Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I. Book information
II. Author's brief introduction
Charlotte Bronte was born in the north of England in a priest family, in 1816. Her mother died, at the age of eight, Charlotte was sent to a boarding school where living conditions were extremely poor, due to her two sisters have died. Charlotte and her sister Emily returned home, in the desolate mountains spent her childhood. At the age of fifteen, Charlotte go to school, a few years later as a teacher in this school. She also worked as a tutor, eventually because of cannot bear the tutor's discrimination and mistreatment, she resigned. She had intended to run a school. However due to the lack of students, the school did not run. But learning experiences in Italy inspired Charlotte's strong desire to express them. In 1846, she completed her second novel" Jane Eyre ". In the autumn of 1847 the novel published, with great success, reprinted two times next year, let the unknown author become one of the famous British novelists.
III. Story synopsis
Jane Eyre told us the story that Jane Eyre was raised by her cruel, wealthy aunt, Mrs. Reed. Her uncle had passed away. At Lowood, Jane met a young girl named Helen Burns who shared a lot with her and became her best friend. A massive typhus epidemic sweeps Lowood, and Helen died of it.. After a group of more sympathetic gentlemen takes Brocklehurst’s place,.Jane spends eight more years at Lowood, six as a student and two as a teacher. Then She accepts a governess position at a manor called Thornfieldwhich’s employer is a dark, impassioned man named Rochester, Jane found herself falling in love with him. On the wedding day , Jane found that Rochester already had a wife, Bertha . Rochester does not deny this, but he explains that Bertha had been already mad. Knowing that it is impossible for her to be with Rochester, Jane left Thornfield sadly.Without food and money, Jane was forced to sleep outdoors and beg for food. At last, three kind hearted people took her in. Their names are Mary, Diana, and St. John and Jane quickly became friends with them. They found Jane a job teaching at a school in Morton. One day a news said that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her a large roperty. Then she found that her uncle was also their uncle.Jane immediately decides to share her property with her three new cousins.St. John decided to travel to India, and he asked Jane as his wife. She refused to marry her cousin because she did not love him at all. Finally she found the man who she really loved so much was Rochester.Jane immediately went back to Thornfield and found that it hadbeen burned to the ground by his mad wife who lost her life in the fire. Rochester saved the servants but lost his eyesight and one of his hands.At Ferndean, Rochester and Jane finally got married. At the end of the story, Rochester regained sight in one eye and was able to behold their first son at his birth.
IV. Work characteristics
People always the beautiful aspect of the fire ,but they never knew that fire was a terrible thing . It bring us happinessbut it also could give us disaster.In the novel,Rochester’mad wife set s fire and lost her life .Rochester also lost his property and eyesight in order to save her wife’life.That is to say .this fire destroyed life ,fortune and health.
In all, we an see that fire had two opposite aspects.On the one hand ,it made the world warm ,harmonious,wonderful. But on the other hand , it can destroy life ,fortune and health. In addition, Jane’s personality fire, she was kind hearted and sentimental and she also had character. Thus , it was this kind of “fire” that made her independent nd happy again. It was easy to see that throughout the story. Jane Eyre behaved strong-minded enough to her love and brave enough to seek her own independence. These are all the reflections of fire in her deep heart. Though lived in a cruel society and suffered from abuse, she never gave up, because the fire was always on in her heart which prevented her from giving into the convention.
At last,to be frank, Jane’s ideal life is the reflection of the Charlotte Bronte’s thoughts. Maybe we can say that Charlotte uses this great novels to express her feelings on the contemporary society.
V. Journal entry
After reading the novel,the image in the story may catch our attention. For instance,the fire image appeared in the story for dozens of times in different chapters.But no matter where it was put, it had symbolic meanings in some chapters, It was the symbol of warmth and happiness ,while in other place it was the symbol of humanity and friendship, sometimes it even represented destrutive power. In the story, the fire image impressed us a lot while reading it,we could say fire is a symbol of human civilization and forcus of the social and family life.Thus, fire plays an important role in the frame of the novel. At the ,fire was the symbol of warmth and happy family life . Jane Eyre who was a strongwilled woman, tried her best to fight for her own happiness and love as well as freedom,for example “Now,let me leave you an instant to make a good fire?” , in this sentance we can see that rochester saw the magic power of “fire” in love ang this became a critical element to promote their .Thus, life was impartable from the fire,once the fire died out,the would be disappearing.
Fire existed everywhere in this great novel ,when Jane and Helen were invited to dinner by Mr.Temple,the fire also plyed an important role as Janeeager to win the friendship of the others and it could make her felt warm and comfortable.Trough reading the novel ,it was easy to know that the love between Jane and Rochester was not smooth because true love should stand the test of fire .Facing Rochester’s prpose,Jane on the top of the sky and it seemed that her spirit was lifted.But this feeling just last a short period of time as the news that Rochester had got a wife almost drove Jane mad.The fire of love was set up but put out .But the fire set up again years later as the love between them had never fade away.
