jane eyre book review new york times

By Charlotte Brontë

‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Brontë is a pure masterwork of an English classic that still lives its relevance in today’s society despite having been around for more than a century and a half.

Article written by Victor Onuorah

Degree in Journalism from University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

‘ Jane Eyre ’ proved a blockbuster following its 1847 publication as it became a book that gave voice to the voiceless, resilience to the weak, and spirit of honest activism to the seemingly lesser gender. Through Charlotte Brontë’s bestseller , there was an awakening in the urgency to tackle gender-related issues by society.

A Descriptive Tale on a Search for True Purpose

‘ Jane Eyre ’ by Charlotte Brontë is one of the most remarkably written classics I’ve read. The book is enriched with a touching story of a plain English country girl who is forced to endure a harsh childhood being an orphan and taken in under the guidance of her maltreating aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her bullish children. 

From the get-go, Jane seems to be the only character in Charlotte Brontë’s ‘ Jane Eyre ’ who seeks something much more than the mere routines of life, and she shows such desire from the first pages of the book – around when she’s young and about ten years old. Given Jane starts out being headstrong and a little sassy, I wouldn’t blame her too much because she’s just a smart and active little girl trying to protect herself over at Gateshead, a place where she’s surrounded by people who are supposed to be her family but are not.

Jane’s childhood rebellion, however, is never out of place. By rough estimation, those youthful angsts indicate her disagreement with her current life treated with biases and lies, and later, we see the extent of this mentality to society and the state of affairs therein. Jane is, by description, a self-reformer interested in finding that one true purpose in life. 

She learns tremendously through life – and in all necessary disciplines enough to refine herself into the person she wants to be. Morals and values through religion. People relations and handling skills through experiences with terrible and as well good and kind people she’s met. In the end, Jane will pick bits and pieces of the core things that form her true purpose and piece them together. She’s happy at last because, against society’s pretentious family, she discovers her voice and finds her personality. 

Providence Always Remembers the Upright

It’s nearly a miracle how Jane survives throughout every stage of the book. Frankly, ‘ Jane Eyre ’ is a chancy book that creates such a scary reality for a fairly helpless little girl. Still, the daring and fearless narrative is also a reason author Charlotte Brontë scores points on ‘ Jane Eyre ’ because there are at least a few million young girls and boys who go through this same struggle, or worse, in their respective reality. 

However, thank gracious how providence always seems to turn up for Jane in dangerous and difficult situations (and I hope, for God’s sake, it turns up for the million youthful others worldwide who can relate to this story). First off, the readers will notice how, in aunt Reed’s home at Gateshead, providence uses a servant, Bessie, to feed, care for, and serve as a mother figure to maltreatment, starving Jane. She probably wouldn’t have survived long enough to experience Lowood School, not to mention Thornfield, Moor House, or Ferndean. 

Another worthy mention of a good meddling of the saving hands of providence is the part right after Jane disappointedly leaves Thornfield and Mr. Rochester after finding out that he (Mr. Rochester) had been lying to her about not having a wife. Sad and depressed and without a home or a destination, Jane wanders the dangerous streets, sleeps in them, begs, and collects scraps for food. No bad thing happens to her, from the poor food, street hooligans, etc. This is sheer providence. 

A Rollercoaster Ride of Love and Heartbreaks

There are at least two heartbreaks, Jane, the protagonist, faces in the book, and I would think one of the two hurt her the most. Let’s start with the one that didn’t hurt so much, Jane’s experience with her cousin St. John Rivers. A homeless Jane is taken in by St. John Rivers and his sisters, cleaned, fed, and cared for. She bounces back to her gracious self, and it doesn’t take long for St. John to fall for her. 

When this happens, the next thing that follows is heartbreak. For even though Jane cares so much about John, she doesn’t love him enough to want to spend the rest of her life with him. However, after the saga, she is buried in thought, despondent over it, and decides to leave Moor House and the presence of St. John. 

The other instance, and the one that hurts so much for Jane, is the event over at Thornfield involving Mr. Rochester. Jane is particularly broken by this because she genuinely loves him and is going to walk down the aisle with him until she finds out he has a crazy legal wife locked up in the attic. 

How does Jane survive three days straight in the streets without money, shelter, or food?

Jane is lucky enough to go unscathed, having spent days out in the streets after a fallout with Mr. Rochester, although she now has to survive the hard way by begging for food and sleeping anywhere a proper shelter. 

What are the pros of Charlotte Brontë’s ‘ Jane Eyre ’?

The story of ‘ Jane Eyre ’ is loved for its ability to tackle difficult topics in female gender rights, social decadence, and poverty, among other things. 

Are there any cons in ‘ Jane Eyre ’ by Charlotte Brontë?

There are a few cons in Charlotte Brontë’s ‘ Jane Eyre ,’ and mentioning some would include the book’s display of immorality and anti-social tendencies. 

Jane Eyre Review

Book Title: Jane Eyre

Book Description: 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Brontë is a powerful narrative of resilience and integrity, where young Jane confronts a male-dominated society, challenging norms and advocating for gender equality and dignity.

Book Author: Charlotte Brontë

Book Edition: First Edition

Book Format: Hardcover

Publisher - Organization: Smith, Elder & Co.

Date published: October 16, 1847

ISBN: 978-0140437286

Number Of Pages: 479

Jane Eyre Review: You Can Impact Society and Make a Change Irrespective of Your Background, Gender or Age

Charlotte Brontë’s eponymous book, ‘Jane Eyre,’ shows us how integrity and good ideas can help bring a meaningful change in society – regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or skin color. 10-year-old Jane overcomes maltreatment in a foster home to face a ruthless and brutal society controlled by men. With women like her already bowing to the pressures, Jane finds herself up against an uphill battle to reclaim the relevance of her gender and the pride of the humble and oppressed.

• Rich storyline
• Well-defined characters
• Gender equality activization
• Gender stereotype
• Immorality issues
• Overly French for an English read

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About Victor Onuorah

Victor is as much a prolific writer as he is an avid reader. With a degree in Journalism, he goes around scouring literary storehouses and archives; picking up, dusting the dirt off, and leaving clean even the most crooked pieces of literature all with the skill of analysis.

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The 100 best novels: No 12 – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."

From its haunting first line to its famous closer, "Reader, I married him", Charlotte Brontë takes her audience by the throat with a fierce narrative of great immediacy. Jane Eyre's voice on the page is almost hypnotic. The reader can hardly resist turning the next page, and the next…

In an extraordinary breakthrough for the English novel, borrowing the intimacy of the 18th-century epistolary tradition, Charlotte Brontë had found a way to mesmerise the reader through an intensely private communion with her audience. We, the author, and Jane Eyre become one. For this, she can be claimed as the forerunner of the novel of interior consciousness. Add to this a prose style of unvarnished simplicity and you have the Victorian novel that cast a spell over its generation. Even today, many readers will never forget the moment they first entered the strange, bleak world of this remarkable book.

The magic of Jane Eyre begins with Charlotte Brontë herself. She began to write her second novel ( The Professor had just been rejected) in August 1846. A year later it was done, much of it composed in a white heat. The reading public was spellbound. Thackeray's daughter says that the novel (which was dedicated to her father) "set all London talking, reading, speculating". She herself reports that she was "carried away by an undreamed-of and hitherto unimagined whirlwind".

There are three principal elements to Brontë's magic. First, the novel is cast, from the title page, as "an autobiography". This is a convention derived from Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (No 2 in this series) . But the adventure offered by the author is an interior one. Jane Eyre portrays the urgent quest of its narrator for an identity. Jane, who cannot remember her parents, and as an orphan has no secure place in the world, is in search of her "self" as a young, downtrodden woman.

