to speak up and defend herself, and in that period where woman were supposed to be sumissive, more in her case because she doesnt have any connections or anyone to talk in her behalf.
I like the way Bronte describes de scenery, although generally is kind of dark which I think has to do with Jane personality, is kind the way she see the world.