Rebuttal 5
Servant and Servitude.
Permit me to disagree with the meaning in your 04-22-2007 note:
Evidence as fact is the text of Jane Eyre, only the words and phrases, in context, not suppositions what Charlotte meant. Interpretation of the text is but opinion and unless very carefully buttressed by example, displaying the prejudices of the interpreter.Originally Posted by dirac1984
You wrote that your interpretation of St. John and Jane Eyre is based on “interpretive textual analyses and content analysis” however all the examples that you cited were taken out of context and at variance with the meaning of the phrases in the full text. Let me illustrate by example of a bedtime story – A fox was very hungry when he spied a duck. I shall jump into the pond, kill the duck and have a good meal. But the fox couldn't swim as fast as the duck and the duck escaped. Did you like the story? –
If I claim that “I shall kill you” as textual analysis, I would be laughed at in an academic environment. I will use a last example from your note of Saint John in Jane Eyre, 04-19-2007.
The interpretation is on the relationship of servant and servitude between St. John and Jane. “We can see that though Jane has a good relationship with his sisters, Saint John still unconsciously considers Jane in a servitude position.” and you quote the following as justification, “Saint John said the following sentences first: “as you seemed both useful and happy here”, “render yours necessary.” Notice two words in his sentences, “useful and necessary”. Useful is seldom used to describe people except when the person talked about is in a position of servitude which is in essence the same as other material tools in the master’s eyes. Necessary is also diction of servitude.”
Chapter 30,
"Yes; I wish to know whether you have heard of any service I can offer myself to undertake?"
"I found or devised something for you three weeks ago; but as you seemed both useful and happy here--as my sisters had evidently become attached to you, and your society gave them unusual pleasure--I deemed it inexpedient to break in on your mutual comfort till their approaching departure from Marsh End should render yours necessary."
To take the connotation of “useful” as implied of servitude is a gross misreading of the text where it is used to suggest sympathy for Jane's desire of independence. The same applies to “necessary” as taken out of context.
To read into Jane's opinion that Hannah position as a servant was degrading as per:
“Hannah, the servant, was my most frequent visitor”. In fact before she reached the moorhouse, she had been trying to find a job as a servant. She felt it was degrading.”.....” She understands well that in moorhouse she is in the position of servitude at least in Saint John’s eye.”
is to overlook that in 19th. century England a servant was a free man/woman and under no legal obligation to the employer. He/she was paid a wage, and while it was minimal, the position was not viewed as degrading, where a beggar is, as stated in the novel. This is the social context in which Charlotte wrote. To project the status of a servant to Imperial Rome, where a servant was a slave or to historic China, where a servant at best was an indentured person, is misleading, especially writing for a thesis.
In the incident where Jane demands of St. John the source of the letter of legacy, “Jane for the first in their conversation speaks in imperative tone. “Stop one minute!”” she even exclaims:” No; that does not satisfy me!” she demands further, using the following strong tone. “You certainly shall not go till you have told me all,” “You shall! — you must!”
What’s more, Jane at this point mentions her sexual identity with confidence. When Saint John insists on telling her afterward, and says” But I apprised you that I was a hard man,” she claims that” I am a hard woman, — impossible to put off.” We should take notice of this interesting exchange of utterances. When Saint John says he is a hard man, he in fact has some sense of pride in claiming this fact. Jane consciously uses “woman” to counteract his pride. In using woman in parallel with man, Jane is declaring her equal standing with Saint John now.”
I quite agree that the exchange between St. John and Jane illustrates her sense of equality but what has changed in the previous view of Jane's servitude? The newly inherited wealth? Unlikely as the knowledge was but recently acquired. This inconsistency emphasizes that dirac1984's reading is unsound. Jean Eyre experience of social hierarchy is complex and that of Mr. Brocklehurst, Rochester and St. John can not be equated under the premise of Slave-Master Power Relationship. Brocklehurst and St. John are very different characters and can not be interchanged in Jane's chronology of growth as an independent woman. While both are religious caricatures, St. John's position is that of a pastor, hieratic in the sense that of a parent or a teacher, not that a tyrant, while the conflict between Jane and Rochester is primarily in the view of bigamy. Rochester's view is that he is exempt from the constrain while Jane feels the full force of social approbation. It is important to note that at the conclusion Jane rejects both St. John's norms and those of Victorian society when she goes in search of Rochester not knowing that Bertha is dead. The famous words: “I married him.”, and not 'I was married' or 'He married me' emphasizes Jane's going past the Victorian norms, while the acceptance of the wife/husband relationship, the willing acceptance of the same norms.
I will close with the cited argument of colonialism as per 04-21-2007 post:
“finally, i have to admit that my interpretation of st john is nevertherless influencd by my sense of history of china which had suffered a lot from western bully. so i maybe too sensitivee towards the hierarchy and the feeling of being suppressed. however, i have to say i have no intention to distort the text. i maintain that my analysis is valid.”
The word colonialism or colonial does not occur in the text. The concept is not in Charlotte's conception of Jane Eyre. It is though often cited in connection with Wide Sargasso Sea, often cited by feminists as a prequel of Jane Eyre. It is ironic that Jean Rhys view was:”Toward the West Indian mulatto and Black Others, the Creole demonstrates a sense of proprietorship that allows for the appropriation and recruitment of "race" as an accessory of power and a trope of otherness.” and “An unidentified black is a source of menace and a threat to Antoinette.. . .in much of Rhys's writing there exists only the Manichaean division of "good blacks"--those who serve--and "bad blacks"--those who are hostile, threatening, unknown. . .. the relationship [between Tia and Antoinette] is based on the production of difference through the racialist stereotypes of the hardy, physically superior, animallike, lazy negro. . .[lazy black--sleep after eating] and the sensitive whilet child, on the other hand, contemplates nature, seduced by the "reve exotique." “, and not that of Charlotte Bronte.
To view the injustice of English colonialism of the 19th. century, and nobody will dispute the Opium War, from the Chinese historical perspective and to ignore the 20th. century colonialism of occupation of Tibet, the whole scale destruction of the cultural heritage, is in my view rather selective to say the least. This subject has no place in analysis of Jane Eyre.
Virginia Woolf had it correct - “.In other words, we read Charlotte Bronte not for exquisite observation of character--her characters are vigorous and elementary; not for comedy--hers is grim and crude; not for a philosophic view of life--hers is that of a country parson's daughter; but for her poetry.”
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for such a long essay...
Oh My God
