107 (p. 483) a brand snatched from the burning: This is another biblical reference, to Amos 4:11: “And you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning.”
108 (p. 483) no man shall work: The reference is to the Bible, John 9: 4: “The night is coming when no one can work.”
109 (p. 483) Dives ... good things in this life: “Dives” is Latin for “rich.” The reference is to the Bible, Luke 16:19-31, the parable of the rich man: “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented’ ” (verse 25).
110 (p. 483) shall not be taken from you: This is another biblical reference, to Luke 10:42: “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
111 (p. 484) rolled together like a scroll: The reference is to the Bible, Isaiah 34:4: “All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll . . .”
CHAPTER XXXVI
112 (p. 487) the flesh ... is weak: The biblical reference is to Matthew 26:41 and Mark 14:38: “... The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
113 (p. 488) earthquake ... prison: In the Bible, Acts 16:26-29, the apostle Paul and his fellow missionary Silas are freed from imprisonment by an earthquake: “Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken ...”
114 (p. 491) dream: Earlier in the story Jane dreams that Thornfield is in ruins; see p. 328.
CHAPTER XXXVII
115 (p. 499) sightless Samson: In the Bible, Judges 16:21, Samson’s eyes are put out by his enemies.
116 (p. 505) Nebuchadnezzar: In the Bible, Daniel 4:33, Nebuchadnezzar’s hair is described as “grown like eagles’ feathers” and his nails “like birds’ claws.”
117 (p. 507) my tale half told: The allusion is to Scheherazade’s tale in The Arabian Nights.
118 (p. 508) David ... harp: The biblical reference is to 1 Samuel 16: 23: “And so it was, whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him.”
119 (p. 509) the rain is over and gone: The reference is to the Bible, Song of Solomon 2:11: “For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone.”
120 (p. 517) shadow of death: This is another biblical reference, here to Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
121 (p. 518) pondered them in my heart: The reference is to the Bible, Luke 2:19: “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
CHAPTER XXXVIII
122 (p. 521) earthly things: This is a reference to the Bible, Philippians 3:18-19: “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.”
123 (p. 522) flesh of his flesh: In the Bible, Genesis 2:23, Adam says of God’s creation of Eve: “ ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ ”
124 (p. 524) Great-heart and Apollyon: These are characters from Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan (1628-1688). Great-heart is the Christian warrior and protector of Christiana; Apollyon is eventually defeated in the Valley of Humiliation.
125 (p. 524) come after me: In the Bible, in Mark 8:34, Jesus says to his disciples, “ ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’ ” Similar references also appear in Matthew 16:24 and Luke 9:23.
126 (p. 524) throne of God: The reference is to the Bible, Revelation 14:5: “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (KJV).
127 (p. 524) incorruptible crown: This is another biblical reference, here to 1 Corinthians 9:25: “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (KJV).
128 (p. 524) faithful servant: This echoes the Bible, Matthew 25:21: “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ ”
129 (p. 524) Surely I come quickly: In the Bible, the penultimate verse of the New Testament, Revelation 22:20, reads: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen....”
Inspired by Jane Eyre
FILM, TELEVISION, AND STAGE ADAPTATIONS
Charlotte Brontë, in her lush descriptions of Haworth and Thornfield Hall, not to mention Jane’s three mysterious paintings, urges readers to see and feel her heroine’s surroundings. Recognizing this visual quality, director Robert Stevenson brought Jane Eyre to the silver screen in 1944. Jane is played by Joan Fontaine as an insular, pensive, and often silent young woman who is too good for this world, a performance neatly complemented by an intense Orson Welles as a convincingly cryptic and tempestuous Rochester. A very young Elizabeth Taylor appears as Jane’s friend Helen.
Franco Zeffirelli, best known for his ebullient 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, directed a 1996 big-screen adaptation of Jane Eyre. Zeffirelli was faithful to the emotional complexity of Brontë’s characters, casting Charlotte Gainsbourg as a cheerful Jane and William Hurt as an enigmatic Rochester. Filled with shadows and visual broodiness, this film successfully conveys the haunting Gothic sensibility of the novel.
Several adaptations of Brontë’s story have been produced for television. Among them is the BBC’s 1983 miniseries, a captivating costume drama that crackles with passionate performances by Zelah Clarke as Jane and Timothy Dalton (a future James Bond) as Rochester.