Related to this, Jane Eyre has a raw, occasionally erotic, immediacy. Not only does Jane reject Brocklehurst, St John Rivers and John Reed, she also craves submission to her "master", the Byronic Mr Rochester. The violence of men against women is implicit in many of Jane's transactions with both Rivers and Rochester. The thrill of this, to the Victorian reader, cannot be overestimated.

Finally, Jane Eyre , addressed insistently to "the reader", is so steeped in English literature that it becomes an echo chamber of earlier books. Within a very few pages of the opening, there are references to Paradise Lost , Walter Scott's Marmion and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (No 3 in this series) .

Brontë herself, the daughter of a tyrannical north country parson, was very familiar with John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (No 1 in this series) . Critics have described a five-fold Bunyanesque progression to Jane Eyre , beginning with "Gateshead", moving to the depths of "Lowood", then the trials of "Thornfield" and "Marsh End" before achieving the blessed release of "Ferndean". Jane's spiritual pilgrimage is also narrated with biblical simplicity, combined with considerable artifice.

Jane Eyre also displays the familiar tropes of the gothic novel. Thornfield is a gothic manor; Mr Rochester a gothic-romantic protagonist. The mad woman in the attic speaks for herself, as it were. In addition, Brontë herself knows the storytelling power of what she calls "the suspended revelation", a phrase coined in chapter 20, and never hesitates to tantalise and seduce the reader.

The year 1847 must be the annus mirabilis of English fiction. The manuscript of Jane Eyre reached the publisher, George Smith, in August. He began to read one Sunday morning. "The story quickly took me captive," he wrote. "Before twelve o'clock my horse came to the door but I could not put the book down… before I went to bed that night I had finished reading."

Publication in October 1847 became so sensational that publisher Smith, Elder & Co's rival, Thomas Newby, decided to bring forward the release of Emily Brontë's unpublished manuscript. In December, 1847, Victorian readers still digesting the thrill of Jane Eyre found themselves contemplating a new novel called Wuthering Heights .

A note on the text

The publication history of Jane Eyre is intimately connected to Charlotte Brontë's return from Brussels in 1844. As soon as she read Emily's poetry, she persuaded Anne and Emily to submit a selection of their work under the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell to London publishers, but without any immediate success. In the end, the poems were privately published. Then, in July 1847, Thomas Newby agreed to publish Emily's Wuthering Heights . Her elder sister Charlotte now sent her first novel, The Professor , to Smith, Elder & Co, who turned it down, but asked to see other work. Charlotte submitted Jane Eyre , which caught the eye of George Smith, and appeared at breakneck speed on 19 October 1847, in three volumes, "edited by Currer Bell". The first American edition, from Harper & Brothers,of New York, appeared in 1848. A second British edition, dedicated to William Thackeray, was published in 1850, with some local scandal. Charlotte Brontë did not apparently know that Thackeray had had his own wife declared insane.

Other books by Charlotte Brontë

The Professor ; Villette ; Shirley . Mrs Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë is also indispensable reading.

• Charlotte Brontë
• The 100 best novels

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Sheila Kohler

The Official Site of Sheila Kohler, Author of Cracks

New York Times – Becoming Jane Eyre

Out of the shadows.

By CHRISTOPHER BENFEY

Published: December 23, 2009

“It is moorish, and wild, and knotty as a root of heath,” Charlotte Brontë wrote of her sister Emily’s novel, “Wuthering Heights.” The Brontës brought a new emotional weather to the English novel — stormy, blasted and passionate. “I never saw a Moor,” Emily Dickinson wrote, as though speaking for the whole far-flung Brontë cult. “Yet know I how the Heather looks.”

“Becoming Jane Eyre,” Sheila Kohler’s muted and gently probing 10th work of fiction, opens during the summer of 1846 amid the “charmless, suffocating streets” of industrial Manchester. The 69-year-old Rev. Patrick Brontë has come from his rural parsonage on the Yorkshire moors to have a cataract removed. He is attended by a hired nurse who raids the kitchen late at night and “gnaws . . . ravenously” at a lamb bone, “grinding on a delicious piece of gristle with her good back teeth.”

Less intrusive is his prim daughter Charlotte, who receives a rejection letter for her first novel on the very day her father submits to surgery, “excruciatingly conscious of the knife’s work in that delicate place.” Charlotte is 30, single, with two unemployed and unmarried younger sisters with rejected novels of their own, “a shiftless, dissipated wreck” of a brother far gone to gin and opium, and an aging father reduced to “a blind mouth.” “What is she to write about now, in the silence of this darkened room?”

The spark for Kohler’s novel was a line from Lyndall Gordon’s biography, “Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life”: “What happened as she sat with Papa in that darkened room in Boundary Street remains in shadow.” Gordon proposed that the crucial breached “boundary” was the adoption of an androgynous pseudo­nym, Currer Bell, which allowed Brontë to project herself beyond the confines of proper domestic womanhood. For Kohler, however, liberation comes with the sudden invention of Brontë’s fictional alter ego, Jane Eyre, the dauntless and self-reliant heroine, both “ire and eyer,” of her second novel. “Sitting by her blinded, silenced father, she dares to take up her pencil and write for the first time in her own voice.”

“Becoming Jane Eyre” is narrated in a continual present, the tense of “becoming.” Short chapters take us back through remembered moments in Charlotte’s life, spots of time that, disguised and transformed, make their way into “Jane Eyre.” From her days as a governess, she invents a bully for the opening pages of the novel. From her difficult period in Brussels, when she fell in love with a married teacher whom she addressed abjectly as “Master,” she draws the contours of “the bigamous Mr. Rochester.” A visit to a “house with battlements” yields a housekeeper’s story of “a madwoman . . . confined up here during the 18th century,” the inspiration for the bestial Creole heiress whom Rochester has locked in his attic. Some parallels between novel and biography seem more of a reach: “An orphan is not so far from a middle child.”

“Becoming Jane Eyre” is divided into three parts, rather grandly called “volumes.” The first, centered on the operation in Manchester, is claustrophobic, with comic relief provided by that peckish nurse. The second opens more broadly into the world of Haworth Parsonage, where tough-minded Emily offers a fresh view of her sister. Why, she wonders, is Charlotte “so preoccupied with her own small problems of love when her brother’s are so much more serious?”

The third section, which follows Charlotte to London after the triumphant publication of “Jane Eyre,” is full of satisfying recognitions. When Charlotte, the plain country girl, reveals herself as the writer behind the pseudonym Currer Bell, her stupefied young publisher echoes Lincoln encountering Harriet Beecher Stowe . “Can this be, is it possible that this little woman is the author of ‘Jane Eyre’?”

“Becoming Jane Eyre” is driven by interesting questions. How exactly does a fictional character take shape in a writer’s imagination? What impact can an invented character have on a writer’s life? Kohler believes that writing “Jane Eyre” was therapeutic for Charlotte, a release from “stifled rage.” “She writes, hardly seeing the words. Her toothache is better, and since she has been writing her bowels, so often obstructed, have moved regularly.”

But the Brontës seem diminished in “Becoming Jane Eyre.” One ­wearies of their incessant questions and exclamations, meant to reproduce their thoughts but sounding a bit too much like 21st-century anxieties. “Can she own these words,” Charlotte wonders, “which speak of the longings of a woman for fulfillment, for love, for the same rights as a man?”

Kohler was wise to pitch the novel in a subdued mode, not vying with the passions unleashed in the Brontë novels or in “Wide Sargasso Sea,” Jean Rhys’s excruciatingly gorgeous fictional evocation of the first Mrs. Rochester’s life. She has written instead a small, uncluttered novel about sibling rivalry and the various meanings of “publication” for women writers in a straitened world where women were supposed to stay private.

Christopher Benfey’s most recent book is “A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade.”

