PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Intro
There’s nothing more noteworthy about a story than it’s timelessness and how much the audience can relate to the story. Recently, I have found myself with a book in my hands that has both of these characteristics.Though, maybe having a main character being similar in age to me makes me a little biased when I say that the situations the characters face in the plot are not only relatable, but also realistic. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is 411 pages of emotion and portrayal.
Summary
The story starts off with a young girl named Jane Eyre, who happens to be living at her Uncle and Aunts house. She was brought here at a very young age by her Uncle after her parents died. Soon after she was brought to the house her Uncle died and his dying wish was to have his wife treat Jane like one of his own. Jane's Aunt did not fulfill the wish and treated Jane badly.
The only one in the house who is nice to her is the servant Bessie who suggests that Jane goes to school. Jane then heads off to a new schools for orphans and devotes herself to her studies, graduates from the school, then becomes a teacher at the same school. Jane gets bored of her teacher job and seeks out a new one. She soon gets hired and heads off to a place called Thornfield. When Jane arrives she finds out her employer is a man named Mr. Rochester and that she will be teaching an 8 year old french girl. She finds comfort in her new home and goes and my exciting adventures while there.
About Jane Eyre
Author: The author of Jane Eyre is Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855). She had also written the books “Shirley” and “Villette”. In the 1840s in England, women were not supposed to be writers, so she used the pen name Currer Bell when she first published Jane Eyre.
Genre: There are three main genres of Jane Eyre: Fiction, Romance, and Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age.
Characters:
Jane Eyre: Jane is the narrator and protagonist of the novel. She has a lot of that is tested throughout the book.
Mrs. Reed: She is Jane’s aunt who adopts her and raises her. She is mean and cruel towards Jane.
Bessie Lee: Bessie is the maid at Jane’s childhood home. She is one of the only people in Jane’s childhood who was kind to her.
Edward Rochester: He is the wealthy master of Thornfield, the estate where Jane works.
Adele: The eight year old french girl Jane teaches at Thornfield
There are more characters but they would spoil the story!!
Themes: Freedom vs Love is the main theme of the book
Main Ideas: Jane had to overcome a lot of challenges to get what she wants
Quotes: “I would always rather be happy than dignified.”
“Flirting is a woman’s trade, one must keep in practice.”
“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.”
“Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.”
It’s hard to find a lot to criticize a book loved by millions. The first thing that made it hard to process was the vocabulary. The story was originally published in 1846. Though Jane Eyre has many editions and went through numerous changes the Old English stayed ever present throughout the book. As a young person who’s used to internet slang and modern dystopian novels, it was hard adjustment to read a book with vocabulary and grammar I wasn't used to.
Although the style of writing wasn’t familiar, the emotional circumstances were. While reading the book I felt myself sympathize with Jane. The author made her situations very relatable and realistic even 100 years later. Losing a loved one for example is something everyone has experienced. Charlotte Brontë brilliantly made this and similar conflicts believeable.
One of the best things about the story was the heroine. Jane easily takes the cake as one of my favorite characters. Her brutally honest judgement and sarcasm had me laughing on one page and crying the next. The first person point of view was a nice change from other classic novels. Charlotte Brontë did a fantastic job of making themes such as Love vs. War, clear and sophisticated through a young girls point of view.
“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.”-Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre By: Charlotte Brontë
Publisher: Smith, Elder and Co.
ISBN: 9781582790749[=-
