Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – July 14, 2025

 

Jane Eyre An Autobiography first edition 1847

Charlotte Brontë wrote the novel Jane Eyre and published it in 1847 under the male pseudonym, Currer Bell. It became a classic of literature over the years, both for its tender love story and its portrayal of a fiercely independent woman who would not brook male patriarchy, or other kinds of domination by family members, school directors, upper class nobility, and assorted tyrants and bullies. As the novel makes clear the qualities genteel women were expected to master were only these – stitching, playing the piano, reading and speaking French, and painting. 

Ultimately, a novel depends on strong portrayal of its cast of characters, and Charlotte Brontë gave to each of them the coloration of a novelist who enters into the story and creates vibrant portraits of villains, heroes, and the miscellaneous folk who play their role in what is now labelled as a Bildungsroman, a novel that runs the course of  a person’s formative years and development. Jane Eyre has become an essential part of English literature and this exposition by Benjamin McEvoy is an excellent introduction, to what he calls “one of the most riveting love stories ever penned in English Literature.”  It also takes you on the journey of Charlotte Brontë’s life story, which is partly sublimated in the novel.

Jane Eyre – ‘I am no bird; and no net ensnares me’

Of course, novelists base a lot writing on their life experiences, but they live a rich inner life too in the imagination; they also borrow from what they read. There’s clear evidence in Jane Eyre that Charlotte Brontë not only read a lot, but her mind became a storehouse of words from her wide reading. One of her correspondents a gentlemen called George Lewes (partner of Mary Evans, i.e George Eliot) advised her to eschew imagination in favour of life experience. Here was her answer:

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 shows 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?' 

Anna Paquin as young Jane Eyre (1996 film)

We have Gothic elements too in Jane Eyre. The first premonition is the strange shrieking at night from the attic which forebode a disaster in the making. 

This was a demoniac laugh—low, suppressed, and deep—

The summoning of Jane from the remote moor dwelling of the Rivers siblings with a call ‘Jane! Jane! Jane!’ while the candle was dying and the room was full of moonlight, leads to the ultimate reconciliation with Rochester. 

What about the language of the novel? It has a tendency to be Latinate and elevated with a vocabulary that forces a modern reader to reach for the dictionary often. The sentence structures are intricate and impart a formal tone that requires some getting used to. An appeal to one of the Large Language Models (LLMs) elicited ~100 words that are now archaic, obsolete, or rare in usage in modern English. Joe could find another 35 examples, besides, from his own notes while reading. Jane Eyre is a hothouse of rare plants that have to be observed, savoured and studied. It’s no Mills & Boon romp.

Charlotte Brontë's  'Book of Rhymes' sold for £1m

Major influences are evident of the Bible and Shakespeare, two venerable sources that English authors mine. Often she uses the Bible to point out the hypocrisy of pontificating characters like Mr Brocklehurst who tirelessly quote scripture in defence of ill-treating children in Lowood School. But the most elemental use of the Bible by Charlotte Brontë, goes all the way back to Genesis and the words ‘ help meet for him (Adam)’ as a definition of woman. The absolute rejection of this imposed status governs Jane’s rejection St. John’s suit.

Significant hints of Shakespearean characters are sprinkled in Jane Eyre. For instance, Bertha Mason (the ghostly presence in the attic) prowls at night in the upper rooms like Lady Macbeth sleepwalking in her guilt. Rochester resembles King Lear, beginning in arrogance, and suffering losses (Rochester’s blindness/maiming; Lear’s madness), until he achieves humility through suffering.

A fitting summation would be this quotation from Chapter 33 when Jane spurns Rochester’s portrayal of her as a captive bird before she departs:

“I am no bird, and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”