We know now that Rochester was testing Jane, to see how much power public opinion might hold over her own opinion; what Rochester failed to account for above, and by not being honest with Jane from the get-go, was Jane's opinion. And if we know anything, we know that Jane is rather opinionated. To say the least."'If all these people [the party guests] came in a body and spat at me, what would you do, Jane?'
'Turn them out of the room, sir, if I could.'
He half-smiled. 'But if I were to go to them, and they only looked at me coldly, and whispered sneeringly amongst each other, and then dropped off and left me one by one, what then? Would you go with them?'
'I rather think not, sir: I should have more pleasure in staying with you.;
... 'And if they laid you under a ban for adhering to me?'
'I, probably, should know nothing about their ban; and if I did, I should care nothing about it.'
'Then, you could dare censure for my sake?'
'I could dare it for the sake of any friend who deserved my adherence; as you, I am sure, do.'"
To back up, though, we moved from flirtation to marriage proposal at the opening of this section, and spent a large portion of these pages watching Jane and Rochester interact as an engaged couple. I struggled with Jane a bit, here; she seemed so cautious and so terrified of saying the wrong thing, or in some way deceiving Rochester, that she stopped acting herself.
Rather than speak her mind, as she always has, she has an internal dialogue with herself that is quite at odds with her external conversations with Rochester. And while I appreciated her refusal to allow him to put her on a pedestal--as anyone who's ever read any kind of love story know that that is just a recipe for disaster--I found her actions as an engaged woman bordered on cold. I, as did Rochester, missed her witty banter and somewhat flirtatious interactions with her fiance. I, as a 21st-century woman, was also particularly irked by the fact that even up to their very wedding day, she continued to call him "Sir."
Which brings us to the wedding day, and all its calamities. It was clear from the dawning of the day that the wedding would not go off without a hitch; Jane was so hesitant to label her boxes for shipping, and Rochester so distracted, bordering on obsessed, with everything going according to plan. What was surprising to me, as a first-timer, was the fact that the crazy thing in the attic (we all knew there was a crazy in the attic, right?) was Rochester's despised, deranged wife. What was even more surprising to me was the readiness with which Rochester gave up his ruse--and the readiness with which Jane quit him.
I don't disagree with Jane's decisions, or her logic. There was no reasonable way for her to marry her dear Rochester with the knowledge that he was already married. But given her earlier stance that she would stand by him no matter the censure of the public, she sure didn't hesitate long before taking off.
In the dead of night.
With little money, less connections, and absolutely no plan. And a piece of bread.
And then she promptly spent all of her money on a coach ride to nowhere.
Where did she think she would go? What did she expect would happen?
I can't help but raise my eyebrows just a little bit at the previously cool, collected woman we've come to know acting so blatantly irrationally.
So, following some slightly odd turns of event and a few doses of good luck, Jane is now set up with a nice family (though still no money and no resources), once again dependent on others to determine her way forward, once again resuming her hardened exterior designed to betray nothing of who she really is. I'm skeptical about this St. John character (as I suppose I am meant to be), and momentarily disappointed in Jane, but hopeful for what's to come! Readalongers, link up to your post below:
Blogger just ate my comment. Jane lost her shit in this chapter. That was the gist of my previous comment.
ReplyDeleteUUUGH BLOGGER. I'm thinking of trying to install Disqus but haven't had the energy to do the legwork yet.
DeleteAnyway, yes, she kind of goes a bit batty. Maybe it was all the pressure of holding her tongue and refusing the pedestal and hoping for happiness and then she just cracked... ok, maybe I should be a little more patient with her. MAYBE.
Section. Not chapter.
ReplyDeleteI knew what you meant! ;-)
DeleteApologies in advance for this novel of a comment. :)
ReplyDelete"what Rochester failed to account for above, and by not being honest with Jane from the get-go, was Jane's opinion. "
YES. So many people, I think, miss this. Jane is of course horrified at the idea of becoming Rochester's mistress, but I always think his fatal mistake here is, at heart, sexism. He says he's looking for an intellectual woman, but doesn't consider that HELLO, intellectual women have standards and morals of their own, regardless of how much society tells them they should confine themselves to making puddings. :)
"I struggled with Jane a bit, here; she seemed so cautious and so terrified of saying the wrong thing, or in some way deceiving Rochester, that she stopped acting herself.
...I found her actions as an engaged woman bordered on cold. I, as did Rochester, missed her witty banter and somewhat flirtatious interactions with her fiance. I, as a 21st-century woman, was also particularly irked by the fact that even up to their very wedding day, she continued to call him "Sir.""
Here I interpreted things differently. We know that she is very passionate and feels the same kind of lust for Rochester that he feels for her. She *has* to keep him at arm's length to avoid arousing him (and herself) thereby putting her chastity and/or reputation in danger.
I also think this is why she leaves so suddenly. He admits to her that he can be violent and he tells her outright that he is capable of raping her. She also doesn't trust herself *not* to leave if she doesn't do it as soon as possible.
Also, I could be mistaken, but I don't think it was unusual in Victorian times for married men and women to call each other Mr. and Mrs. Don't know how formal "Sir" would be considered.
EXACTLY. He loves Jane because she has opinions... but he's also scared of Jane's opinions. And I should probably be more patient with Jane than I am, because I am 21st century and she is so very not (despite how forward-thinking she is for her times), but I just thought she was too smart to run off with nothing like that. Though it makes more sense when you frame it in the context of Rochester's potential violence.