Resonating with the emotional vitality of the novel, John Caird and Paul Gordon’s musical adaptation of Jane Eyre premiered on Broadway in December 2000. Gordon’s music, presented in a symphonic structure alternating between male and female solos, is richly melodic, raw, passionate, and ultimately catchy. Five-time Tony Award winner John Napier triumphed with a simple set design, a reduced version of the enormous set used in the original 1996 production in Toronto. Jane Eyre was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
THE LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), a well-known English novelist and writer of short stories, struck up an intimate friendship with Charlotte Brontë that lasted until the latter’s death, in 1855. Upon the urging of Patrick Brontë, Charlotte’s father, Gaskell assumed the task of writing a biography of her friend, largely based on correspondence. Hoping to defend Charlotte against the critics who denounced Jane Eyre as coarse, Gaskell injected her epistolary chronicle with a charming partiality. The book, an indispensable source of information about the Brontës, is also a perceptive, though not entirely accurate, interpretation of Charlotte and her work.
The following excerpt from The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) records Patrick Brontë’s initial reaction to Jane Eyre pages 29-30:
The sisters had kept the knowledge of their literary ventures from their father, fearing to increase their own anxieties and disappointment by witnessing his; for he took an acute interest in all that befell his children, and his own tendency had been towards literature in the days when he was young and hopeful. It was true he did not much manifest his feelings in words; he would have thought that he was prepared for disappointment as the lot of man, and that he could have met it with stoicism; but words are poor and tardy interpreters of feelings to those who love one another, and his daughters knew how he would have borne ill-success worse for them than for himself. So they did not tell him what they were undertaking. He says now that he suspected it all along, but his suspicions could take no exact form, as all he was certain of was
, that his children were perpetually writing—and not writing letters. We have seen how the communications from their publishers were received “under cover to Miss Brontë.” Once, Charlotte told me, they overheard the postman meeting Mr. Brontë, as the latter was leaving the house, and inquiring from the parson where one Currer Bell could be living, to which Mr. Brontë replied that there was no such person in the parish. This must have been the misadventure to which Miss Brontë alludes in the beginning of her correspondence with Mr. Aylott.
Now, however, when the demand for the work had assured success to Jane Eyre, her sisters urged Charlotte to tell their father of its publication. She accordingly went into his study one afternoon after his early dinner, carrying with her a copy of the book, and one or two reviews, taking care to include a notice adverse to it.
She informed me that something like the following conversation took place between her and him. (I wrote down her words the day after I heard them; and I am pretty sure they are quite accurate.)
“Papa, I’ve been writing a book.”
“Have you, my dear?”
“Yes, and I want you to read it.”
“I am afraid it will try my eyes too much.”
“But it is not in manuscript: it is printed.”
“My dear! you’ve never thought of the expense it will be! It will be almost sure to be a loss, for how can you get a book sold? No one knows you or your name.”
“But, papa, I don’t think it will be a loss; no more will you, if you will just let me read you a review or two, and tell you more about it.”
So she sat down and read some of the reviews to her father; and then, giving him the copy of Jane Eyre that she intended for him, she left him to read it. When he came in to tea, he said, “Girls, do you know Charlotte has been writing a book, and it is much better than likely?”
But while the existence of Currer Bell was like a game to the quiet inhabitants of Haworth Parsonage, whose only excitement was caring for their infirm brother Branwell, the reading-world of England was in a ferment to discover the unknown author. Even the publishers of Jane Eyre were ignorant as to whether Currer Bell was a real or assumed name, whether it belonged to a man or a woman.
THE WIDE SARGASSO SEA
In 1966, after a lull in her career, West Indies-born novelist Jean Rhys astounded critics with her Wide Sargasso Sea, conceived as a prelude to Jane Eyre and written from a postcolonial perspective.
Set amid the sultry landscape of 1830s Jamaica just after the emancipation of the slaves there, Rhys’s novel is the story of Brontë’s Bertha Mason, Rochester’s mysterious first wife, the madwoman locked in the attic at Thornfield. Giving her the name Antoinette Cosway, Rhys describes this Creole heiress as a woman straddling two cultures while belonging to neither. Antoinette is married off to Rochester for her money and ferried to England, only to be incarcerated at Thornfield. In Rhys’s telling, upon the dissolution of his relationship with Antoinette, Rochester gives her the name Bertha.
Published when Rhys was seventy-six, Wide Sargasso Sea was an enormously popular and critical success, hailed as the author’s most important work. While it triumphs as a sumptuous, original novel in its own right, the book adds a dark and beautiful dimension to Brontë’s seminal work. Wide Sargasso Sea inspired a film adaptation in 1993.
Comments & Questions
In this section, we aim to provide the reader with an array of perspectives on the text, as well as questions which challenge those perspectives. The commentary has been culled from sources as diverse as reviews contemporaneous with the work, letters written by the author, literary criticism of later generations, and appreciations written throughout history. Following the commentary, a series of questions seeks to filter Jane Eyre through a variety of voices and bring about a richer understanding of this enduring work.
