I read Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre". It took but a week for me to devour the entire three-volume book. I have a penchant for devouring huge books when the story consumes me. Of course, I was only prompted to read the book after having seen Cary Fukunaga's adaptation onscreen. Admittedly feeling rather guilty of ignorance I should have read Charlotte's story prior to seeing the film - but as per usual, blame it on eagerness if you will and also impatience I launched myself off to the cinema first! Nevertheless, I can now safely say I have read the original story of its entirety and appreciated every word, every sentence, every chapter - everything.
The book of course it goes without saying surpasses the film in quality. Where else does the film's inspiration and origin derive but through Charlotte's intricately woven tale of romance and mystery. It was truly a remarkable book. There were a lot of scenes that were omitted from Fukunaga's screen adaptation, but I believe it would have been due mostly to fierce editing (various deleted scenes have found themselves on YouTube to which match various poignant parts of the story).
What entranced me most was the way Charlotte constructed her sentences and placed her ideas on the page. No one writes like this any more. It's very interesting to see how in books and various literature, the English language has evolved. Stories that were written in the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries all have their own significant stamp. You can read a story that was written in 1847 for example and be able to pinpoint that era in time through the use of language. It is not wildly departed from how we speak today, however it is a great deal more formal and in some ways, more descriptive.
For example, Charlotte captures that deep sense of longing and anxiety that manifests itself in a strange sense of foreboding when Jane Eyre waits eagerly for Mr. Rochester to return from his business at his other estates:
"A puerile tear dimmed my eye while I looked - a tear of disappointment and impatience; ashamed of it, I wiped it away. I lingered; the moon shut herself wholly within her chamber, and drew close her curtain of dense cloud: the night grew dark; rain came driving fast on the gale."
" 'I wish he would come! I wish he would come!'I exclaimed, seized with hypochondriac foreboding."
Page 364, Chapter 10, Vol II
"Jane Eyre" ~Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte is a word-smith and her book is filled with beautiful paragraphs that describe human emotions through multiple layers. You get a real sense of the character of Jane and you understand why she behaves the way she does, or what motivates her to act in certain ways.
Another aspect the book delves more deeply into is the character of Rochester. He is quite complex and has very many layers. Fukunaga with the brilliant casting of Michael Fassbender achieved this on film - however, through the novel you are able to capture more the man himself and better understand why he is so tormented.
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| Charlotte Bronte |
The ending to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a happy one - but unlike the Fukunaga's film that finishes so abruptly, you gain a sense of what happens in the future and you get a summary of how each poignant character's life unfolds after the tale has ended. The reunion between Jane and Rochester is more touching and is far deeply moving than that of the film - although, Fassbender and Wasikowska were quite stunning together at the end that it did move me to tears. It would have been nice if Fukunaga was able to adapt the original conclusion of the story to his film - although it would have admittedly been a far more drawn out affair. At least you would have been able to experience Rochester's deep longing for Jane at a far more emotional level.
"'I am no better than the old lightning-struck chestnut-tree in Thornfield orchard,'he remarked ere long. 'And what right would that ruin have to bid a budding woodbine cover its decay with freshness?'
'You are no ruin, sir - no lightning-struck tree: you are green and vigorous. Plants will grow about your roots, whether you ask them or not, because they take delight in your bountiful shadow; and as they grow they will lean towards you, and wind round you, because your strength offers them so safe a prop.'"
Page 581, Chapter 11, Volume III
"Jane Eyre" ~ Charlotte Bronte
If you have not already, I urge you to read this incredible tale. The themes carry on as if they were relevant today. Charlotte does not write like a "lady" rather, it is quite a confronting story with parts at the beginning so vivid and real that it makes you wonder if not in fact she writes an autobiography as opposed to something of fiction. In 1847 it was probably not kosher for ladies to write of such confronting things - nevertheless write at all, Charlotte had submitted her manuscript under the pseudonym of Currer Bell. This novel having been dedicated to William Makepeace Thakery, to which I believe held a great deal of influence on her style of writing - if you read his "Vanity Fair" the language and the themes and the very nature of the story and how events are depicted, so real and vivid, and without any "gloss", you can draw comparisons to the way in which Charlotte Bronte, too writes. They both have similar writing styles.
Indeed, recollections of Jane Eyre's experience in boarding school are derived from Charlotte Bronte's older sister's experiences at their respective schools - both having died of Tuberculosis due to poor hygiene and living conditions. Charlotte was too for a time a governess. I wonder if many happenings in the story did not indeed happen in real life - or are exaggerated and fantastical versions of events that may have happened if not directly to Charlotte but to any acquaintances. The idea and very notion that a governess and her Master fall in love and marry, in that time was quite fantastical. Society and wealth was still paramount when making the decision to marry. I think you could almost compare that type of social stigma to say for example, a President or Prime Minister of a Country falling for their personal assistant or live-in maid in the 21st Century. Although, today of course, society is a lot more accommodating than in the 1840's. Nevertheless, the story of "Jane Eyre" is very feminist in that its protagonist is free-thinking, opinionated and above all else, independent - she paves her own way and establishes herself without aid of a male counterpart. To which, really, Charlotte has made her protagonist equal to her male love-interest. Something I believe would have been not scandalous, but quite a different way of thinking back then. Females forever subordinate to Males, it would be unheard of for a woman to establish herself independently without the aid of a man. Had she submitted that manuscript as a woman she would not have been published - however as a man, such words and phrases constructed with vigour, strength and assertiveness was acceptable.
I could go on for days dissecting this novel and its author. However, for the sake of this blog I will conclude here. "Jane Eyre" should be on everyone's list of literature to read before they die. Having read this story it has sparked a keen interest in me to read more classic literature. So many people have come and gone before us, we ought to take pleasure and appreciate the things they have left behind - even if it is through reading words on a page that they constructed some hundred to two hundred years before, or longer...