Visit the Manuscript of ‘Jane Eyre’ in New York

The handwritten novel is in the United States for the first time—along with an exhibition of artifacts from Charlotte Brontë’s brief and brilliant life

Erin Blakemore

Correspondent

How did Charlotte Brontë go from scribbling in secret to one of England’s (and literature’s) most famous names? Look for the answer in a passage in Jane Eyre , in which her famously plain heroine tells her husband-to-be that she is a “free human with an independent will.” That bold declaration is at the center of a new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York—one that celebrates the author’s 200th birthday with a look at the forces that turned her into a writer.

Brontë has been at the center of literary legend since her first published novel, Jane Eyre , appeared under a pseudonym in 1847. The book was immediately loved and loathed for emotions that flew in the face of convention and courtesy, and the identity of its author became a much-contested question. But even after Brontë was discovered to be the person behind the pen name Currer Bell, myths about her childhood , her family members and the atmosphere in which she became an author have persisted.

The popular image of the Brontë sisters and their brother Branwell—all of whom died before they turned 40—has long been one of Gothic isolation and tragic pathos. But those ideas are far from true, and the Morgan’s exhibition Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will grounds Charlotte’s brief life in objects from her everyday world. From miniature manuscripts she wrote as a child to her drawings, paintings, letters and clothing, the exhibition is full of clues as to how a parson’s daughter living in Yorkshire could become a worldly and bold author.

At the center of the exhibition is a handwritten manuscript of Jane Eyre , Brontë’s most famous novel, which is in the United States for the first time. It is open to the passage in which its heroine, a poor and plain governess, reminds her would-be lover that “I am a bird, and no net ensnares me.” She refuses to marry Edward Rochester, a wealthy landowner, unless he accepts her as an equal and not a subordinate. That fiery sentiment was echoed by Brontë herself. In an era in which women of her station were expected to be governesses or teachers, she aspired to be a novelist. And even when her work gained fame, she challenged her readers to judge her by her output and not her gender.

Though the exhibition features documents from some of Charlotte’s most triumphant moments, it also contains echoes of tragedy. In 1848 and 1849, her three surviving siblings, Branwell, Emily and Anne, died within eight months of one another. Alone and stripped of her best friends and literary co-conspirators, Charlotte grappled with depression and loneliness . Visitors can read letters she wrote informing friends of her irrevocable losses, handwritten on black-edged mourning paper.

In the 161 years since Charlotte’s own early death at age 38, her literary reputation has only grown larger. But that doesn’t mean she was large in actual stature—the diminutive author stood less than five feet tall, as demonstrated by a dress in the exhibition. She may have been physically tiny, but her larger-than-life genius lives on in the objects she left behind. The exhibition runs through January 2, 2017.

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Erin Blakemore | | READ MORE

Erin Blakemore is a Boulder, Colorado-based journalist. Her work has appeared in publications like The Washington Post , TIME , mental_floss , Popular Science and JSTOR Daily . Learn more at erinblakemore.com .

The New York Times

The learning network | viewer, she marries him: comparing ‘jane eyre’ in literature and film.

Viewer, She Marries Him: Comparing ‘Jane Eyre’ in Literature and Film

Language Arts

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

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• See all lesson plans »

Overview | In this lesson, students consider the themes and characters of Charlotte Brontë’s novel “Jane Eyre,” beginning with responding to key lines from the novel. They then engage in one of seven activities designed to guide them to deeper reading of the text. Some of the activities involve considering one or more film adaptations, including a 2011 movie version. Finally, they compare the life of someone they know, or themselves, with Jane Eyre.

Materials | Computer with Internet access and projector, sheets of poster paper with quotations from “Jane Eyre” on them, markers, copies or the e-text of “Jane Eyre.”

Warm-Up | Before class, prepare six sheets of poster paper, each one with a quotation from the novel “Jane Eyre.” (This could be done while the class is reading it or as a wrap-up activity after they have read it. It could also be adapted slightly as an activity to introduce the novel.)

The quotes might include these:

“It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.” “I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing. I abandoned it and framed a humbler supplication; for change, stimulus: that petition, too, seemed swept off into vague space: ‘Then,’ I cried, half desperate, ‘grant me at least a new servitude!'” “[I]f others don’t love me I would rather die than live — I cannot bear to be solitary and hated.” “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart!” “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.” “I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blest — blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine.”

You might include a seventh sheet, left blank, for students to write down the quotes of their choice.

When students enter, tell them to take a marker and rotate through the stations (for the sake of order, you might assign small groups to begin at different points and tell them when to move to the next station). Their task is to jot a comment on the quotation on the poster. They may also respond to their classmates’ comments, effectively having a “conversation on paper” with the text and with one another.

When students are finished cycling through the stations, have them retake their seats, and review the completed posters. Ask: Looking at what was written, what do you notice? What responses strike you most and why? What interpretations do we have of Jane Eyre and “Jane Eyre”?

Now tell the class they will now read an article about a new film adaptation of “Jane Eyre.”

Related | In “ Another Hike on the Moors for ‘Jane Eyre,'” Charles McGrath notes that the novel has been adapted many times, including in a new film starring Mia Wasikowska:

Certain moments occur over and over again: the stool at Lowood, the miserable boarding school for orphans; Rochester skidding and falling from his horse; the screams at night, the burning bed chamber; Jane running across the barren countryside; the voice calling her across the moors. And it always ends the same way: She marries him of course, though the movie Rochester is seldom the pitiable, damaged creature he proves to be in the book, where he loses both an eye and a hand. If there has never been a definitive movie “Jane Eyre,” there has never been a truly rotten one. Even the sentimental 1996 Franco Zeffirelli version, with William Hurt embarrassingly miscast as a Rochester more nearly a mild eccentric than a brooding, Byronic type, has its moments. A couple of the movies have lingered a little on the sultry, Creole ancestry of Rochester’s first wife, Bertha Mason, and on a theme of colonial exploitation, but so far the one truly ground-breaking version is John Duigan’s 1993 film of “Wide Sargasso Sea,” the Jean Rhys novel that tells the story from the point of view of Bertha, the madwoman locked in the attic. So why another “Jane Eyre,” then, with so many perfectly serviceable ones already available on DVD or download? The simplest answer is that movies get remade all the time, and the great 19th-century novelists — Austen and the Brontë sisters especially — have proved to be an inexhaustible and almost foolproof resource.

Read the entire article with your class, using the questions below.

Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:

• Why has “Jane Eyre” been adapted for film numerous times?
• How does Cary Fukunaga, who directed a new adaptation, compare the literary worlds created by Jane Austen with those created by Charlotte and Emily Brontë?
• Why does the new movie use flashbacks to tell the story?
• How has this technique made this one different from the other films based on “Jane Eyre”?
• How do the filmmakers characterize Jane Eyre?

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From the learning network.

• 10 Ways to Use The New York Times for Teaching Literature
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From NYTimes.com

• Slide show: Jane, Rochester and That Zombie
• Times Topics: Charlotte Brontё
• The Four Brontёs: Myth vs. Reality

Around the Web

• The Enthusiast’s Guide to “Jane Eyre” Adaptations
• “Jane Eyre” (2011) official Web site
• Masterpiece Theatre: “Jane Eyre” Discussion Questions

Activity | Here are seven activity options for delving more deeply into “Jane Eyre,” each one paired with a past related Learning Network lesson that can easily be adapted for Brontë’s novel:

Updating the Novel: Students imagine what would happen if Jane Eyre were freed from her time and place and dropped into the present day, retaining the characterizations, themes and basic conflicts, but modernizing the setting and details. Related lesson: “Big Brother vs. Little Brother: Updating Orwell’s ‘1984’.”

Debating the Canon: Return to the line in the article about “Jane Eyre” being a “classic” with enduring relevance. Do students find that the novel resonates with them today? Students debate whether “Jane Eyre” should be kept on school reading lists. Related lesson: “No More Moldy Oldies? Appreciating Classic Texts.”

