Chapter 27 - So good.

I'm obsessed with this book. I have never before been so endeared to a character in a novel as I am to Jane. I think she's amazing. It's really inspiring to read about someone who is so true to herself and to her beliefs. Jane is someone who lives with incredible integrity and moral courage. Honestly, I wish I was more like Jane.

I'm in chapter 28 and I seriously love the book more and more every time I read. I didn't expect it to have such a huge impact on me, but it really has. The way Charlotte Bronte writes is pretty brilliant. I love the long passages of dialog between characters, and of course I love her descriptions and language. I really am beginning to understand what sets a classic apart as a classic.

I finally came to the part in the book that is the reason I wanted to read it in the first place. A long time ago in church, a speaker used Jane as an example of someone who lives with moral courage and makes tough decisions because they're the right decisions, not because they are easy or come naturally - pointing out that the right decisions are often the most difficult to make. I knew nothing about Jane's history or situation, but for some reason I have always remembered that reference to Jane Eyre. The speaker read the passage on p. 475 starting with:

"Still indomitable was the reply - "I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad-as I am now. Laws and principles are not for times when there is no temptation; they are for such moments as this when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?..."

It's such a beautiful paragraph and reveals a lot about Jane's character. All of chapter 27 has some pretty deep insight into faith and doing what God has called and asked us to do and the reasons why. I've experienced all of the feelings that Jane describes when she's forced to make a decision about Mr. Rochester, but the thing is that I usually choose what is easy in the moment or what is in my nature to do, instead of what I know is right. I really love that Jane doesn't give in. If she did, she would be no different than any modern day romance novel that promotes instant gratification and carnal choices that have no supposed consequences.

And for the record...I don't think Mr. Rochester ever deserved Jane. What was that whole thing playing hard to get by pretending to be engaged to someone else? Really Mr. Rochester? How old are you? Just because you needed jealously in your own life to feel deep love, you projected that onto Jane, as if she needed the same thing in her life. You clearly underestimate Jane's maturity level and her deep understanding of her own feelings.

Brittany