2.02.2013

Jane Eyre

I read Jane Eyre by Charolette Bronë last year for English class. I'm just deciding to write about it now because I recently finished Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys' novel (post to be published shortly here) that was written a century later as a prequel to Jane Eyre. But more on that coming up. Jane Eyre is a classic story that everyone must read at some point in their lives. I must admit, at the beginning I found the novel dreadfully boring. But once I pushed myself to get into Jane's story, I became mesmerized with Jane. In the readers’ eyes, Jane grows from a bitter and emotional orphan girl to a student learning about morality, from a love-struck woman who accepts a marriage proposal against her principle to a woman who makes a choice to live her life based on her morals, and finally, to a perfect balance of all her experiences and the wife of Mr. Rochester. Her choices aren’t only made consciously by her, but are impacted by her location. With each decision, Jane becomes a stronger person, yet she never looses who she was in the past. She serves as a role model for generations of young women attempting to become independent. The novel serves a critique of Victorian assumptions about gender and social class, became one of the most successful novels of its time. It has also been adapted into a movie version multiple times, and I have seen the 2011 adaptation which I recommend. The story, as I mentioned before, takes some time to get into, but once you do, you can't stop reading. A thrilling mystery and romance, this is a classic you definitely should read. Rating:★★★★★

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