Analyzing Scenes: Students do a close reading of a single scene in the novel and then compare it with how that scene was portrayed in the 2011 film or another movie adaptation. Related lesson: “On the Scene: Analyzing Scenes in Film and Literature.”

Comparing Portrayals: How has Jane Eyre been played and portrayed through time? How have different actresses represented her? How do these portrayals contribute to our impressions of the character? Students look at photos of different Jane Eyres and watch, if possible, at least two movie versions, and write a comparison-contrast essay. Related lesson: “What a Character! Comparing Literary Adaptations.”

Writing Reviews: Half the class writes book reviews of the novel, and the other half writes movie reviews of the 2011 film . They then pair up with partners from the other group and swap reviews for peer response. Related lesson: “Reviews Revealed.”

Looking Through a Feminist Lens: How is it significant that “Jane Eyre” was written by a woman, Charlotte Brontë, who at the time of publication posed as a male writer named Currer Bell ? What “types” of women are represented in the story? Where else in literature, film and popular culture have they seen these types represented? Where else in our culture have women felt the need to seem more masculine to be taken seriously? How much has society changed for women since Brontë’s time? Students write personality profiles of Brontë as well as Jane and the other female characters in the novel, and then hold a discussion forum on these questions. Related lesson: That’s a Different Story? Considering Narratives By and About Women.”

Emulating Brontë: Students write a piece of short fiction in the vein of Charlotte Brontë, imitating her writing style. Related lesson: “Word Trip.”

Going Further | Students write personal essays called “My Jane Eyre,” about a real person they know who embodies aspects of Jane’s character or who has had experiences in which he or she encounters one or more of the same conflicts, challenges and struggles that Jane does in the novel, like balancing the desire to find love with the need to retain personal liberty or participate in the world of a social class to which they themselves do not belong.

Essays should also explain how the person’s outlook on life, interactions with others, dreams and personality correlate with Jane’s, drawing on both the text and their “Jane’s” real life to support their points.

Alternatively, they compare their own lives and outlooks with Jane Eyre’s. In what ways do they connect with her as a person? In what ways does her life and outlook seem foreign?

Standards | This lesson is correlated to McREL’s national standards (it can also be aligned to the new Common Core State Standards ):

Language Arts 1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process. 2. Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing. 3. Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions. 4. Gathers and uses information for research purposes. 5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process. 6. Uses skills and strategies to read a variety of literary texts. 8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes. 9. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media. 10. Understands the characteristics and components of the media.

Arts Connections 1. Understands connections among the various art forms and other disciplines.

Life Skills 1. Contributes to the overall effort of a group. 2. Uses conflict-resolution techniques. 3. Works well with diverse individuals and in diverse situations. 4. Displays effective interpersonal communication skills. 5. Demonstrates leadership skills.

Thinking and Reasoning 1. Understands and applies the basic principles of presenting an argument. 2. Understands and applies basic principles of logic and reasoning. 3. Effectively uses mental processes that are based on identifying similarities and differences.

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didn’t know if you knew of this source for activities.

good source for you in planning.

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Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre: The Most Captivating Love Story of All Time?

About the Author: Charlotte Bronte

Book: jane eyre by charlotte bronte .

• Author: Charlotte Brontë 
• Publisher: Bantam Classics 
• Publication year: 1983-10-1 
• Pages: 492 
• Finishing: Paperback

Excerpts from the original text

Life is too short for me to hold grudges. In this world, everyone must be at fault. But I believe that one day soon, we will get rid of our corrupt bodies and we will get rid of these faults. Fall and sin will leave us with cumbersome flesh and blood, leaving only the spark of spirit. This is the source of life and thought, just as pure as when it left the Creator and gave life to it. Where it came from and where it went, perhaps it sneaked into creatures higher than human beings; perhaps it passed through various levels of glory, first illuminating the pale soul of human beings, and then illuminating the seraphim. —— Quoted from page 56  

Book Summary

Book Review and Analysis

Reason for selling well: Sympathy

Background, class emphasis, nobility, and the poor

Racial Superiority

Religious background, Jane’s religious views 

Characters in literary rhetoric, mirrored roles, dual-corresponding characters, contrasts between bright and dark figures

End, st. john, he or be, spiritual phenomenon of gothic novel style.

Quotes from Jane Eyre with page numbers  

"Do you think that because I am poor, humble, not beautiful, and short, I have no soul and no heart? You are wrong! My soul is the same as yours, and my heart is exactly the same as yours. If God grants My wealth and beauty, I will make it difficult for you to leave me, just as it is difficult for me to leave you now! If God grants me a little beauty and a little wealth, I will make you feel hard to leave me, just like I am hard to leave you now. I am talking to you now, not through customs, conventions, or even through mortal bodies—but my spirit is talking to your spirit; it’s like two of them have passed through the grave, and we are standing in front of God’s feet. Equal-because we are equal!" ——Jane Eyre

Then you are wrong, you don't understand me at all, don't understand the kind of love I can have at all. Every atom in your flesh is as close to me as my own; it is in pain, but it is still close. Your heart is my treasure house, even if it is broken, it is still my treasure house; if you go crazy, it will be my arm instead of the tight-fitting vest that restrains you—let you hold on tightly, even in your When I am angry, I always feel a charm... ——Jane Eyre said to Rochester

When we are beaten for no reason, we should fight back fiercely; I'm sure we should fight back fiercely, to teach the person who beat us, so that he will never dare to beat people like this again. ——Jane Eyre who dares to love and hate

Some people, no matter how I please them or hate me, then I can't help but hate them; some people, give me unfair punishment, then I can't help but resist. This is natural. Just as some people love me, I love them, or when I feel that I deserve to be punished, I will be punished willingly. ——Jane Eyre with clear love and hate. 

Human nature is such that it cannot be perfect! Even on the brightest planet, there will be such black spots; and Miss Sketchel's eyes can only see the small flaws, but can't see the star's radiant light. ——Jane Eyre

In my opinion, life is too short to remember hatred. In the human world, all of us have sinned, and it is impossible not to be so; but I believe that one day, we will be freed from our rotten bodies, and we will be free from these sins, and depravity and sins will follow us. The cumbersome body of flesh and blood leaves us, leaving only the spark of the spirit—the intangible principles of life and thought, as pure as when it left the Creator to give life to all things; where did it come from and where did it go back? ; Maybe it has entered into a higher creature than humans—maybe ascend according to the taste of glory, from the pale human soul to the bright archangel! ——Helen said

Your enemies must love them; those who curse you must bless them; those who hate you and insult you must treat them well. ——Helen quoted from "Bible · New Testament · Luke."  

Even if people all over the world hate you and believe you are bad, as long as you have a clear conscience, you will not be without friends. ——Helen to Jane Eyre.

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Jane Eyre Study Guide

Nevertheless, She Persisted

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To paraphrase Virginia Woolf , modern readers often assume that Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, published in 1847 under the ridiculous pseudonym Currer Bell , will be old-fashioned and difficult to relate to, only to be astonished by a novel that largely feels as fresh and modern today as it did in the 19 th century. Regularly adapted into new films and TV shows and still serving as the touchstone for generations of writers, Jane Eyre is a remarkable novel both in its innovation and in its enduring quality.

Innovation in fiction isn’t always easy to appreciate. When Jane Eyre published it was something remarkable and new, a fresh way of writing in so many ways it was astounding. Closing in on two centuries later, those innovations have been absorbed into the larger literary zeitgeist and to younger readers might not seem so special. Even when people can’t appreciate the historical context of the novel, however, the skill and artistry that Charlotte Brontë brought to the novel makes it a thrilling reading experience.

There are, however, plenty of very good novels from the period that remain eminently readable (for reference, see everything Charles Dickens wrote). What sets Jane Eyre apart is the fact that it’s arguably the Citizen Kane of English-language novels, a work that transformed the art form permanently, a work that supplied many of the techniques and conventions still in use today. At the same time it’s also a powerful love story with a protagonist who is complicated, intelligent, and a pleasure to spend time with. It just also happens to be one of the greatest novels ever written.

