Jane Eyre Introd. and Chaps I-X: Girl’s Education – duty and self-denial or a pursuit of liberty and knowledge

Outline Review: 1) Social Background; 2) Brontë Sisters Introduction: Jane Eyre and CB’s Life Chaps 1-4: Jane’s Social Position vs. Her Cousins’ Chaps 5-10: Jane’s Education vs. Helen Burns’ and The Roles of Nature

Victorian Society: Women’s Positions Contradictions between social prosperity and social problems Women – angel in the house vs. fallen women Causes: -- strict division of jobs  women seen as men’s property -- women not educated  women physically and mentally unfit for serious intellectual pursuits.

Victorian Society (2) Women’s Education At home, taught by mothers or governesses boarding schools Jane  charity schools (X: 80) A lady’s education (3) Marriage and Inheritance

Traces of Jane Eyre in Charlotte Bronte’s Life Jane EyreReal Life Rochester and Bertha --A governess married a gentleman who had an insane wife -- a home said to have an upper-floor room with padded walls, where an insane mistress was confined until her death in a fire. Helen Burns Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey in her religious piety. Lowood Institution Clergy Daughter's School, where an epidemic broke out Rochester's blindness Charlotte’s father, whom Charlotte took care of. "Overview: Jane Eyre." Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them. Joyce Moss and George Wilson. Vol. 2: Civil Wars to Frontier Societies ( s). Detroit: Gale, Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Oct

2) The Brontë Sisters The Bronte Sisters (feature film)– Literary Aspiration in their lonely and drab lives. 4:32—the painting, and Emily and Ann out in nature (rose vs. holy bush) 14:00—letter from Southey 1:10 – Emily’s poems  1:16 publication of their novels 1:38 –illness and death of Emily 1:50 – Charlotte at the concert hall Documentary: In search of the Brontes Part 1 - 1/6 The Death Of Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre Similarities Bleak and gloomy natural environment Heathcliff and Rochester as Byronic Heroes + Villains Catherine’s (of two generations) and Jane Eyre experience domestication Differences Wuthering Heights – “wildness” presented as ghosts and in landscape Jane Eyre – Bertha dead, and the protagonists tamed.

Jane Eyre Gateshead Hall 5-10– Lowood Institution Thornfield Hall (21—back to Mrs. Reed) – Leaving Thornfield  Moor House at Marsh End  (back to Thornfield  37 Ferndean Manor)

Locations Haddon Hall (2011) ‘The Rydings' – Ellen Nussey's early home; The manor house that inspired Brontë’s creation of Thornfield Hall. From Jane Eyre, vol. 1 (1905).

Filmic Adaptations 1944, 1983, 1996, 1997 and 2006– Rochester’s performances ranked herehere 5 th : Film directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring William Hurt as Mr Rochester, Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane, 4 th : TV adaptation directed by Robert Young and starring Laura Harling as Jane and Ciarán Hinds as Mr Rochester 3th : Black and white film directed by Robert Stevenson, with a screenplay by John Houseman and Aldous Huxley. It features Orson Welles as Mr Rochester, Joan Fontaine as Jane 4 th : Television miniseries directed by Julian Amyes starring Zelah Clarke as Jane and Timothy Dalton as Mr Rochester 5 th : BBC miseries directed by Susanna White starring Ruth Wilson as Jane and Toby Stephens as Mr Rochester (source)source 2011: Film directed by Cary Fukunaga starring Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender as Rochester

Using the films to Help visualize the story and Understand the importance of the novel’s narration – John Reed vs. Jane 1983 – 1-3 Jane’s changes in responses

Chaps 1-4: Discussion Questions 1.How is Jane positioned socially? How is she opposed to her cousins and treated by her aunts and the servants? 2.How does Jane respond to her loneliness and mistreatment? Do you find her “passionate,” “realistic” or “childish”? 3.What are the significances of the red room? 4.What roles do Nature and books play in this part of the novel?

Jane in The Reed Family 1.Mrs. Reed (I: 5) – “contented, happy, little children” 2.John (I: 7-9) 3.The servants (II: 9- 10; 14) – be useful and pleasant 4.Georgiana & Eliza (II: 12; VI 24) [later] X: 79 Jane’s responses: 1. “shrined in double retirement” (I: 5) 2. Reed vs. Jane (I: 7-9) habitually obedient to John, “in frantic sort” -- revolted slave (II) 3. Asserts herself (III: 19) I cry because I am miserable. 4. Against Mrs. Reed (IV: 28-)

red room (II: 10-11;13-14) and the pattern of Jane’s Pursuit Gateshead: red room Lowood Helen Burns Thornfield: Bertha March End St. John River

Nature & Books Nature I: 5-7 (love and adventures) V: garden Books History of British Birds Gulliver’s Travels (III: 17) Rasselas (V: 42-43)

Chaps 5-10: Discussion Questions What kind of school is Lowood? Does it in any way resemble any school you know of or have been to? How are the teachers (Ms. Temple, Miss Scatcherd and Mr. Brocklehurst) in Lowood presented? How and why are Helen and Jane punished respectively? How do they respond to being punished? What are the turning points in Jane’s pursuit of liberty and a better life?

School Chapter V: Class 38; Food 39 Discipline 40 Lessons 41

Teachers Indoctrination and Punishment Miss Scatcherd – Chap VI Mr. Brocklehurst (VII ; 56) Wise Judgment and Sympathy Miss Temple – Chap V: 41 & VIII: 61

Helen Burns vs. Jane Helen Punished V 44; VI 46, VI: Your duty to bear (48- 49) Love your enemy (50); you’d be happier if you forget her severity (VIII: 60): conscience and the invisible world (IX: 70-) Jane V: 44 “How can she bear it so quietly…” VII: 50 Good to those who are good to you. VIII: 64

Nature (II: 14)Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon penetrating some aperture in the blind? No; moonlight was still, and this stirred: while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and quivered over my head.” Garden (V: 41); VI: 47: the wind outside the window  a strange excitement (IX: 67) ramble in the wood (X: 74): Jane looks out the window again.

Turning Points and Helpers Mr. Lloyd  Lowood Institute Ms. Temple, clears her name, motivates her to make further progress. Helen and Ms. Temple’s reading of classical literature