DeleteAnd no apologies needed for a "novel of a comment" - discussion is the best part!
DeleteI also wasn't a big fan of how cold Jane seemed during her engagement, but with hindsight, it probably made it a TAD bit easier for her to leave. And about her leaving so hastily: Jane said she would do "all that is right" for Mr. Rochester, and her obedience to God and the preservation of her own values and morals go against staying with an already married man. I was surprised not so much at the fact that she left right away, but by how strong she was in the face of temptation. This was another reason why I love the first person POV...we can see how difficult her struggle is, and we can also see how she convinces herself to do what is right and leave Thornfield. - Maggie @ An American in France
ReplyDeleteAgreed that it made it easier; she had her walls up the whole time like she never really expected it to happen anyway. You're right about the POV, too - it definitely gives great context as to how HARD that decision was for her to make (even if I still question the actual execution of said decision!).
DeleteGreat post! It's been a little while since I last read Jane Eyre (February), so it's not as fresh in my mind, but I seem to remember that Jane's behavior made sense to me. I could see why she would flee--she's young, and her hopes have been dashed in a way that seems insurmountable. This same scenario made absolutely no sense, though, in Margo Livesey's retelling that took place in the 1960s ("The Flight of Gemma Hardy"). Mr. Sinclair's secret was kind of stupid, making it particularly ridiculous when Gemma, the updated Jane, lost her shit over it.
ReplyDeleteShe's definitely young and broken-hearted, but she's been so calm and collected this whole time that I was surprised she ran off without so much as a thought as to what she'd do next. But I also commented somewhere else that perhaps, because she had bottled up so many emotions throughout her engagement, she just... snapped. 'Cause she really did just snap at some point on her non-wedding night.
DeleteGreat recap! I agree with you that Jane definitely makes some headstrong decisions, but I think she is doing what she honestly believes to be the right thing - although not the easy thing, so I find her quite brave for leaving. In her place, I'd probably have taken the pearls and any other gifts that Mr. Rochester gave me, so I'd have something to sell... guess I don't have Jane's scruples! (Although, now that I'm thinking about it, he was duping her all along, so his gifts should be fair game... ah, well, maybe I'm thinking too much like a lawyer and not enough like an almost-maybe-wronged woman.) Or maybe she did snap... entirely plausible!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the more comments and discussions I read, the more I can agree that she did what she thought was right... even though I'm with you, I'd have taken the damn pearls!
DeleteAw, I think you're too hard on Jane. She could stand by Mr. Rochester in spite of the censure of the world, but she can't let herself do something she knows is wrong. If he were, whatever, cast out of society for something HE had done, that would be a different situation.
ReplyDeleteRe: her leaving, I always get the feeling that she knows she wouldn't be able to hang onto her integrity forever if she stayed with Mr. Rochester. The leaving is reasonable, but she just doesn't have the time or the emotional wherewithal to plan further ahead than that (which, okay, that is a little silly of her).
I probably am - she just bugged me in this section! I want her to get her wits back around her. Witty, bantering Jane is the best.
DeleteI have to agree with some of the commenters above about Jane's actions - she felt she had to act in haste and you know Rochester is a bit of a loose cannon, so she needed to get out of there before she lost her resolve. But I would have just brought that pearl necklace with me! :) I do agree that Jane had an idea that things wouldn't work out - with her uneasy dreams and how uncomfortable she got with the way Mr. Rochester started to treat her. And you are right to be wary of St. John! :D
ReplyDeleteOk, I've finished now, AND BOY DO I HAVE SOME WORDS FOR ST JOHN.
DeleteYeah, I really struggled with this part of the book. It felt so inconsistent with the previous 300 pages that I was ready to just set the book aside, but some people walked me through it. The bit where Jane was wandering in the woods reminded me of the last 10 chapters of Huck Finn in that the author set aside the manuscript because they couldn't decide what would happen next, and the wandering in the woods was the result. I also kept thinking about the Will Ferrell meme where he says "Well, that escalated quickly." Anyway, that part did prove crucial to her development and things do make sense in the end. Ultimately, yes, this was a difficult section.
ReplyDeleteThis section reminded me a little bit of Heart of Midlothian in its structure -- that novel, which is a bagillion pages long, is basically a novel for the first half, and completely different novel in the second half. While the stories are completely different, this was actually reminiscent of that TOTAL switcheroo of narrative.
Delete"I can't help but raise my eyebrows just a little bit at the previously cool, collected woman we've come to know acting so blatantly irrationally."
ReplyDeleteYes! Thank you! I didn't recognize Jane at all here. And as for St. John, I've never liked him and suppose I never will. But I guess he's the anti-Rochester that Jane needs at the moment.
Ugh. St John. Makes my skin crawl.
DeleteGreat points, Kerry! I was supremely ticked off at how ill-prepared Jane was when she fled Thornfield. As to her being 'cold' to Rochester during their engagement I saw it as Jane's way of preserving her reputation, especially in light of Mrs Fairfax's earlier skepticism about Rochester's intentions.
ReplyDeleteWhile I wasn't surprised about the 'crazy wife in the attic', I was surprised at how quickly he gave up the game. It's almost like he never felt, deep down, he would get away with it.
Yes, exactly! He went into the wedding so nervous and worked up, and gave up his game so quickly, that it's like he always knew he'd be caught.
Delete