Jane Eyre Part 2: The Love and Deception of Mr. Rochester

I have always been interested in the character of Mr. Rochester...  Why he is the way he is, and what shaped him into the man that he is in the novel...  I know that he explains his background to Jane (after the whole wedding fiasco), but seriously I would really like to read a book written from his perspective (a-la the Jane Austen Diary Series by Amanda Grange)...  [as I am writing this I figured I would search for a book of that nature, and I have indeed found one Rochester: A Novel Inspired by Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" by J.L. Niemann, so of course I have not read it yet... It appears to have mixed reviews, so we shall see...]


Mr. Rochester is a man who from his youth is shaped by deception...  In the hours after the botched wedding, Mr Rochester relates to Jane the story of his youth, and why he deceived Jane in the way that he did...  Not being the eldest son, and his father's desire to keep the property together, his father gave the entirety of the estate to his brother Rowland...  In an attempt to give his son some money by marriage, Edward was sent to Jamaica after he left college and was told that Bertha was very beautiful, being both tantalized by her flattery and her beauty, and being young he thought he was in love with her...  Although her family and his hid from him the madness, and he was duped to marry her, and was married before he realized what had happened...  Edward was stuck with a wife he could not love...  Her tastes were wholly different from his, and her mind was incapable of learning anything other than what she already had attained...  She was violent, crude, unreasonable, and unchaste...  Now here we learn about a part of Mr. Rochester's character that is both a redeeming feature and a curse to himself...  No matter how Bertha acted towards him, he could NOT be cruel to her...  As much as Mr. Rochester comes across as wicked and deceptive, he really does have redeeming qualities that outweigh the bad...

A terrible twist of fate happened, both his father and brother died within the 4 years after his marriage to Bertha...  He ended up inheriting the estate intact, what a blow to Mr. Rochester...  All the pain and suffering his family put him through, the deception because they wanted him to have money as well, and now it is all his anyway...  What things as this would make any human being act in a similar way that Edward does...   At this point he could not divorce Bertha, the doctors had found out that she was mad (I'm not even sure the legal grounds in today's society on this particular issue)... Thankfully his marriage had been kept a secret back in England, so he decided to return home and hide her (and his shame) away, locked up in Thornfield Hall...  Once safely hidden away at Thornfield with a proper keeper to take charge of her, Mr. Rochester then set himself about to roam the world in search of a woman whom he could love...  Being thus placed in such a situation as he was, he was bound and determined that he could and would marry for love...  If he found such a woman he would present his case history truthfully and make his proposal openly with no deceptions...  For 10 years he roamed the world in search of such a lady, he was not seeking perfection of mind or person, but mainly that which suited him best...  He was a man seeking love, what more does any person in this world seek?  To love and be loved truly is something that most individuals would die for, even in today's society...  I would have to say that love, by far is one of the strongest emotions in the world...  To an extent every one of us craves and desires to love and be loved...

Being such a man and not able to live alone, he tried mistresses in vain...  Finally after 10 years of of wandering the world, heart hardened and soul weary, he returns home to Thornfield Hall, a place he despises, hates, and finds to be the seedling of all his suffering...  On his way to Thornfield Hall, on a desolate lane his horse becomes frightened by a figure and drops him to the ground...  This is where he has his first encounter with Jane Eyre...  Despite his surliness, she insists upon helping him...  At his first touch of her shoulder, something inside himself snapped...  (Possibly one of those things where when the right person touches you, it doesn't have to be any type of particular touch, just say lightly on your arm...  Your entire body feels full of fire and warmth, something has changed...  You can sense something new, possibly love...)  He thus begins his faithful study of her character...  He wants to find out more about her, he starts off by being his stern self and would go between being cordial to completely ignoring her...  He only ignored her to see if she would seek him, which of course she did not...  In order to see if she thought of him, he resumed his notice of her and saw her come to life...

I do not agree with his use of Blanche Ingram as a pawn, or much of what he did to draw Jane in... But the fact of the matter is that he really and truly loved her deeply... So much that he was willing to risk the damnation of God and the world to have her love in return...  I can see, and almost agree with his reasoning...  Why can't a man, who is tricked into marrying a mad woman and can not divorce this woman, be allowed to find true love?  These of course are extenuating circumstances...  I don't think there is a real answer...  But these themes are present in today's society just as they were back in Charlotte Bronte's time, and I think that is why this novel has endured...

