Thank you for the invitation to the book club! I am new to both book clubs and blogging...should be an exciting adventure.
I read Jane Eyre in high school and don't remember enjoying it. Now as an adult I find it a much better read. Jane is so feisty...I love it!
Jane watched her friend Helen suffer a lashing at the hand of Miss Scatcherd. Later that evening she questions Helen about the beating and says that she would not be able to handle such a severe punishment. Helen's response stuck with me:
"Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear." (Chapter 6, page 56 in my book)
To me, Helen accepts this punishment because she believes she is defective and deserves to suffer. On the other hand, Jane questions authority (Mrs. Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, Miss Abbott) when they label her "bad." Jane never internalizes their descriptions of her; she recognizes that the adults are the ones who are flawed. I think that defiance and refusal to accept others negative descriptions make her resilient. I believe this character trait has been (and will continue to be) one of the reasons she survives such awful, harsh treatment. What other qualities do you think Jane possess that make her resilient?
I agree, Nancy! Jane is absolutely resilient. One would have to be to overcome such a Cinderella-esque childhood; raised and neglected by a “family” that considers her existence a burden. Once arriving at Lowood, Mr. Brocklehurst warns everyone that Jane is an interloper and liar, and advised the students to shun her,and exclude her from activities and conversation. Teachers were advised to “punish her body to save her soul.” (Chapter 7, page 70 in my book) Despite this label, Jane was able to overcome. Not only did she excel in her studies, but she became a teacher! Though Bronte didn’t delve deeply into the years Jane spent as a teacher at Lowood, I imagine she would have been nurturing and compassionate, and emulated the traits of Miss Temple and others who showed her the love which was absent during much of her childhood.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Helen's short cameo in the book. She had such a small part, but it has been interesting to see how Helen's character and example affected Jane for the rest of the story.
ReplyDeleteHelen was incredibly humble, which I don't look at as a bad thing at all (unless it starts to destroy your self esteem). Humility means you understand where to improve in your life, humility also leaves a lot of room for forgiveness and understanding for others faults and wrongs against us which is important. I think those are the qualities that Jane took from Helen that helped her succeed even more throughout her life. Otherwise, she would have remained bitter at her Aunt and other people from her past, and as Helen pointed out to Jane on p. 82, Jane is the one who suffers most and whose heart is injured because she holds on to so much animosity.
When you mix the amazing resilience of Jane with the positive qualities of her friends along her journey, she becomes a pretty amazing young woman.