Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre - Essay Example

?572918 Jane Eyre is a novel about an orphaned girl who has an evil guardian and who is sent off to an oppressive boarding school for some sort of religious training. The leaders of this school are very strict and clearly hypocritical, but Jane survives. When she grows up, she gets a job as a governess for Rochester’s god child at his mansion called Thornfield. After she has been there awhile, Rochester throws a party perhaps to announce his engagement to Blanche Ingram, or so Jane believes. But, anybody who has ever read a romance novel knows that he is really in love with Jane and she with him. They just do not know it yet, even though there seems to be magic and fate working all around them. The first part of Jane Eyre clearly indicates that Charlotte Bronte was familiar with many fairy tales and myths. Jill Matus says, “It [Jane Eyre] draws generically also on romance and quest narrative, fairy tale, the gothic novel, and the Bildungsroman. Densely allusive, it reflects its author's familiarity with the Bible, Milton and Shakespeare, and with works as diverse as Pilgrim's Progress and The Arabian Nights.” (Matus, 2002). Jen Cadwallader writing for Bronte Studies lists several other commentators who point out various elements of the novel that allude to folk and fairy tales. For instance, one writer Cadwallader mentions, “Abigail Heiniger’s comparison of Jane to the traditional faery or sprite of folklore” (Cadwallader, 2009, p. 235). Other writers liken Jane to Cinderella. “Mei Huang notes, ‘The opening scene of the novel forms a manifest analogy to the situation of Cinderella’s family’. Sandra M. Gilbert likewise explains that Jane has ‘a foolish and wicked “stepmother”, and two unpleasant, selfish “stepsisters.” The smallest, weakest, and plainest child in the house, she embarks on her pilgrim’s progress as a sullen Cinderella, an angry Ugly Duckling’” (Cadwallader, 2009, p. 235). Yet even though so many elements of the Cinderella fairy tale are present in Jane Eyre, Jane is not the typical princess about whom most of these tales are written. Jane is plain. Bronte repeats this several times and it is clear that Jane, nor anyone else, considers her a beauty. She is more of a useful woman than a decorative one. Heiniger says, “Perhaps the most striking physical aspect of Jane is her plainness, simply because it is a novelty not found in Western myths and fairy tales.’ Charlotte’s decision to cast her heroine in so plain a mould calls for further attention, however, particularly given the dissonance created by Jane’s physical dissimilarity to her fairy-tale counterparts” (Heiniger, 2006, p. 25). Many of these writers—Heiniger, Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Matus, and Cadwallader—say that Bronte intentionally made Jane plain so that she could subvert the patriarchal norm of the fairy tale where the heroine is always beautiful. That may very well be true. However, perhaps it is the magic that makes Jane beautiful to Rochester and that makes him fall in love with her. When Jane meets Rochester, it is at twilight, that magical in-between time of day that hovers between day and night, not really either one. “I lingered until the sun went down amongst the trees, and sank crimson and clear behind them. I then turned eastward” (Bronte, 1847, 1966, 1987, p. 143). At this moment, Jane is sitting on a stile which is a set of steps between fences that humans can climb over, but that animals cannot. It, too, is an in-between spot, imbued with magic because it sits between two worlds. Jane herself at that moment exists between two worlds: the world of loneliness and the world of love. Of course, Jane does not know it, but Bronte provides several typical fairy tale clues for the reader like the twilight setting and the stile. Twilight is not only a magical in-between time in fairy tales, but also serves as a significant interlude in many religions. On the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, Reuben Zellman says, “The rising of the sun and its going down are moments that we cannot label with certainty, and all the more so the twilight of the evening of the new year. ‘Our sages taught: As to twilight, it is doubtful whether it is part day and part night, or whether all of it is day or all of it is night’” (Zellman, 2006). For Jews, sundown starts a new day; Shabbat begins at sundown as do holidays. For Muslims, it is the same. So, twilight is not just magical, it has religious significance too and has been considered a supernatural time of day for thousands of years. So, it is not just magic that Bronte is representing, but something more like a combination of fate, magic, and divine intervention. Such a significant time as twilight has some sort of otherworldly meaning in Jane Eyre. Bronte perhaps wanted to emphasize her belief that God has a plan, which may include a mate, for everyone’s life. The meeting of that future mate may seem magical as it does with Jane and Rochester. As Rochester approaches on horseback, Jane narrating the story says that she is reminded of folkloric tales. “The memories of nursery tales were there amongst other rubbish; . . .As this horse approached, and I watched for it to appear through the dusk, I remembered certain of Bessie’s tales, wherein figured a North-of-England spirit called a ‘Gytrash’; which, in the form of horse, mule, or large dog, haunted solitary ways, and sometimes came upon belated travelers, as this horse was now coming upon me” (Bronte, 1847, 1966, 1987, p. 143). The “Gytrash” turns out to be Rochester on a horse accompanied by a dog, but as soon as Jane sees that what she thought was a mythical spectral is really a man, “The man, the human being broke the spell at once” (Bronte, 1847, 1966, 1987, p. 144). Even though the mythical spell is broken, the magic between Jane and Rochester is just beginning. The moment of meeting is not only is it magical for Jane, but for Rochester too. “Jane's first meeting with Rochester is a fairy-tale meeting, he appears the very essence of patriarchal energy, a kind of Cinderella's prince” (Gilbert & Gubar, 1979, p. 351). He falls from his horse after seeing Jane standing in the twilight. She can see him plainly because “Something of daylight still lingered, and the moon was waxing bright; I could see him plainly” (Bronte, 1847, 1966, 1987, p. 145). Rochester says, “When you came on me in Hay Lane last night, I thought unaccountably of fairy tales, and had half a mind to demand whether you had bewitched my horse” (Bronte, 1847, 1966, 1987, p. 153). He also accuses Jane of “waiting for her people” when she sat on the stile. Jane, practical and pious, does not know what he means until he explains by referencing “men in green” and “break[ing] one of her rings” (p. 154). Perhaps Rochester is referring to leprechauns or goblins who dance in rings to create magic, but it is never fully explained because Jane says, “The men in green all forsook England a hundred years ago,” making the housekeeper drop her knitting needles in shock at such talk (p. 154). But, the magic does not end there. In fact, as chapter 18 ends, a fortune teller—another emblem of fate or magic—has appeared at Rochester’s party and wants to tell Jane’s fortune. In fact, the gipsy insists upon it. Blanche Ingram wanted to go first and came back disappointed, so this may be a clue to what the fortune teller has in store for Jane. This is just another element of magic that Bronte has woven into the novel. Whenever twilight or gates or any other “in between” places are mentioned in Jane Eyre, readers should pay attention because there is magic about to happen! Works Cited Bronte, C. (1847, 1966, 1987). Jane Eyre. London: Penguin Classics. Cadwallader, J. (2009). ‘Formed for labour, not for love’: Plain Jane and the Limits of Female Beauty. Bronte Studies, , 34 (3), 2324-246. Gilbert, S. M., & Gubar, S. (1979). The Madwoman in the Attic. New Haven and London: Yale UP. Heiniger, A. (2006). The Faery and the Beast. Bronte Studies , 31, 23-29. Matus, J. (2002). Strong family likeness. (H. Glen, Ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Brontes , Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge UP. 23 September 2011. Zellman, R. (2006). The Holiness of Twilight. Retrieved September 24, 2011, from TransTorah: http://www.transtorah.org/PDFs/Holiness_of_Twilight.pdf Read More