Jane Eyre Part 1: Proposal Scenes Comparison

I've been thinking about the book Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte lately...  Mostly because of all the talk/hype about the new movie adaptation that is coming out in March of this year....  I am very much on the fence about this new adaptation, I'm just not sure it can live up to the splendid performances that are in the 2006 mini-series starring Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson...

The biggest factor for me is the pivotal scene where Jane and Rochester are outside in the garden/woods, and he is telling her that he will be married and she must be sent away...  Ruth Wilson's line delivery of "poor, obscure, plain, and little" gets me every single time, and I think it is the BEST line delivery so far...  There is soo much passion and emphasis with that simple line, and from watching the trailer I just don't think that Mia nailed it, at all...  I mean that line is pivotal, it is where she professes herself to be Rochester's equal...  Jane is a very passionate person, as is mentioned from the beginning of the book (by her aunt Reed), and again emphasized later by St. John Rivers...  Yes she is a bit reserved, but she also has a fiery spirit within her, as can be seen by her quick responses to Rochester...

Example of the proposal scenes:

I think my biggest fear is the time limit of the new movie...  I am all for watching a movie adaptation that is 3+ hours long, I have absolutely NO problem with this... In fact I would almost prefer it so that as much material can be covered as possible to remain as faithful to the book as possible...  Of course I know I'm probably of the minority in that opinion...

There is more that I want to write about, but I think it will be better left to a second post...  So until then...

My love of Jane Austen...

I must say that I never read Jane Austen as a child... I only became really interested in her writing, I am ashamed to say, after watching the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen  (I had previously seen the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility with Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson)...  Since then Jane Austen has become one of my most favorite authors...  I think the main appeal that I find in her writing, is that most of the characters in her books can be found in daily life...  I've sure had my share of John Willoughby's, George Whickam's, Henry and Mary Crawford's, and not enough Mr. Darcy's, Edward Ferrars', Henry Tillney's, and Captain Wentworth's...
Given that the novels were written in the early 1800's, it is good to see that they are still relevant in today's world...

I have read almost all of her books, and I like some better than others.  The order of books, with my most favorite at top and least favorite at bottom is as follows:
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Persuasion
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey
Emma

I have become quite in love with her work, and I have an entire bookshelf dedicated to her books and "spin-offs"...

I have read quite a few of the "spin-offs", and there are some that are very well done, while others I wish I hadn't wasted the money on....  I really like the Diary series by Amanda Grange, which tells each story from the perspective of the males in the individual book...  Captain Wentworth, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Knightley, Edmund Bertram, and Colonel Brandon...  (I am excited to find out that she has at least 2 new books coming out in 2011, Henry Tilney's Diary and Wickham's Dairy)... The only other book of her's that I have read is Mr. Darcy, Vampire, and it definitely was NOT worth reading...   I mean, the fact that Lizzy would not have known until after the wedding that Mr. Darcy was a vampire???  Come on, she is way more astute than that!!!

The spin-off that I hated the worst of all was Mansfield Park and Mummies...  I think what completely ruined the book for me were the "scholarly footnotes and appendices" because I felt that it completely undermined the intelligence of the reader...  Most of those who would be reading these parody books have read Austen, know what the uncommon words actually mean, and don't need to be told to "not have a dirty mind" when the book is talking about being "fagged"...  The book would have been much better without those little "additions"...


Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is definitely one of my favorite spin-offs...  Although the prequel Dawn of the Dreadfuls is good, the theory presented as to why Lizzy is the way she is is not quite plausible enough for me...  The other vampire spin-off that I DID like is Vampire Darcy's Desire by Regina Jeffers...  I liked it because it stuck enough to the original story line of P&P, while at the same time being a completely different novel of it's own...

The other series of books that I have gotten into are by Stephanie Barron, Jane Austen Mysteries, these deal with Jane Austen herself and different "scrapes" she gets herself into...  So far I have read the first book in the series Jane and the Unpleasantness of Scargrave Manor...  Although the book moved a little slowly it was a rather quick read, which sometimes is a good thing...

I have also watched every Television/Movie adaptation that I can get my hands on...  The BBC has become one of my favorite networks...  I have also fallen in love with many Regency Era adaptations, and by watching these I have become more interested in reading literature from that time period...  I have read Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens (Our Mutual Friend, Little Dorrit, and Bleak House), and Elizabeth Gaskell (North and South, Wives and Daughters)...  I am not one to shy away from watching a 3 to 9 hour movie adaptation of book, in fact I say bring it on...

And here is a little something for your enjoyment:

Welcome....

This blog is a direct result of my desire to start a blog, and my friend Rachelle telling me to "JUST DO IT"...  So thank you Rachelle...  This is my blog...