COMMENTS
William Makepeace Thackeray
I wish you had not sent me Jane Eyre. It interested me so much that I have lost (or won if you like) a whole day in reading it at the busiest period, with the printers I know waiting for copy. Who the author can be I can’t guess, if a woman she knows her language better than most ladies do, or has had a “classical” education. It is a fine book though, the man and woman capital, the style very generous and upright so to speak. I thought it was Kinglake for some time. The plot of the story is one with which I am familiar. Some of the love passages made me cry, to the astonishment of John who came in with the coals. St. John the Missionary is a failure I think but a good failure, there are parts excellent. I don’t know why I tell you this but that I have been exceedingly moved and pleased by Jane Eyre. It is a woman’s writing, but whose? Give my respects and thanks to the author, whose novel is the first English one (and the French are only romances now) that I’ve been able to read for many a day.
—from a letter to
W. S. Williams (October 23, 1847)
Charlotte Brontë
Your letter reached me yesterday; I beg to assure you that I appreciate fully the intention with which it was written, and I thank you sincerely both for its cheering commendation and valuable advice.
You warn me to beware of Melodrame and you exhort me to adhere to the real. When I first began to write, so impressed was I with the truth of the principles you advocate that I determined to take Nature and Truth as my sole guides and to follow in their very footprints; I restrained imagination, eschewed romance, repressed excitement: over-bright colouring too I avoided, and sought to produce something which should be soft, grave and true.
My work (a tale in I vol.) being completed, I offered it to a publisher. He said it was original, faithful to Nature, but he did not feel warranted in accepting it, such a work would not sell. I tried six publishers in succession; they all told me it was deficient in ‘startling incident’ and ‘thrilling excitement,’ that it would never suit the circulating libraries, and as it was on those libraries the success of works of fiction mainly depended they could not undertake to publish what would be overlooked there—’Jane Eyre’ was rather objected to at first [on] the same grounds—but finally found acceptance.
I mention this to you, not with a view of pleading exemption from censure, but in order to direct your attention to the root of certain literary evils—if in your forthcoming article in ‘Frazer’ you would bestow a few words of enlightenment on the public who support the circulating libraries, you might, with your powers, do some good.
You advise me too, not to stray far from the ground of experience as I become weak when I enter the region of fiction; and you say ‘real experience is perennially interesting and to all men.’
I feel that this also is true, but, dear Sir, is not the real experience of each individual very limited? and if a writer dwells upon that solely or principally is he not in danger of repeating himself, and also of becoming an egotist?
Then too, Imagination is a strong, restless faculty which claims to be heard and exercised, are we to be quite deaf to her cry and insensate to her struggles? When she shews us bright pictures are we never to look at them and try to reproduce them?—And when she is eloquent and speaks rapidly and urgently in our ear are we not to write to her dictation? I shall anxiously search the next number of ‘Frazer’ for your opinion on these points.
Believe me, dear Sir,
Yours gratefully
C Bell
—from a letter to G. H. Lewes
(November 6, 1847)
G. H. Lewes
After laughing over the Bachelor of the Albany, we wept over Jane Eyre. This, indeed, is a book after our own heart; and, if its merits have not forced it into notice by the time this paper comes before our readers, let us, in all earnestness, bid them lose not a day in sending for it. The writer is evidently a woman, and, unless we are deceived, new in the world of literature. But, man or woman, young or old, be that as it may, no such book has gladdened our eyes for a long while. Almost all that we require in a novelist she has: perception of character, and power of d
elineating it; picturesqueness; passion; and knowledge of life. The story is not only of singular interest, naturally evolved, unflagging to the last, but it fastens itself upon your attention, and will not leave you. The book closed, the enchantment continues... Reality—deep, significant reality—is the great characteristic of the book. It is an autobiography,—not, perhaps, in the naked facts and circumstances, but in the actual suffering and experience... This gives the book its charm: it is soul speaking to soul; it is an utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit: suspiria de profundis!
—from Fraser’s Magazine (December 1847)
Charlotte Brontë
I trust your firm will not lose by the 3rd edition of ‘Jane Eyre’ what has been made by the first, but I must say I think you enterprising to run the risk; however you have all along been the reverse of timid in the business. Success to the fearless!
It is very kind and right in you to answer ‘Currer Bell’ to all queries respecting the authorship of ‘Jane Eyre’: that is the only name I wish to have mentioned in connection with my writings ‘Currer Bell’ only—I am and will be to the Public; if accident or design should deprive me of that name, I should deem it a misfortune—a very great one; mental tranquillity would then be gone; it would be a task to write—a task which I doubt whether I could continue. If I were known—I should ever be conscious in writing that my book must be read by ordinary acquaintances—and that idea would fetter me intolerably.
—from a letter to
William Smith Williams (April 20, 1848)
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