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Tower Tao
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1. What is your initial, honest reaction to the work? I hate it, I love it, I am not
sure. Just jot down a sentence or two of the why. Please try to jot this answer
down either while reading or right after reading/ viewing so it’s fresh in your
mind.
I like the work very much because it is full of energy and affection and also
because of its Christian message. As a Christian, I am enlightened and moved by
Jane’s strong faith and character. With dignity and love for others, she crosses the
barriers of classes, authority and sexes. She is an ordinary person like many of us, but
her uniqueness is the belief that God will lead the way and preserve the best for us. In
her journey of life, Jane experiences various difficulties and challenges, but she never
gives up hope to survive. When reading this book, I always felt encouraged and
regenerated to face the life’s obstacles and tests. I don’t think this work is too
romantic, for many issues Jane encounters will happen to us in the real life. As a
literary classic, Jane Eyre reflects the general human nature and its flaws, and thus it
becomes one of my favorite novels.
2. What issues did the work raise for you? By this I mean what” bigger issues”
came to mind?
The first thing comes to me is the issue of classes. In the Victorian society,
class crucially determines a person’s fate. Jane is treated unfairly on account of
her position as an orphan without strong relations. To gain economic support, she
has to condescend to the Reeds and endure the oppression of that family. She goes
to Lowood so as to get the ticket to freedom, but she is still restrained by the
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institutional power, failing to express her true feeling and emotion. Moreover, the
problem of class difference emerges very often when she works for Mr. Rochester.
As Mrs. Fairfax says that one cannot converse with servants “on terms of
equality,” it’s not hard to imagine how unequally the low-class members are dealt
with. In the book, we witness the gap between lower and upper classes. For
example, Miss Ingram and her mother have a biased mind against tutors,
presenting the Victorian values about rank and wealth. Most obviously, when Jane
leaves Rochester for Whitcross, she is penniless and destitute at the edge of death.
Therefore, economic and birth constitute the power relations of classes.
Another issue is gender. In Charlotte Bronte’s days, women are both
socially and sexually inferior to men. Either Rochester or St. John displays the
Victorian male arrogance and pride. Rochester, as a gentleman with a high social
rank and financial fortune, disregards his wife Bertha and his (step) daughter
Adele, doing wife hunting as much as he wants. As for St. John, his ideal wife is a
patient and submissive wife. He keeps forcing Jane to consider being his partner
as a wife to India for missionary, regardless of her will. In terms of women, they
are sometimes stereotyped as object of beauty or of weakness. Miss Ingram
represents the former, who seems to care only about her pretty face and winning
her lover’s heart. On the other hand, Bertha is a victim of this system of patriarchy,
and her mentally illness becomes the cause of her death. Jane is no exception, but
she becomes equal to Rochester when receiving the heritage from her uncle, as
Rochester says, “Are you independent? A rich woman?”
Furthermore, there has been a postcolonial discussion about Bertha Mason’s
existence since the discussion in The Mad Woman in the Attic. The anti-imperial
discourse has centered on Bertha’s identity as a colonized woman who is
victimized in the white settler’s world. The racial difference could be a major
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reason why Bertha is excluded and marginalized, as Rochester says, “I found her
nature wholly alien to mine; her tastes obnoxious to me; her cast of mind common,
low, narrow, and singularly incapable of being led to anything higher.” Anyhow, I
don’t want to over-emphasize the white anxiety against the colored people, for I
believe that Bronte supported the antislavery movement, and she did not wish to
demonize the colonized women.
3. a. For the novels: How much difficulty did you have with the language? How
about the plot. Did it confuse you at all?
Bronte’s flair for wring not only makes the novel readable but also
enjoyable. Although she puts much investment in details and description of nature,
the language is not difficult and so is the plot. The relationships among characters
are complex, but Jane’s monologue always helps the reader to follow the line of
the story.
b. Or for the films: Could you understand the language when spoken? Did
you have to rely on subtitles where available? (A shame if you do, but I
understand.) Also, could you follow the plot?
The language of Orson Welles, who plays Rochester in Stevenson’s film,
bothers me much than the other characters. He has a low voice as Elvis Presley’s, but
sometimes he talks too fast, and hence makes me feel lost. In that case I have to rely
on the subtitle. I need to practice my listening to the old film, because the black and
white film is more difficult to understand, owing to its old age and old language.
