Concetti Chiave
- Charlotte Brontë's novels rebelled against Jane Austen's orderly world, exploring passion and violence.
- 'Jane Eyre' is a Bildungsroman that follows the orphan Jane from childhood to marriage, highlighting her emotional journey.
- The novel includes autobiographical elements, employing a first-person narrative to convey deep emotions.
- It combines the Bildungsroman genre with Gothic fiction, creating a mysterious and dark atmosphere.
- Bertha, a key character, symbolizes Jane's repressed side, illustrating their complementary nature.
Charlotte Bronte's inspiration
All novels by Charlotte Bronte are autobiographical.As a matter of fact, they were inspired by her experiences in collages where a lot of girls died for terrible condition.
Charlotte herself from 1835 to 1838 taught at Roe Head boarding school, where she studied in 1831 because it was both exclusive and relatively not so distant from her family’s home.
Before that, she had been her brothers and sisters' tutor for some years.
In 1842 Charlotte and Emily went to Brussels to study in a private institute in order to be able to open their own school but they had to return home because of their aunt Elizabeth’s death.
Only Emily continued to study in Brussels and here she fell in love with the headmaster, already married, and she wrote him love letters from years.
This fact inspired Charlotte’s first novel The professor which was about an English and Latin teacher in Brussels, William Crimsworth, who fell in love with her student Frances Henri.
Also Jane Eyre has this kind of dynamic since Jane became infatuated with her superior and employer.
In her works women have a strong personality, that is unconventional for her period. So we can considered her the forerunner of all modern feminists. Even if Jane Eyre is Charlotte’s masterpiece, we can remember: Shirley and Villette, two novels in which we have an image of the Victorian Age where all the heroines were rich, pretty, lucky, strong-willed, passionate, strong in their believes and values as well as self-confident.
Jane Eyre's unique character
The novel shows some aspects of the Victorian age and has also dark and gothic situation but they are more linked to the setting, the environment, some characters linked to Jane’s childhood and youth more than in Jane herself.Jane is an orphan that lives thanks to her courage during her stay with her aunt and in the institute but when Jane started to work at Mr. Rochester’s mansion she had some quiet moments, despite her desire to travel the world, feel free and her imagined unsuitableness for Mr. Rochester’s interest.
At the end, these two characters fall in love, but becomes a tragedy, to underline that Jane cannot be happy, cannot improve, her condition, cannot escape her destiny.
Rochester has a secret because he has a wife, Bertha, who is the mad woman that lives in the attic like a ghost and Jane met a couple of time while she was mutter furiously with her head down.
Jane goes away, meets another man who would marry her, but she comes back to Mr. Rochester. He is alone, poor, blind but now he is free because his wife died.
They can love each other and stay together.
Jane is the person who can build her destiny day by day. Jane rejected many proposals of marriage, something incredible for her time. Jane does not want to accept compromises because she is a powerful character who lives for ideas and principles.
Jane is a character that wants to be treated as an equal human being as male authority figures and wants to feel realized, satisfied and self-sufficient.
Domande da interrogazione
- Quali sono le origini di Charlotte e come si differenziano i suoi romanzi da quelli di Jane Austen?
- Cosa accade a Jane Eyre dopo la scoperta del matrimonio di Ronchester?
- Quali elementi autobiografici e di shock sono presenti nel romanzo "Jane Eyre"?
Charlotte nacque nel 1816 nel North Yorkshire e, insieme a sua sorella, pubblicò poesie che si ribellavano al mondo di ordine e moderazione di Jane Austen. I suoi romanzi romantici esploravano gli estremi della passione e della violenza in modo nuovo.
Dopo aver scoperto che Ronchester è già sposato con Bertha, Jane decide di lasciarlo e diventa insegnante in un piccolo villaggio. Successivamente, scopre che Thornfield è bruciato e Bertha è morta, quindi ritorna a Thornfield e sposa Ronchester.
Il romanzo contiene elementi autobiografici come l'uso del narratore in prima persona e la descrizione degli eventi attraverso le emozioni. Fu uno shock per alcuni lettori perché andava contro la tradizione puritana, mescolando elementi del Bildungsroman con quelli della narrativa gotica, come l'atmosfera misteriosa e la figura di Bertha.
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