For many reasons, it’s important to note that the subtitle of the novel is An Autobiography . The story begins when Jane is an orphan at just ten years old, living with her cousins the Reed Family at the request of her deceased uncle. Mrs. Reed is cruel to Jane, making it clear that she views her as an obligation and allowing her own children to be cruel to Jane, making her life a misery. This culminates in an episode where Jane defends herself from one of Mrs. Reed’s children and is punished by being locked in the room in which her uncle passed away. Terrified, Jane believes she sees her uncle’s ghost and faints from sheer terror.

Jane is attended by the kindly Mr. Lloyd. Jane confesses her misery to him, and he suggests to Mrs. Reed that Jane be sent off to school. Mrs. Reed is happy to be rid of Jane and sends her to the Lowood Institution, a charity school for orphaned and poor young girls. Jane’s escape at first only leads her to more misery, as the school is run by the mean-spirited Mr. Brocklehurst, who embodies the pitiless “charity” often championed by religion. The girls in his charge are treated poorly, sleeping in cold rooms and eating a poor diet with frequent punishments. Mr. Brocklehurst, convinced by Mrs. Reed that Jane is a liar, singles her out for punishment, but Jane makes some friends including fellow classmate Helen and the kind-hearted Miss Temple, who helps clear Jane’s name. After a typhus epidemic leads to the death of Helen, Mr. Brocklehurst’s cruelty is exposed and conditions improve at Lowood. Jane eventually becomes a teacher there.

When Miss Temple leaves to marry, Jane decides it’s time for her to move on as well, and she finds employment as a governess to a young girl at Thornfield Hall, the ward of Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester. Rochester is arrogant, prickly, and often insulting, but Jane stands up to him and the two find that they enjoy each other immensely. Jane experiences several odd, seemingly-supernatural events while at Thornfield, including a mysterious fire in Mr. Rochester’s room.

When Jane learns that her aunt, Mrs. Reed, is dying, she puts aside her anger towards the woman and goes to tend to her. Mrs. Reed confesses on her deathbed that she was worse to Jane than previously suspected, revealing that Jane’s paternal uncle had written asking Jane to come live with him and be his heir, but Mrs. Reed told him Jane was dead.

Returning to Thornfield, Jane and Rochester admit their feelings for each other, and Jane accepts his proposal—but the wedding ends in tragedy when it’s revealed that Rochester is already married. He confesses that his father forced him into an arranged marriage with Bertha Mason for her money, but Bertha suffers from a serious mental condition and has been deteriorating almost from the moment he married her. Rochester has kept Bertha locked up in a room in Thornfield for her own safety, but she occasionally escapes—explaining many of the mysterious events Jane experienced.

Rochester begs Jane to run away with him and live in France, but she refuses, unwilling to compromise her principles. She flees Thornfield with her scant possessions and money, and through a series of misfortunes winds up sleeping out in the open. She is taken in by her distant relative St. John Eyre Rivers, a clergyman, and learns that her uncle John left her a fortune. When St. John proposes marriage (considering it a form of duty), Jane contemplates joining him on missionary work in India, but hears the voice of Rochester calling to her.

Returning to Thornfield, Jane is shocked to find it burned to the ground. She discovers that Bertha escaped her rooms and set the place ablaze; in trying to rescue her, Rochester was badly injured. Jane goes to him, and he is at first convinced she will reject him for his hideous appearance, but Jane assures him she still loves him, and they finally are married.

Major Characters

Jane Eyre:  Jane is the protagonist of the story. An orphan, Jane grows up dealing with adversity and poverty, and becomes a person who values her independence and agency even if it means living a simple, no-frills life. Jane is considered ‛plain’ and yet becomes an object of desire for multiple suitors because of the strength of her personality. Jane can be sharp-tongued and judgmental, but is also curious and eager to re-evaluate situations and people based on new information. Jane has very strong beliefs and values and is willing to suffer in order to maintain them.

Edward Fairfax Rochester:  Jane’s employer at Thornfield Hall and eventually her husband. Mr. Rochester is often described as a “ Byronic Hero ,” so-called after the poet Lord Byron —he is arrogant, withdrawn and often at odds with society, and rebels against the common wisdom and ignores public opinion. He’s a form of antihero, ultimately revealed to be noble despite his rough edges. He and Jane initially spar and dislike each other, but find they are drawn to each other romantically when she proves she can stand up to his personality. Rochester secretly married the wealthy Bertha Mason in his youth due to familial pressure; when she began to exhibit symptoms of congenital madness he locked her up as the proverbial “madwoman in the attic.”

Mrs. Reed:  Jane’s maternal aunt, who takes the orphan in response to her husband’s dying wish. A selfish and mean-spirited woman, she abuses Jane and shows distinct preferment to her own children, and even withholds the news of Jane’s inheritance until she has a deathbed epiphany and shows remorse for her behavior.

Mr. Lloyd:  A kindly apothecary (similar to the modern pharmacist) who is the first person to show Jane kindness. When Jane confesses her depression and unhappiness with the Reeds, he suggests she be sent to school in an effort to get her away from a bad situation.

Mr. Brocklehurst:  The director of Lowood School. A member of the clergy, he justifies his harsh treatment of the young girls under his care via religion, claiming that it is necessary for their education and salvation. He does not apply these principles to himself or his own family, however. His abuses are eventually exposed.

Miss Maria Temple:  The superintendent at Lowood. She is a kind and fair-minded woman who takes her duty to the girls very seriously. She is kind to Jane and has a tremendous influence on her.

Helen Burns: Jane’s friend at Lowood, who eventually dies of the Typhus outbreak at the school. Helen is kind-hearted and refuses to hate even the people who are cruel to her, and has a profound influence on Jane’s belief in God and attitude towards religion.

Bertha Antoinetta Mason: Mr. Rochester’s wife, kept under lock and key at Thornfield Hall due to her insanity. She frequently escapes and does strange things that at first seem almost supernatural. She eventually burns the house to the ground, dying in the flames. After Jane, she is the most-discussed character in the novel because of the rich metaphorical possibilities she represents as the “madwoman in the attic.”

St. John Eyre Rivers: A clergyman and distant relative of Jane’s who takes her in after she flees Thornfield after her wedding to Mr. Rochester ends in chaos when his previous marriage is revealed. He is a good man but emotionless and dedicated solely to his missionary work. He doesn’t so much propose marriage to Jane as declare it to be God’s will that Jane doesn’t have much choice in.

Jane Eyre is a complex novel that touches on many themes:

Independence: Jane Eyre is sometimes described as “ proto-feminist ” novel because Jane is portrayed as a complete personality who has ambitions and principles independent of the men around her. Jane is intelligent and perceptive, fiercely committed to her view of things, and capable of incredible love and affection—but not ruled by these emotions, as she frequently goes against her own desires in service of her intellectual and moral compass. Most importantly, Jane is the master of her life and makes choices for herself, and accepts the consequences. This is contrasted in a neat gender-flip by Mr. Rochester, who entered into a doomed, unhappy marriage because he was ordered to, a role most often played by women at the time (and historically).

Jane persists against tremendous adversity, especially in her younger years, and matures into a thoughtful and caring adult despite the deprivations of her mean-spirited aunt and the cruel, falsely-moral Mr. Brocklehurst. As an adult at Thornfield, Jane is given a chance to have everything she wants by running away with Mr. Rochester, but she chooses not to do so because she firmly believes it is the wrong thing to do.

