Jane Eyre Review

Summary

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is the life story of a young woman who lives in the 1900th century. The novel is an autobiography on its protagonist, the orphan girl Jane Eyre, who records her personal and spiritual development and hardships she had experienced in her constant struggle against adversity.

As her name already tells us, Jane was quite a plain looking and common girl, referring to the title “plain Jane”, which is often given to plain and uninteresting girls. This title suited her as she was skinny, short and very pale. People usually referred to her as a not so pretty, fragile girl when they spoke of her outer appearances.

Her character though, proofs itself to be anything but fragile and breakable. When Jane still lives by her aunt she endures any kind of treatment silently for nine years, but in the tenth she suddenly breaks out and rebels against the wrong that had been done to her. Her character resembles a lot that of a rebel. Throughout her life she could not stand tranquility and silent resignation. She is an independent girl with a strong sense of awareness of her own rights. Her school life turns her into a religious person but does not change her. She, having been a girl who refused to repent for being a liar, which she was falsely accused of being, is still the same girl after her education but her trust in God is strengthened and she is wiser.

Jane Eyre's parents had died from typhus when she was one year old. Her parents had both been very poor even though Jane's mother was the daughter of Mr. Reeds, who was a very rich man. This all changed when she decided to marry a poor clergyman which outraged her father and, out of anger, he banned her from the family, leaving her no money or support. At her and her husbands death her brother John Reed adopts Jane Eyre and, to the disgust of his own wife, treats her like his own child.

Within a year of adopting her, he falls ill and dies. At his deathbed he often would have her called to his side which greatly annoyed his wife. When he died he made her promise to raise her as a child of her own. A promise which Mrs. Reed could never fulfill because of her deep rooted and stubborn repulsion for the child. She had three children of her own: John, Eliza and Georgiana, whom she had taught to dislike and mistreat Jane. Whenever they bully or menace her she would leave it unnoticed and if Jane dares to defend herself she would get brutally beaten and insulted. Her cousins often called her names and gave her the title of a servant. When she tries to impress them or anyone in the house she would get accused of being deceitful and naughty. Her attempts to make others love her always fail and she begins to doubt in herself and if she was worthy of love. Being very young and never having experienced justice before, she starts wondering if its her own ineptitude which prevents her from pleasing