I am currently rereading JE and am a big fan of Victorian novels as well as having studied them at university; so it was a real surprise to me that my new reaction to how >!Jane responds to her failed wedding and finding out about the real Mrs Rochester !< was to roll my eyes and think FFS get a grip you silly woman! Can anyone relate?

  • FortyThousandAndOneB
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    1 year ago

    I’m still very much young, so I can see why my view would differ from yours, but while reading, I found myself really irritated with the tug-of-war between “My heart” and “Reason” or “Principle”. Your principles are instilled into you by your society’s normative values, they aren’t inherently better or worth value. My personal guiding factor is “If it doesn’t harm anyone, you should be free to do it”, so I struggle with the idea that she couldn’t do the thing at one point because it’s ‘decadent’ or whatnot, but she could do that SAME THING by the end of it for some reason WHILE things have gotten worse off. (I’m on mobile I don’t know how to do spoilers but if you’ve read it, you can understand what I’m talking about.)

    Reading reviews, though, I can understand how people respect her views. I understand thinking she’s right, but I still don’t agree with them in any capacity. The writer’s hand is the only thing that made the leap into the dark an overall passable decision.