Mr Rochester and Charlotte Bronte
Hello there- 1st post!
Has Charlotte Bronte reflected anything in her life in the character of Mr Rochester?
I've got how he reflects Msr Heger, and how the fuel of emotions for him and her stay at the school leads to the considered risque descriptions of him in Jane Eyre.
I've also got how Mr Rochester locking Bertha in the attic would be the best compassionate thing he could do, and that Jane Eyre could represent Charlotte Bronte in that she could love a man no matter what he did.
Many Thanks,
Ramico.
Not awfully broadmindedly!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bitterfly
Hmm, if you read the novel carefully, though, you do come to realize that there is something about foreign women that Jane (and probably Bronte) didn't like much. Consider also the fact that all the disparaged women have dark skins (from Mrs Reed to Blanche), whereas Jane is as pale as the proverbial lily! Have you noticed the way "frenchness" is treated, too? Not awfully broadmindedly!
I am surprised that when “ you read the novel carefully” we come to such different impressions. I think that you misread the comment about 'frenchness'.
The English historically have had an inferiority complex about the French. From Henry the Eight to Churchill and even some Americans reflect it. How else do you explain that girls were thought French as a sign of accomplishment, that the aristocrats drank and valued Bordeaux and Burgoyne above all other wines, that French literature was held at the apex of culture and at the same time sneered at as depravity? That Rochester proposed to take Jane on her honeymoon to France?
Yes, Charlotte reveled in her Englishness but at the same time her cultural horizon was French.
I think that you misread. Our understanding is often influenced more by emotions than by reason.
Να είστε προσεκτικοί των Ελλήνων που φέρουν δώρ
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ksotikoula
Well I will be no one's psycholigist here especially without payment Lol!
So Rochester's paraphrase: 'Most will do anything for money', stand? Lol! Sex has precedence over reason.
Are things so bad in Greece? Sorry no job offer. What I suggested was purely an intellectual exercise. A change of perspective: that the source of the apparent contradictions should be looked for not in the text but in the reader.
Addendum - you might be interested.
From NYT, 17 Feb '09, article: In Pain and Joy of Envy, the Brain May Play a Role
One vice, however, dispenses with any hedonic trappings and instead feels so painful you would think it was a virtue, except that there’s no gain in lean muscle mass at the end: envy. Skulking at sixth place on traditional lists of the seven deadly sins, right between wrath and pride, envy is the deep, often hostile resentment you feel toward somebody who has something you want, like wealth, beauty, a promotion or the admiration of peers. It is a vice few can avoid yet nobody craves, for to experience envy is to feel small and inferior, a loser shrink-wrapped in spite.