Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre Overview n n Life

Charlotte Bronte & Jane Eyre

Overview: n n Life and Background Romanticism & CB Genre Themes

Her Birth n n Charlotte Bronte was born on the 21 st April 1816 in the village of Thornton some miles to the West of Bradford in Yorkshire where her father Patrick was curate/rector. She was the 3 rd of 6 children all brilliantly gifted.

Her Father n n n Her father Patrick was a Church of England clergyman who had emigrated from Ireland. The oldest son of an Irish labourer, he had to struggle very hard to educate himself. Entered Cambridge (St John’s College) to read theology and became a ‘gentleman’.

Her Father n He married a well-to-do woman Maria Branwell from Cornwall in 1812 and who died after nine years from cancer, a year after the birth of her youngest child Anne n He was never rich as curate but made a reasonable living as permanent curate in Haworth.

Haunted by family tragedy Mother’s early death n Her 2 oldest sisters Maria and Elizabeth n Her only brother Branwell => responsible for sense of grim fatalism and acceptance of tragedy in life and in her work. n

Father’s influence His rapid rise to the status of gentleman albeit poor man in an age of still rigid social divisions was nothing short of miraculous => his daughters’ sensitivity to social status and their ambition & perseverance in pursuing a writing career. n

Father’s influence n n he was also a published if unsuccessful writer he had written poems and short tales – 5 volumes in all.

Father’s influence n n n He was largely self-taught and was in the habit of developing his intellect in isolation (a trait his children shared). he subscribed to and borrowed an unusual number of newspapers and periodicals which undoubtedly enriched the cultural lives of his children. =>the Bronte children were better informed about current events then many of their more conventionally educated contemporaries.

Father’s influence He belonged to the evangelical strain of the Anglican church (low church) n The evangelical or low church Anglican movement believed in man’s sinfulness and need for redemption through a personal communion with God enabled by studying the infallible Holy Scripture. => influence on how his children viewed religion. n

Her Life n n He was a typical Victorian father-sister-in-law who was tasked to look after the children. His neglect meant the children were left to their own resources from infancy and were largely isolated. They formed deep emotional ties with each other and created a world of imagination that was far more real to them than any outside world could be. Raised in ‘poverty’, they found excitement and novelty in a world of ideas, not things.

Her education n They were educated at home until 1824 when they (girls) were sent to Cowan Bridge School – a charity institution founded by a wealthy clergyman William Carus Wilson. The institution was poorly run and funded. Food was inedible and scarce and the school was situated in an unhealthy area with poor sanitary conditions. When a typhus epidemic hit, Maria and Elizabeth contracted tuberculosis and the girls were sent home. Charlotte and Emily survived but the two older girls died within months of returning.

The beginnings of a Literary career n n n The 3 sister published their first book of poems under the pen-names Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) bell. Gained critical attention but not a commercial success –sold only a few copies. Girls were determined to make a success of their writing as they could not depend on father or Branwell for their futures.

Romanticism and EB n n ‘. . attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting etc… in Western civilization over a period from the late 18 th to the mid-19 th century. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental. ’ Britannica online

n n Both EB and CB were great admirers of the Romantic poets especially Byron and Wordsworth. Romantic fiction is highly charged, emotionally unrestrained and very personal as contrasted against the neo-classical ideal of balance, temperance and urbanity in the 18 th century and the realism and naturalism of the later Victorian novel (later 19 th century).

n n Romantic Writers saw society as a hypocritical prison house, where people are yoked to rules and customs. Romantics valued the individual’s rights over society’s needs and they often celebrated the heroic rebel.

The Romantic Rebel n someone who rebels against cosmic or social injustice or tyranny. Rebellion is often hopeless yet the act of rebelling is seen as heroic. n Are there any Romantic Rebels in Jane Eyre?

n “She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she…could discover by her own observation that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and child-like disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner—something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were—she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy little children. ” (Brontë 1)

n Does Jane conform as an adult?

Rochester as Byronic hero is a romantic hero because of his passion, his amorality, his iconoclasm, his homelessness and his desperation. n He is usually dark, mysterious, brooding and living an immoral life in a vain attempt to escape unhappy memories. n Does Rochester exemplify these traits? n

n n n Another characteristic of Romantic Lit is the description of childhood thoughts as unique and precious. Childhood is a time when we see things as they really are before social conditioning in the form of education, prejudice and habit blind us to the truth. Poets like Wordsworth claim that unless we hold onto our ‘inner child’ we will lose our freedom and power.

n n n Romantic LIT aims to change the reader’s beliefs not through the intellect but through the emotions, to arouse in the reader passions and sympathies he had not before. Charlotte made use of symbolic dreams in her novel, demonstrating the Romantics’ fascination with dreams and visions. Significant dreams?

n n R also believed the relationship between mind and nature is a mystical one because there is a transcendent or divine element in nature that finds a living response within the heart of people open to receive it. Nature imagery?

n There is a tension between traditional, patriarchal Christianity and a more Romantic natural religion that seeks God in nature; believes that nature itself is a part of God, filled with and expressing his spirit.

Themes Feminism Social Class Religion Authority- Education-Religion-Gender Politics n Motifs: The Moon n Fire n Chestnut Tree

Red Room n “if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that”

Feminism n Jane's commitment to dignity, independence, freedom of choice, unwillingness to submit to a man's emotional power and willingness to speak her mind were fostered by some female characters in the novel. Yet these traits also contrast sharply with some of Bronte's other female characters Jane Eyre can be labeled as a feminist role model due to her relationships with men that defied the generally accepted roles of the nineteenth-century woman. This title is especially fitting when her life is compared and contrasted to other female characters in the novel.

n "the more he bought me, the more my cheek burned with a sense of annoyance and degradation" n Does she submit at the close of the novel?

n n Genre: It has elements of the gothic, the romance and the realistic novel (social-realist novel).

n n The Romance - a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was particularly current in aristocratic literature of Medieval and Early Modern Europe, that narrated fantastic stories about the marvellous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight, king or queen who are unhindered by worldly circumstances in the pursuit of their lofty desires and great passions. The Gothic novel with its elemts of mystery, suspense and the supernatural. Use of ghosts, vampires