The modern world can offer many temptations for leisure activities. Some go to clubs and discos, others professionally engage in dancing or vocals, some sit at the computer, playing toys. Some people like movies, others like books on which series have been shot. Television and the Internet provide a lot of opportunities to get acquainted with the latest in the world of literature.
Without a doubt, almost every second person watched a movie or read Charlotte Bronte’s book “Jane Air” - this is one of the most famous works. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Carell Bell.
Many readers take the story to heart and involuntarily imagine themselves in the place of the heroine, because the work is written in the first person.
The most famous quotes from Jane Eyre are:
When we are beaten for no reason, we must respond with blow to blow - I am sure of it - and, moreover, with such force to forever wean people to beat us.
Feeling without reason is not too nutritious food; but reason, not softened by feeling, is bitter and dry food and is not suitable for human consumption.
Biography Facts
S. Bronte, when writing the novel, used some facts of her biography:
- an orphan Jane appears before the readers as a ten-year-old girl who lives with her uncle’s wife (Charlotte lost her mother when she was only five years old);
- the aunt sent the heroine to Lovud school, where her friend Jane died of consumption (the two older sisters of the writer died of tuberculosis and consumption, having contracted them in the Cowan Bridge boarding school);
- after finishing the boarding school, and teaching in it, Miss Air leaves to work as a governess (Charlotte did the same).
Quotes from the book "Jane Air" show attitudes toward the poor and views on parenting in the 19th century.
- You dare not take our books; mother says that you live with us out of mercy; you are a beggar, your father left you nothing; you should begging, and not living with us, the gentleman’s children, what we eat and wear dresses that our mother pays for. I will show you how to rummage through books. These are my books! I am the boss here! Or I will be the master in a few years.
This demonstrates the position of wealthy people to the poor. In the modern world, little has changed, agree?
School education
Even in a hostel that exists through donations for impoverished girls and orphans, strict rules reign: deprivation of household goods and meager food is presented as true Christian humility. Although the director himself and his family live in a luxurious mansion.
The very name of the Lovud school (low from English - “low”) speaks of the social status of the students, and the line between the affluent and the poor can be clearly seen in Charlotte Bronte’s book “Jane Eyre” for quotes in English:
- Oh, dear papa, how quiet and plain all the girls at Lowood look, with their hair combed behind their ears, and their long pinafores, and those little holland pockets outside their frocks — they are almost like poor people's children! and ", said she," they looked at my dress and mama's, as if they had never seen a silk gown before.
Daddy, what are all the girls in Lovud simple and quiet - the hair is combed over the ears, the aprons are long and long; and these canvas bags over the dress ... just like the children of the poor. “They looked at me and my mother with all eyes,” my daughter added, “as if they had never seen silk dresses.”
And these are the words of the daughter of the headmaster!
Wealth and luxury for some, dresses of the poor for others.
The role of women in society
Women of that time had few ways to socialize, especially for the daughters of impoverished clergy:
- get married and do household chores;
- to take root in the house of more affluent relatives;
- get an education in a boarding school for girls and work as a governess, companion or teacher at school.
That is exactly what the heroine of the work does. After completing her studies and having worked as a teacher for two years, the girl finds a place as a teacher for the young Frenchwoman Adele Warens in Thornfield Hall.
Thornfield hall
One evening a horseman galloped past Jane, but the horse slipped on a crust of ice and dropped the man. Miss Eyre helped him climb into the saddle and moved on. That was the first meeting with Mr. Rochester.
Living in the house and raising Miss Warrens, Jane Eyre began to notice mysterious things: a strange laugh in the house, a mysterious fire in the room of the owner of the estate (from which Jane rescues Edward by pouring water on him and fire) and an attack on the guest of Mr. Mason's house. All these oddities are attributed to the handmaid Grace Poole.
Spending evenings with the owner, the girl falls in love with the owner, but forbids herself this feeling. Jane Eyre's quote clearly shows her attitude towards unrequited love:
Those women are crazy who allow secret love to break out in their heart - love, which, if it remains unrequited and unknown, will inevitably burn the life that nourished it. And if he is open and finds the answer, he will draw, like a wandering light, into an insidious quagmire, from where there is no return.
Mutually sympathetic, Mr. Rochester proposes to Miss Air.
Preparing for the wedding, Jane saw a strange woman sneaking into her room and tearing the wedding veil in half. As with previous mysterious events, the owner of Thornfield attributes the incident to Grace Poole. During the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and the lawyer declare that Mr. Rochester cannot marry because he is already married to Mr. Mason's sister, Berthe. Mr. Edward admits that this is true, and explains that his father cheated on him by marrying her money. After the marriage, it turned out that Berta quickly fell into madness, and so he locked her up in Thornfield, hiring Grace Poole as a nurse. When Grace gets drunk, Rochester’s wife runs away. She is the culprit of all the strange events in Thornfield.
Public opinion
This is a quote from Jane Eyre when describing a meeting with Berta Mason.
“And what was her face?”
“It seemed terrible and sinister to me, sir.” I have never seen such a face. It was some kind of scary, some kind of wild. I would like to forget forever how she turned her sore eyes, and how strangely puffy, blue-purple her cheeks were.
“The ghosts are usually pale, Jen.”
“That face, sir, was crimson.” His lips were swollen and blackened, his forehead was frowning, and his eyebrows were raised high above his bloodshot eyes. To say that this face reminded me?
- Tell me.
- A vampire from German fairy tales.
She sees a monster in her, comparing her to a vampire. But Jane is not the only one who sees her like that.
A quote from S. Bronte in Jane Air says that 19th-century society demonized and discarded every member who was not suitable for them, and through this description the author wants to draw attention to the social problem.
After the wedding ceremony was interrupted, Mr. Rochester asks the governess of his ward to go with him to the south of France and live with him as husband and wife, even if they cannot be married. Refusing to go against her principles, even despite her love for him, the heroine leaves the house in the middle of the night without telling anyone.
Family meeting
Jane leaves as far from Thornfield as possible. She accidentally leaves her bundle of things on a carriage and is forced to sleep in the swamps. The girl unsuccessfully tries to exchange her scarf and gloves for food. Exhausted and exhausted, the former governess makes her way to the house of Diana and Mary Rivers. Jane falls on the doorstep of the house, and the clergyman St. John Rivers, the brother of Diana and Mary, rescues her. After she recovered, St. John finds Miss Air a teaching position in a nearby rural school.
It turns out that her uncle John Air died and left his niece all her fortune at 20,000 pounds, while depriving her other relatives of Diana, Mary and St. John. Having discovered that she has living and kind relatives, Jane offers to divide the inheritance equally into all.
Thinking that a godly girl would become the missionary's wife, St. John asks her to marry him and go to India with him, not out of love, but out of duty. She rejects the marriage proposal, inviting them to travel like brother and sister. As Jane’s determination to marry St. John begins to weaken, she mystically hears the voice of Mr. Rochester calling her name. The girl returns to Thornfield to find only the blackened ruins. She learns that the wife of Mr. Rochester set fire to the house and committed suicide by jumping from the roof, and when trying to save her, the owner of the estate lost his hand and eyesight.
Since now Mr. Rochester is free from marital obligations, they get married. Soon his vision was restored enough to see their firstborn.