Speech Help

[MinuitMer]

I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me out with a speech I'm writing for my senior English class.
It's all about the journey of growth and self-discovery Jane goes through, and I have most of it, but I'm trying to abridge her experiences with Rochester but still show her growth so that the speech only take seven minutes, not an hour.
Can anyone help me to abridge how she discovers herself through Rochester?
That would help me so much.

[kiki1982]

Well, let's have a look... It's a little faded because it is a little while ago that I discussed this, but I'll have a try.

Is it not so that she arrives, strong-minded for whihc Rochester admires her?. A woman who speaks her mind, unseen...

Anyway, he falls in love, she carries on as normal, aware, if only through Mrs Fairfax who tries to tone her expectations down, that his affection for her is growing. Nonetheless, she is still strong-minded.

Yet, when he finally has asked her and she has consented, he slowly becomes an idol between her and the sun. That descends to the level of the book where she is a believing person and he a kind of narcissistic image of Paradise Lost's Satan or it can be interpreted as the fight between inner feelings (passion, the moon) and the larger self (the sun) (Platonic Philosophy). As he becomes ever more the moon that eclipses her sun, she loses ever more the command over heself and is run away with her feelings without asking what the consequences will be. So she starts to lose herself at the cost of idolising him and herfeelings for him and after his secret is revealed, she is for a short time lost until on the moors, she starts slowly to find herself back.

As the book comes to a conclusion, she has found herself, is conscious of not wanting to marry St John, as she definitely wants love in a marriage, and as such, she has found herself back before she returns forever. The second time round, she is not so much overpowered by that idol anymore. Not because she has become stronger, I don't think, but rather because he has become weaker: from an idol that told her what to do, he is now looking at her for what he should do and both noses point towards the sun in the end (in the same direction). Otherwise: where there was a problem before in not being able to reach the higher self because it was shieled off by felings she never knew she had, both, the feelings and her self, are now united.

[Peripatetics]

Dear MinuitMer,

My advice is that you write from what you feel.
Everybody will have a different interpretation and none will be better than your own. That does not mean that you will not change your mind as you grow, read and experience some other views. But for now: trust yourself. Only then can you grow as Jane grew through experience.
Jane was a young girl when she first experienced love, confusion and Rochester. And the first love was not simple, she had to learn that there were different sorts of love. Some of it bitter, that she could not trust and depend on others to decide what was right for her.

Only when she could trust herself, believe in herself, was she able to seek out Rochester and give the unconditional love that would bring her happiness.
Now for some practical advice for your 7 minutes: avoid dogmatic interpretations, avoid sexist interpretations, avoid obscure literary analogies. Trust yourself and write what you feel.
Others will recognize your own genuine thoughts and they will applaud you for your honesty.
Good luck!