Jane’s independence and persistence was unusual in a female character at the time of composition, as was the poetic and evocative nature of the intimate POV—the access the reader is given to Jane’s inner monologue and the adherence of the narrative to her limited point of view (we only know what Jane knows, at all times) was innovative and sensational at the time. Most novels of the time remained at a distance from the characters, making our close association with Jane a thrilling novelty. At the same time, being so closely wedded to Jane’s sensibility allows Brontë to control the reader’s reactions and perceptions, as we are only given information once it has been processed through Jane’s beliefs, views, and feelings.

Even when Jane weds Mr. Rochester in what could be seen as the expected and traditional conclusion to the story, she twists expectation by saying “Reader, I married him,” maintaining her status as the protagonist of her own life.

Morality:  Brontë makes clear distinctions between the false morals of people like Mr. Brocklehurst, who abuses and mistreats those less powerful than he is under the guise of charity and religious teaching. There is in fact a deep undercurrent of suspicion about society and its norms throughout the novel; respectable people like the Reeds are in fact awful, legal marriages such as Rochester and Bertha Mason’s (or the one proposed by St. John) are shams; institutions like Lowood that ostensibly demonstrate the good of society and religion are in fact terrible places.

Jane is shown to be the most moral person in the book because she is true to herself, not out of adherence to a set of rules composed by someone else. Jane is offered many chances to take an easier way by betraying her principles; she could have been less combative towards her cousins and curried Mrs. Reed’s favor, she could have worked harder to get along at Lowood, she could have deferred to Mr. Rochester as her employer and not challenged him, she could have run away with him and been happy. Instead, Jane demonstrates true morality throughout the novel by rejecting these compromises and remaining, crucially, true to herself.

Wealth:  The question of wealth is an undercurrent throughout the novel, as Jane is a penniless orphan through most of the story but is in secret a wealthy heiress, while Mr. Rochester is a wealthy man who is quite reduced in every way by the end of the novel—in fact, in some ways their roles reverse over the course of the story.

In the world of Jane Eyre , wealth is not something to be jealous of, but rather a means to an end: Survival. Jane spends large portions of the book struggling to survive due to a lack of money or social standing, and yet Jane is also one of the most content and confident characters in the book. In contrast to the works of Jane Austen (to which Jane Eyre is invariably compared), money and marriage are not seen as practical goals for women, but rather as romantic goals—a very modern attitude that was at the time out of step with the common wisdom.

Spirituality:  There is only one bona-fide supernatural event in the story: When Jane hears Mr. Rochester’s voice towards the end, calling to her. There are other allusions to the supernatural, such as her uncle’s ghost in the Red Room or the events at Thornfield, but these have perfectly rational explanations. However, that voice at the end implies that in the universe of Jane Eyre the supernatural does in fact exist, bringing into question how much of Jane’s experiences along these lines might not have been truly supernatural.

It is impossible to say, but Jane is a character unusually sophisticated in her spiritual self-knowledge. In parallel to Brontë’s themes of morality and religion, Jane is presented as someone very much in touch with and comfortable with her spiritual beliefs whether those beliefs are in step with the church or other outside authorities. Jane has a distinct philosophy and belief system all her own, and shows a great deal of confidence in her own ability to use her wits and experience to understand the world around her. This is something Brontë presents as an ideal—making up your own mind about things rather than simply accepting what you’re told.

Literary Style

Jane Eyre  borrowed  elements of Gothic novels  and poetry that shaped it into a unique narrative. Brontë’s use of the tropes from gothic novels—madness, haunted estates, terrible secrets—gives the story a tragic and ominous overtone that colors every event with a larger-than-life sense. It also serves to give Brontë unprecedented freedom to play with the information given the reader. Early in the story, the Red Room scene leaves the reader with the tantalizing possibility that there  was , in fact, a ghost—which then makes the later happenings at Thornfield seem even more ominous and frightening.

Brontë also uses  pathetic fallacy  to great effect, having the weather often mirror Jane’s inner turmoils or emotional state, and uses fire and ice (or heat and cold) as symbols of freedom and oppression. These are the tools of poetry and had never been used so extensively or effectively in the novel form before. Brontë uses them powerfully in conjunction with the gothic touches to create a fictional universe that is mirrored on reality but seems magical, with heightened emotions and, thus, higher stakes.

This is amplified even more by the intimacy of Jane’s  point of view  (POV). Previous novels had usually hued closely to a realistic depiction of events—the reader could trust what they were told implicitly. Because Jane is our eyes and ears to the story, however, we’re conscious on some level of never really getting  reality , but rather  Jane’s version  of reality. This is a subtle effect that nonetheless has a tremendous impact on the book once we realize that every character description and piece of action is filtered through Jane’s attitudes and perceptions.

Historical Context

It’s essential to keep in mind the original subtitle of the novel ( An Autobiography ) for another reason: The more you examine Charlotte Brontë’s life, the more obvious it becomes that Jane Eyre is very much all about Charlotte.

Charlotte had a long history of an intense inner world; along with her sisters she had created an incredibly complex fantasy world Glass Town , composed of numerous short novels and poems, along with maps and other world-building tools. In her mid-20s she traveled to Brussels to study French, and fell in love with a married man. For years she wrote fiery love letters to the man before seeming to accept that the affair was impossible; Jane Eyre appeared shortly afterwards and can be seen as a fantasy about how that affair might have gone differently.

Charlotte also spent time in the Clergy Daughter’s School, where conditions and treatment of the girls were terrible, and where several student did in fact die of typhoid—including Charlotte’s sister Maria, who was only eleven years old. Charlotte clearly modeled much of the early life of Jane Eyre on her own unhappy experiences, and the character of Helen Burns is often seen as a stand-in for her lost sister. She was also later a governess to a family that she bitterly reported treated her poorly, adding one more piece of what would become Jane Eyre .

More broadly, the Victorian Era had just begun in England. This was a time of intense societal transformation in terms of the economy and technology. A middle class formed for the first time in English history, and the sudden upward mobility open to regular people led to an increased sense of personal agency which can be seen in the character of Jane Eyre, a woman who rises above her station through simple hard work and intelligence. These changes created an atmosphere of instability in society as old ways were changed by the industrial revolution and the growing power of the British Empire worldwide, leading many to question ancient assumptions about the aristocracy, religion, and traditions.

Jane’s attitudes towards Mr. Rochester and other monied characters reflects these changing times; the value of property owners who contributed little to society was being questioned, and Rochester’s marriage to the insane Bertha Mason can be seen as an overt criticism of this “leisure class” and the lengths they went to in order to preserve their status. In contrast, Jane comes from poverty and has only her mind and her spirit through most of the story, and yet ends up triumphant in the end. Along the way Jane experiences many of the worst aspects of the time period, including disease, poor living conditions, the limited opportunities available to women, and the stultifying oppression of a harsh, pitiless religious attitude.

Jane Eyre isn’t famous solely for its themes and plot; it’s also a well-written book with plenty of smart, funny, and touching phrases.

• “By dying young I shall escape great sufferings. I had not qualities or talents to make my way very well in the world: I should have been continually at fault.”
• “’Am I hideous, Jane?’ ‛Very, sir: you always were, you know.’”
• “Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel.”
• “I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, great and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.”
• “I would always rather be happy than dignified.”
• “If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”
• “Flirting is a woman’s trade, one must keep in practice.”
• Individuality and Self-Worth: Feminist Accomplishment in Jane Eyre
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• 'Pride and Prejudice' Summary
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• Biography of Charlotte Brontë
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• Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford
• Biography of Anne Brontë, English Novelist

Accessibility Links

Book review: The Secret History of Jane Eyre: How Charlotte Brontë Wrote Her Masterpiece by John Pfordresher

How charlotte brontë used her own tormented life in writing jane eyre.

T hat Jane Eyre is a novel based on its author’s experience, emotional and sometimes literal, is hardly a “secret”, as the title of this book suggests. The idea that Jane is Charlotte Brontë has a long heritage, and has been explored by biographers ranging from Elizabeth Gaskell in 1857 to modern exponents such as Winifred Gérin, Lyndall Gordon, Juliet Barker and Claire Harman, among others.

