Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Guide, Progetti e Ricerche di Letteratura Inglese

Scarica Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte e più Guide, Progetti e Ricerche in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! Jane Eyre 1816: CHARLOTTE BRONTE, third child of Patrick and Maria Bronte, born at Thornton (Yorkshire). She was the third of six children. Four years after her birth, the Bronte family move to Harworth, where the father became Perpetual Curate. 1820: Mrs. Bronte died and her sister, Elizabeth Branwell, came to the household to take care of the children. 1824: Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily were sent to a boarding school for daughters of the clergy (later to be fictionalized as ‘Lowood’ in Jane Eyre). A year later Maria and Elizabeth died from tuberculosis. Charlotte and Emily were removed from that school. For the next six years they were educated at home. They were inspired by a box of toy soldiers belonging to their brother, they began to construct the imaginary world of ‘Glass Town’ and writing it in dozens of microscopically printed ‘books’. 1831: Charlotte went as a pupil to Miss Wooler’s Roe Head School for young ladies. A year later she left the school and for the next three years she remained at home instructing her sisters and assisting in running the household. From 1835-8: Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a teacher. 1842: After working for a period as private governess, Charlotte and her sister, Emily, went to study languages at the Pensionnat Heger in Brussels, returning here as a teacher in 1843. 1845: Charlotte read Emily’s poems and persuaded her two sisters to compile a join selection of their poetry for publication. Emily and Anne agreed, on the conditions that pseudonyms were used to protect their identity: the gender ambiguous names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell were selected. The following year ‘Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton’ was published at the sisters’ own expense. 1847: ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte (Currer Bell) was published and it reached an immediate success. 1848: Branwell Bronte died, probably of tuberculosis, and a couple of months later Emily died of the same illness. 1849: Anne died of tuberculosis. ‘Shirley’ was published. 1853: ‘Villette’ was published, still pseudonymously. A year later Charlotte married her father’s curate, Arthur Nicholls even if Charlotte’s father was opposed to this marriage 1855: Charlotte died at Haworth, at the age of 38, from complications during the early stages of pregnancy. PLOT Jane Eyre is the story of a young, orphaned girl with lives with her aunt and cousins, the Reeds, at Gateshead Hall. Mrs. Reed hates Jane and allows her son John to torment the girl. Even the servants are constantly reminding her that she is poor and worthless. After a fight with John Reed, she is punished and locked in the ‘Red Room’, the bedroom where her uncle died. Here she has a fit, fearing the apparition of her uncle’s ghost. Jane is sent to a religious boarding school for orphans, Lowood Institute. Here, dispatched to a starvation diet in the charge of a hypocritical minister, Jane finds a sympathetic teacher, Miss Temple, and a special friend, Helen Burns, who dies in her arms of tuberculosis. At Lowood she becomes an excellent student, remaining here until she is eighteen. After leaving Lowood Jane Eyre moves to Thornfield, where she will work as the governess and tutor of Adele. As soon as she arrives at Thornfield she is welcomed by the housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax, who explains her that the owner of the property is the mysterious Mr. Rochester, also Adele’s guardian. When Jane and Mr. Rochester meet, they become immediately interested in each other. Their attraction is based on their intellectual communion. Jane and Rochester have fascinating conversations and everything seems going well until Rochester invites a bunch of his friends to stay at Thornfield, including the beautiful Blanche Ingram. Rochester lets Blanche flirt with him, instigating Jane’s jealousy. During the weeks-long house party, a man named Richard Mason shows up and Rochester seems afraid of it. • Education is another important theme in the novel, for the reason that Jane's life revolves around education: first at Gateshead, where her choice of reading material is used to symbolise her emotions; then at Lowood, where she is taught both academically and personally; subsequently, at Thornfield, she learns a great deal about her own emotions and also about society; and finally in Morton, where she learns languages with Diana, Mary and St. John Rivers, in addition to gaining independence and autonomy as the teacher at Morton school. In Jane Eyre education provides the only route for someone who isn’t independently wealthy to improve character and prospects—it allows social mobility. The education provided is mostly aesthetic; characters learn music, arts and foreign