dear readers, have you been visting members blogs? amazing post on Jane Eyre outhere! i will be featuring a few of them here but please visit each others blogs, because not only are the post inspring but their blogs as well.
Our first Jane Eyre post feature is from Juliana, thank you Juliana!
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Posted by Juliana Neumann at Apr 01, 2011 04:25 PM | Permalink
When I found out that Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë was to be our second book to read, I was very excited, having never read it before. Many years ago a friend and I watched the 1996 film adaptation of the book, and I had very vague recollections of what actually happened. I remembered a Mr. Rochester, a crazy wife and a good ending. I read my mother's 1987 copy of the book.
Reading Jane Eyre was very different from reading Tess. First, the language was much easier to read and understand. Even the French passages didn't cause a problem for me. Secondly, I knew there would be a good ending, so when something depressing happened, I could still hope for everything to turn out for the best. Thirdly, I often found myself smiling about the spirited conversations Jane and Mr. Rochester had.
This book can be seen as the story of an early feminist and as a love story. Jane is a woman who longs to be independent and stand on her own two feet. By then end of the book she achieves this. My romantic heart beats for the love story and one of my favorite passages in the book is when Jane admits to herself that she is in love with Mr. Rochester.
"He is not to them what he is to me [...] I believe he is of mine - I am sure he is - I feel akin to him - I understand the language of his countenance and movements [...] I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him. [...] I must love him."
I think I must have read it several times. Taking it out of context, it can be interpreted in various ways. One can read it as how a teen-aged girl would feel towards a boy in her class. How horrible life would be if that boy didn't return her feelings! Or it can be read as how a woman would feel towards the man she has been married to and known for many years. How time welds the two together, making her feel a part of him. But I also think there is also of the possibility of interpreting it as platonic love. As in feeling that one understands and is understood by another person fully, just by exchanging a look, a gesture or a few words. I share this feeling with very few people, men and women, and it is a very special feeling. One of total understanding, one that doesn't need many words, one that feels like "coming home" and one I wouldn't want to miss.
To capture this "coming home" feeling, I am adding my choice of comfort food. I have many comfort foods, depending on why I need or want to be comforted. For this feeling of love, I felt a loaf of freshly baked bread would be perfect. It has a welcoming smell while baking and later cooling on a rack and it tastes and feels like home. Eating freshly baked homemade bread is like a big, loving hug.
P.S. While I was going through my David Austin rose catalog, dreaming about all the roses I'd love to have, I came across a rose for Tess. It's a very beautiful rose and I'm sure she would have admired it.
that is my favorite kind of bread. I like to put little bit of butter like you are doing, it is the best way to taste fresh bread!! nmmm, I am now in a mooood for good bread.
ReplyDeleteoh by the way, did you make it??