Even when the manuscript first landed on the desk of the London publishing firm of Smith, Elder in 1847, the executives there probably suspected that its first-person narrative contained a woman’s intimate revelations, despite the fact that it was sent to them under a male pseudonym from far-off Yorkshire. It was they, and not Charlotte herself, as John Pfordresher implies,

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Strength of character triumphs in Bronte's masterpiece.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Young Jane is sad, hungry, and misunderstood durin

Jane Eyre is a 19th-century gothic romance of the

Jane Eyre possesses such impressive strength of ch

As a young child, Jane is pushed and struck by her

The characters kiss and describe romantic feelings

Since the novel is set in Victorian England, there

Wine, beer, and gin are sometimes consumed -- most

Parents need to know that Charlotte Bronte's classic romantic novel does not contain "mature themes" in the modern sense, but it does require a mature reader to comprehend the characters' complex relationships and inner turmoil, and to take in the troubling events that occur: Children are abused and…

Educational Value

Young Jane is sad, hungry, and misunderstood during the first half of her career at Lowood School, but conditions improve and she dedicates herself to her studies. Her education becomes one of her greatest assets; it is her way out of Lowood, and twice enables her to support herself: first as Adele's governess in Thornfield Hall, and then as a school teacher in Morton.

Positive Messages

Jane Eyre is a 19th-century gothic romance of the highest order, but it's an unconventional one. The message here is that Jane is better off single than with the wrong partner, or a partner who asks her to betray her own conscience. In a cruel world full of chaos and madness, Jane Eyre listens to her mind at least as much as her heart. She always does what she knows is right, and she knows her own worth.

Positive Role Models

Jane Eyre possesses such impressive strength of character -- a powerful sense of her own self-worth and moral fiber, despite the abuse and neglect she suffers in her Aunt Reed's house and at Lowood School. Her opportunities are limited by her finances and by Victorian gender roles, but she is always guided by her own conscience and intelligence, and is one of the strongest female characters in English literature. During her formative years, Jane herself learns from the example set by two friends at Lowood, her classmate Helen Burns, a sickly child but the soul of Christian patience and goodness, and School Superintendent Maria Temple, a firm but kind teacher whom Jane eventually emulates.

Violence & Scariness

As a young child, Jane is pushed and struck by her young cousins, and locked in a dark room as punishment. As an adult at Thornfield Hall, she is asked to nurse Rochester's brother-in-law, Richard Mason, when he is savagely stabbed and bitten by a madwoman -- this is a bloody scene. Fire breaks out at Thornfield Hall twice. The second time, Rochester is wounded and a woman jumps from the roof to her death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

The characters kiss and describe romantic feelings. Rochester speaks of previous adulterous affairs.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Since the novel is set in Victorian England, there are no product names to drop, but the quality or type of the characters' dress is often viewed as indicative of their wealth and station.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Wine, beer, and gin are sometimes consumed -- mostly for medicinal purposes. Rochester also smokes the occasional cigar. After Jane leaves Rochester, she worries about what "opiate" state he may have entered.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Charlotte Bronte's classic romantic novel does not contain "mature themes" in the modern sense, but it does require a mature reader to comprehend the characters' complex relationships and inner turmoil, and to take in the troubling events that occur: Children are abused and neglected; half of the students of Lowood School die of typhus, while the other half are malnourished and cold. Mental illness and adulterous affairs figure in the story, as well.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (33)

Based on 5 parent reviews

It was boring

What's the story.

When the novel begins, Jane Eyre is a 9-year-old orphan who is dependent on a heartless, widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed. Resentful of her late husband's affection for Jane, Mrs. Reed neglects her niece, then sends her to a \"charity school,\" Lowood, where students are raised on strict rules and a poor diet, ostensibly in preparation for a harsh life. In spite of these obstacles, Jane succeeds as a student and then as a teacher, and after nine years, leaves Lowood to serve as governess to Adele, the young ward of Edward Rochester, master of mysterious Thornfield Hall. At 18, Jane gets engaged to the stern and aloof Rochester, and on their wedding day, Jane learns his secret, which leads to her becoming an independent woman.

Is It Any Good?

Charlotte Bronte's classic romantic novel is simply one of the greatest works of English fiction. Jane's independence, fortitude, and intelligence render her one of literature's strongest female characters, and the passionate love between Jane and Rochester is a romance for the ages. Bronte's development of that relationship, set against the mysteries within Thornfield Hall, is peerless.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the moral struggle that Jane faces when she learns Rochester's secret. Why does Jane feel she must leave Thornfield Hall?

Jane Eyre is as an unconventional heroine, a young woman ahead of her time. What makes Jane different from other female main characters in novels of Bronte's era -- from Jane Austen's women, for example? What makes Jane seem old-fashioned, and what makes her timeless?

Book Details

• Author : Charlotte Bronte
• Genre : Romance
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Harper Press
• Publication date : October 16, 1900
• Number of pages : 490
• Last updated : April 23, 2020

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Review of Jane Eyre

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No spoilers in this review of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront ë .

Special thanks to Sarina Byron, a BSR contributor who wrote this great review! Sarina is a British Author and Contributing Writer living in California. Sarina enjoys bringing forth a different perspective and encouraging a different way of thinking through her writing. Visit her blog to read her reviews, and check the end of the review for a link to her Instagram.

*****WARNING: This review contains a spoiler!!!*****

G.H.Lewes described Jane Eyre as “ suspiria de profundis ,” meaning sighs from the depths, concealing even more pain than it reveals.

Charlotte Brontë borrowed heavily from her own life to create Jane Eyre in that there was a boarding school, a career in teaching, a clandestine affair, and a short stint as a governess. Her passions clearly fueled the dullness of her existence because she created a fantastically romantic story using these mundane events, save the affair. Brontë’s depiction of affection and bullying in a boarding school is eerily accurate as she also started her life as an orphan packed off to a boarding school. Being a boarding school product myself, albeit with a family, I can relate to the rigour and discipline often employed to raise capable young ladies. The times of our experiences differed. And mercifully, the experience of losing friends to avoidable diseases is now practically non-existent.

Brontë created meaning where she may have struggled to see any, success in a spot inhabited by failure, and romance where it wasn’t requited. She seemed to inhabit and survive in a world which rarely gave her what she wanted. Yet she crafted a world of her liking and channelled it into her books. One has to wonder if that is what helped her survive her 38 years.

Jane Eyre’s time at Thornfield Hall was a romanticised version of Charlotte Brontë’s own time in Brussels, where she developed a strong affection for her employer. The popular story is the affection was unrequited. But one has to wonder why a woman would continue corresponding with a man who refused to reciprocate her affections. Whatever her equation with her employer in Brussels may have been, Jane’s time at Thornfield Hall most probably heavily borrowed from Charlotte’s feelings and emotions. Those cosy evenings when Jane and Mr. Rochester exchanged views by the fire and those times he exalted her position in his society by including her in parties with his friends may have all been reproductions of real interactions.

Jane Eyre is oftentimes spoken of as a romantic tale, but romance is a small part of this story. It is primarily the life story of a woman who goes from belonging nowhere to finding a family. At all times in history, the worst circumstance is that which belongs to an orphaned child. When the story begins on that note, it is natural that one expects a saviour to show up and end all her troubles. The white knight who would restore her missing confidence and self-esteem, two virtues she never had a chance to build as a child. Mercifully, the book progresses as real life does. Jane does not benefit from any white knight and is forced to employ the only saviour available to her: the one within herself.

Jane suffers several blows until at last she makes a life for herself as a teacher. She suffers as long as she expects someone else to fix her problems. Considering the times, it was quite bold for the author to write of a woman who chose a solitary life and a career as a teacher rather than marry, the sensible option. By stark contrast Diana and Mary, her friends-cum-cousins, lament the loss of an inheritance they assume a right over in hopes it would help them secure good husbands.

