“I liked my name pronounced by your lips in a grateful, happy accent.”
“If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”
Where to begin? Such a beatific journey was to read you through every exotic and exquisite line you have to offer, every single paragraph was an outstanding spot that bestowed such an immense scope for not only imagination, but also for pondering what love is, and moreover, how it can be expressed. Thus, we would not be surprised that its unique constellation of ideas is able to touch the coldest and hardest heart that can be strolling in this mundane world that we call “earth”.
“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.”
Undoubtedly, one powerful reason to give it an opportunity and let it take us and introduce us to its world is that at the beginning of the story, we get to acquaintance her, but I am not speaking of “she” per se, I’m speaking of that wonderful soul that enraptures every single word contented along the pages.
How many times we have had this feeling of loneliness, or not being understood and that no matter how much we try, we do not fit in this world, well, in case you are lucky enough and never have gone through these torments, you are going to be able to feel it in your bones, ought she since very young began to experience how filthy one can be.
In the first stages of her life she has to deal with horrendous people, who in one way or another are always bothering her and making her feel worthless, also if she does not fit in with the rest of the people around her, in other words, her initial “family” treat her like a thing and not as a person.
It’s at this point that one of the major lessons comes, being at ease with oneself. Throughout her childhood she had nobody to rely on, no one to trust, living in this constant mental torment and emotional earthquake, that always were telling her “liar” “useless”, and “there won’t be one human being on the earth who will like you”.
If You have also watched the film, you could have seen that along the plot she has constant “visions” or “memories” remembering her life, her stay at Mrs.Reed’s house, and later on at the —-… For how many people it wouldn’t be relatable this, living in this hell, being attacked and punished by this monster made of memories that can’t be forgotten.
Step by step she learned to overcome because inside those lubricious and somber days, she was able to find herself and to reconcile every single peace that was broken, and once she attained this, she knew who she was.
“No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: ever more absolutely bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.”
We need to understand that this novel was written back in 1847, in a seismic political and social turbulence, in the industrial north of England, therefore, the anxiety expressed by the conservative press about the novel’s demands for personal freedom, its assertion of famished hunger, not only physical, but also intellectual and emotional, and its disputations protagonist’s serial defiance authority. We live in a “different” mindset, nevertheless, here we can set a question, how different is it from then to nowadays? There is neither the slightest surprise that women in those times were treated as if they were an object with the chief purpose of servitude. If we try to look at it through contemporary glances, probably we could appreciate and value the revolution that this novel brought with itself.
This novel not only touches a romantic plot, one woman and one man looking for each other in the middle of the chaos that in dribs and drabs gets over them, absolutely this book goes beyond that. It sets the ground to build and solidify what to be a woman means, and the vital importance that women have for any given society.
One clear example of this is when Mrs. Reed was holding a conversation with Mr. Brocklehurst (The supervisor of Lowood School), and Jane Eyre (as a child) were discussing Jane’s future at Lowood School, and Mrs. Reed by hook or by crook looked for picturing Jane as an intractable person, always looking with a contemptuous glance at her “superiors” asking herself what gave them this superiority. We have faces and names, locations, now we must translate them.
Mrs. Reed is the living representation of that part of women that avoids accepting the place they had for many centuries, trying to spoil the way that history has been moving forward. It could be probably because they felt abashed, or also due to their scared of not knowing what to do after taking this chain off her shoulders, and having this conception (misconception) “I do not know what to do, because a man taught me what to be a woman means” or even worse “If I move away of Mr. Reed’s last name, who am I?” always running around in circles… I daresay that the less favored group in history in one way or another tries to play up to the strongest participant or group, unfortunately not because they really want to get out of their position, but with aim of not “going lower”.
Mr. Brocklehurst will portray the role of that part of history that has always been on the top, receiving all the benefits that come from its “subordinates” in the life narrative. In order to sprawl his dominance and power out over his subalterns, he will try to seduce them at the beginning, sweetening the ear of those who are willing to listen to him, and once he notices that there are other who can’t bear this any longer, he will not other election that shows his real face, thus, becoming into a hypocrite, mean, deceitful and vindictive man, always seeking for make the oppressed group quivered only at his name, even if he is out of the scene. He will behave himself in this way since now he finds his position in a groundless place in the big watch that moves history. Jane Eyre, this “intractable” soul, an unshakable spirit fighting against the philosophy of her time, tries to overthrow the pillars that hold the social structure that bestow a historical narrative to the evolution of the following events. She was a spirit trying to find a way out to escape the time she was in, finding in that lugubrious path different pieces which were like bricks that all entangled forged her primary axis, feminism.
“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”
“Your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still.”
Finally, we come across the inexorable attachment between two souls, two spirits that fight against their chains, trying to get out of the cage that holds them back. It is not about appearances, it’s not being tall or short, and it is not about the frame as well, it’s about what’s inside that frame…. There were so many reasons to stop trying (fusion of two spirits), but love is intense and passionate, love does not even need the human reason, love is that flame inside one’s heart that provides energy and light to keep going when you run up against adverse scenarios, and at first glance, it seems to be worthless to keep on going, but inside yourself, there is something indescribable that gives you that fuel to still trying it, or doing it, that’s love… They finally made it, they loved each other…
“I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal–as we are!”
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