languages. Education is also a safe heaven, something that provides emotional satisfaction against the hardships of the world. • Colonialism and Gender: Charlotte Bronte’s novel engages the subject of colonialism in a number of ways. ▲ Rochester’s mad wife, Bertha Mason, is half Creole, the daughter of a West Indian planter whom Rochester marries in Jamaica. ▲ Jane Eyre obtains her fortune through her uncle, John Eyre, an agent in Madeira (Ghana), implicated in slave trade ▲ Jane’s cousin, St John River, tries to persuade Jane to come with him in India as a missionary and his wife The novel also speaks of slavery and revolt, submission and rebellion, imprisonment and liberation, the struggle for justice; its moving emotion is rage and its temper is hot. When, for example, the child Jane retaliates against John Reeds in terms drawn from the slave-revolts of Ancient Rome and of the modern world, ‘Wicked and cruel boy!...You are like a slave-driver – you are like the roman emperors!’ or at the beginning of chapter 2 ‘I resisted all the way…like any other rebel slave.’ MOTIFS Fire vs. Ice: Binary opposites are quite dominant in Jane Eyre. This binary permeates the novel from the very beginning to the end. FIRE (positive) is associated with: -Jane Fire represents Jane’s passions, emotions and spirit -Rochester Rochester, like Jane, is passionate. (Chapter XXV ‘strange fire in his look’ – Chapter XXVI ‘flashing and flaming eyes’). Although the fire also blinds Rochester, this incident helps Jane see that he is now dependent on her and erases any misgivings she may have about inequality in their marriage. -Bertha Bertha represents the danger in “playing with fire”, as fire imaginary is used to represent jealousy, destruction, anger as when Bertha sets fire to Mr. Rochester’s bed curtains and then to Thornfield Manor. Nevertheless, the first of Bertha’s fires brings Jane and Mr. Rochester into a more intimate relationship, while the second destroys Thornfield and leads to Bertha's death, thus liberating Rochester from his shackled past. -Mrs. Fairfax there is a warm, inviting fire in Mrs. Fairfax’s room when Jane arrives at Thornfield. ICE (negative, destructive, hateful) is associated with: -Mrs. Reed She is emotionally distant and cold towards Jane, in the earlier parts of the novel Jane describes her gaze as being ‘freezing fixed’ -Mr. Brocklehurst Described as being ‘black marble’, he is cold and oppressive towards the pupils of Lowood. -St. John River St. John is associated with cold and lifeless objects, as when Jane first meets him and defining him a ‘statue’ – beautiful, but extremely cold. Few chapters on Jane describes St. John as an ‘automaton’, suggesting that he is still, detached and lacking of human emotions. -Images of ice and cold, often appearing in association with barren landscapes or seascapes, symbolize emotional desolation, loneliness, or even death. The “death- white realms” of the arctic described in History of British Birds parallel Jane’s physical and spiritual isolation at Gateshead. After the interrupted wedding to Rochester, Jane describes her state of mind: (“A Christmas frost had come at mid- summer” …” My hopes were all dead…” Chapter 26). THE GOTHIC Charlotte Bronte uses many elements of the Gothic literary tradition to create a sense of suspense and tension in the reader. • THE RED ROOM (Gateshead) Ch. II, p. 16-22 ▲ After hitting John Reed, Jane is punished and sent to the Red Room, the room where her uncle nine years before had died. ▲ For Jane this room represents fear, death, terror. It is a position of exile and imprisonment; an obstacle to her freedom and happiness which will be a Leitmotif in many episodes in her life. (Every time she’s humiliated at Lowood, when she escapes from Thornfield). ▲ As child she exaggerates things making it worse than they are, mixing reality and fantasy together. ▲ It is only when Jane faints that she is released from terror. • THORNFIELD ARRIVAL (Ch. XI, p. 111-113-116-125-126) ▲ Mysterious atmosphere surrounding Thornfield ▲ Thornfield is presented as a gothic mansion ▲ At the end of the chapter Bertha Mason’s laugh, her first appearance. • JANE WALKING IN THE COUNTRY (before her encounter with Rochester) (Ch. XII, p. 131) • ROCHESTER FIRST APPEARANCE (Ch. XII) ▲ So far Rochester is unknown, and for four months there was no sign of him ▲ When they first meet Rochester doesn’t reveal his identity ▲ His features are described as being dark (mysterious) ▲ Rochester’s horse reminds Jane a spirit which populated some Bessie’s tales. • BERTHA’S OUTBURST (Ch. XV) ▲ Before Jane is going to sleep, she hears a “demonic laugh” (p.173). First appearance of Bertha Mason ▲ Bertha sets Rochester’s bed on fire, in the attempt to kill him, Jane puts out the fire and saves Rochester once again ▲ ‘Strange fire’ In Rochester’s look; then he goes to the third floor. ▲ The fire foreshadows the destruction of Thornfield which happens towards the end of the novel ▲ The fire symbolizes a lot of things, such as passion, destruction or loss of control