I am inclined to praise the masterful manner in which Charlotte Brontë has shown the contrast between different women, their choices, and how those choices made them feel. For a brief moment in time, it seemed like that would be how Jane’s story ends. That she would revel in her independence and new-found freedom and live her days forgetting Thornfield Hall and its ghastly residents. However, closure is the entire point of books. At times, the closure is for the author. At other times, the closure is for the people they have used as inspiration for their books. Maybe authors only write to find closure.

It is my belief that symbolism in books is more a function of the reader than the author. I do not know of many authors who profess to include as much allegory as books are claimed to hold. Those that do often speak of it when promoting their books. It’s a new hobby in today’s world to dig into possible and hidden meanings. When an author writes an honest story, we want to read what is trying to find voice within us. Hence we may make assumptions about what the author was trying to imply or the buried story behind the printed version.

A fantastic example of this is when Charlotte Brontë dedicated the book to William Makepeace Thackeray, whom she admired immensely. This shocked those who knew Thackeray as much as it shocked him. You see, Thackeray kept an ailing wife hidden in his attic, just like Mr. Rochester in the story. Mental illness carried few cures and much shame in those times. Brontë was unaware as to this aspect of Thackeray’s life as she was not acquainted with him. But I suppose there’s something to be said about human instinct.

Speaking of instinct, Jane returns to Thornfield upon hearing Mr. Rochester’s voice calling out to her in a dream. Today’s world is increasingly divided about the existence of human instinct and a sixth sense. We want to hear about “proof” and “evidence” more than a strong gut feeling. In that regard, I find the books of yesteryears rather more “complete” than those of today. They contained the human experience in its entirety and bore no apologies about what may be considered unacceptable.

Perhaps it was the comforting cover of Brontë’s nom de plume, Currer Bell, which allowed her to write this embellished autobiography where she reinvented what needed reinventing and adopted what she wished was hers. The assumed name and gender crumbled swiftly under the weight of her popularity and celebrity, however. The façade also came crashing down as her desire to defend her books and characters grew stronger. After much confusion over which of the books belonged to which author—the other Brontë sisters also published under masculine pseudonyms—the truth of the matter was revealed. For that one moment, Charlotte showed just as much strength as her protagonist, Jane.

One sometimes has to wonder whether Charlotte Brontë took inspiration from Jane Eyre or whether Jane was inspired by Charlotte. It appears that Charlotte was determined to prove a plain looking small girl could achieve as much or even more than imposing women. In all walks of Jane’s life, she wrote an antagonist much stronger and imposing than the protagonist. One can only assume it gave Charlotte much pleasure to lead her heroine on this arduous journey, patiently claiming victory over each person.

If you read nothing in the review above and skip to the bottom, here are the few key takeaways. This is an autobiographical novel, albeit not the only one covering Charlotte Brontë’s life. This is not a love story, at least not in the conventional sense. Instead, it is the journey of Jane Eyre, learning to love herself and discovering how everything falls into place when she finds herself.

Let us know what you think about this review of Jane Eyre and Sarina’s great review in the comments! No spoilers on this page, please!

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"Morality and the Modern Reader: Why 'Jane Eyre' Endures"

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.” — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Analysis of the quote - This quote is from Charlotte Brontë's novel "Jane Eyre" and is spoken by the protagonist, Jane Eyre. The quote reflects Jane's strong sense of individuality and independence. Let's break down the analysis:

"I am no bird": This metaphorical statement suggests that Jane refuses to be confined or limited. Birds are often associated with freedom, and by stating that she is "no bird," Jane emphasizes her desire to break free from any constraints or limitations.

"and no net ensnares me": Continuing the metaphor, Jane asserts that she is not caught in any net. Nets are used to capture and restrict movement, so Jane is declaring her freedom from entrapment or control by external forces.

"I am a free human being with an independent will": This part of the quote is a clear declaration of Jane's autonomy. She asserts her freedom as a human being and highlights the presence of her independent will. Jane sees herself as an individual with the agency to make her own choices.

"which I now exert to leave you": In the context of the novel, this indicates that Jane is using her independent will to leave someone or something behind. It's a statement of self-empowerment and determination to pursue her own path, even if it means separating from someone or something that may have been a part of her life.

In summary, this quote encapsulates Jane Eyre's assertiveness, independence, and determination to control her own destiny. It reflects a theme of self-discovery and the struggle for personal freedom in the face of societal expectations and constraints.

"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë is a classic novel that delves into themes of social class, morality, independence, and the quest for personal identity. The story unfolds through the first-person narrative of its titular character, Jane Eyre, a young orphan who faces adversity and challenges throughout her life.

1. Bildungsroman and Character Development:

The novel can be classified as a bildungsroman, as it follows Jane's growth and development from childhood to adulthood. Her journey is marked by various stages of self-discovery, moral growth, and the assertion of her individuality. The reader witnesses Jane's evolution from a mistreated orphan to a strong and independent woman.

2. Social Critique: "Jane Eyre" provides a critique of the social norms and inequalities of the 19th century. Jane's position as an orphan and governess highlights the limitations placed on women and those of lower social status. The novel challenges conventional expectations of women and explores the consequences of defying societal norms.

3. Romantic Elements: The novel incorporates elements of romance, particularly in Jane's relationship with Mr. Rochester, her employer. The romantic plot is, however, unconventional, featuring a strong-willed and morally principled heroine who insists on equality in her relationships. The obstacles Jane faces contribute to the complexity of the romance, adding depth to the narrative.

4. Gothic Elements: "Jane Eyre" also contains gothic elements, especially in the depiction of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester's estate. The mysterious occurrences and the presence of the enigmatic Bertha Mason contribute to the gothic atmosphere, creating a sense of foreboding and suspense.

5. Morality and Religion: Religious and moral themes permeate the novel. Jane's strong moral convictions guide her actions and decisions, providing a moral compass for the narrative. The novel also engages with questions of morality, duty, and forgiveness, particularly in the face of challenges and betrayals.

6. Feminism and Independence: Jane Eyre is often considered a feminist character. Her refusal to conform to societal expectations, her desire for intellectual and emotional equality, and her determination to maintain her independence contribute to the novel's feminist undertones. Jane's journey is one of self-empowerment, and her choices reflect a feminist perspective for the time in which the novel was written.

3 reasons this is a ‘Classic’ must read

Timeless Themes and Universality:

The novel explores universal themes such as love, morality, independence, and the search for identity. These themes resonate across different cultures and time periods, making the story relatable to readers of various backgrounds.

The exploration of social class, gender roles, and the individual's struggle against societal expectations addresses enduring issues that remain relevant, ensuring the book's timeless appeal.

Complex Characters and Psychological Depth:

Charlotte Brontë created complex and psychologically rich characters, especially in the protagonist, Jane Eyre. Readers are drawn into the inner workings of Jane's mind as she grapples with moral dilemmas, societal constraints, and her own desires.

Characters like Mr. Rochester and Bertha Mason add layers of complexity, making the novel a nuanced exploration of human relationships and the complexities of love.

Innovative Narrative Technique and Style:

"Jane Eyre" was groundbreaking in its use of a first-person narrative from the perspective of a female protagonist. Jane's voice is strong, distinctive, and memorable, providing readers with a unique and intimate connection to the character.

The novel's blend of Gothic elements, social commentary, and a romantic plot defied conventional genre boundaries of its time. Brontë's innovative approach to storytelling has contributed to the enduring influence of "Jane Eyre" in the literary world.

Disclaimer: This content has been generated with the inputs of AI. READ ALSO: Review: 'The Stargazers' by Harriet Evans

READ ALSO: Review: 'An Unfinished Search' by Rashmi Narzary

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