Between the two, I prefer Zeffirelli’s film because it is made in a modern way which I
have been used to. Generally, there are not tremendous changes from the original text
in both Stevenson and Zeffirelli movies, and hence it is quite easy to follow the plot.
4. After thinking about the work, perhaps discussing it on the BBS or chat room
or looking at the materials I provide, how have your perceptions changed if at
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all?
After the person to person class in Fu Jen, I realize that Jane Eyre is not
simply a feminist novel, but it is also a Christian book. According to this, I pay
more heed on the Christian messages in the book. At first, I was very surprised
why some earlier people regarded it as an immoral novel. Yet, considering the
value of morality and love in the Victorian society, I can understand Rochester’s
love affair with Jane might not be allowed. However, throughout the book we can
find many biblical allusions and Jane’s own experiences of religion. As for the
reason that I’m now taking the course Bible as Literature, I am very interested in
how writers are inspired by religion. For example, the case of James Joyce, to
some extent, would be very different from that of Charlotte Bronte.
Moreover, it is important that Jane is not a victim of patriarchal system, at
least at the end, and her decision to marry Rochester--- the one who hurts her most,
is completely out of true love. Jane, unlike Miss Ingram, doesn’t marry him for
economic consideration, but for an equation of both sexes. In sort, I agree with
Micael M. Clarke’s article “Brontë’s Jane Eyre and the Grimms’ Cinderella” that
the conclusion of the book is “a clear assertion of loving sexual union.”
5. What other supplementary materials have you looked at to help with your
understanding of the work in question (books, journals, websites, etc) Please
be specific. How have these materials helped you? Did you find something
really interesting you’d like to share with me or your classmates? Please give
me the information so I can pass it on.
Jon Buchan’s essay “‘Jane’s all White’: An Examination of Victorian
Chromatic Anxiety in Bronte’s Jane Eyre” is helpful for me to understand the
colonial images in this Victorian novel. He even discusses that Helen Burns and St.
John Rivers view the non- European nations as barbarous and uncivilized. He
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suggests that St. John is an “allegorical figure, signifying both Christ on the cross,
and the white man’s burden in empire.” In his eyes, St. John’s mission in India
could be also an imperial intrusion. It is an interesting point that Christianity is a
cultural hegemony, but I think we should give more respects on St. John because
he scarifies his own happiness only to fulfill God’s plan.
With background materials and the lecture on the class, I learn that the book
not only contains a romantic story but also many allusions of fairy tales and
Judeo-Christian religious tradition lying in the book. For instance, the Bluebeard
Tale and Beauty and the Beast are informed to suggest Rochester’s perverse
psychology.
6. What other questions does the work raise for you? What ideas does it spark in
your head?
I have many concerns about what happens to Adele after the story ends. Except
Jane, no one ever cares about her feeling. As a French little girl, she is culturally
displaced in England and to give up her mother tongue. Moreover, she is sent away to
a boarding school, leaving her step parents. Is she happy or sad about her fortune? It
will be an interesting topic about what is going to happen to Adele from a feminist
perspective.
7. For the films: after your initial viewing of the film, what do you think of it
compared with the written play? Did you like it/hate it/ get thrilled by the actors/
the setting, whatever? Be honest.
Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre is much closer to the original text than Stevenson’s, and
hence I prefer his redaction of the book. Zeffirelli’s Jane is just like my imagination
for her in the book. She is both very rational and passionate, and she looks plain and
modest as Bronte’s Jane. On the other hand, Stevenson’s Jane, whose exaggerating
acting seems unnatural to me, is too beautiful as the heroine in the novel. When
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watching Zeffirelli’s film, I could not help being touched by the love between
Rochester and Jane. Both the actor and actress deal with the love relationship
carefully and sincerely, and thus there is no Hollywood erotic thriller that makes me
feel gorge.
I don’t like Stevenson’s film as much as Zeffierlli’s because his abridgment of
the work undermines Jane’s strength of character. As a matter of fact, he deletes many
crucial events of the story, and fills in with his own elements. Unlike Stevenson,
Zeffierlli keeps the character St. John as a foil to Rochester, even though he makes
subtle nuances on some settings. Fortunately, he does not impair the feminism in the
original work, sufficiently showing Jane’s struggle with herself and the world.
Anyway, both directors have their own positions toward the work, and I respect their
interpretations. Nevertheless, neither of them can replace Charlotte Bronte’s work.
The reason why Jane Eyre becomes an eternal work of art is that it transcends its own
time, and leaves a lot of room for the readers to talk about.