A quick perusal of Wikipedia reveals that Jane Eyre inspired a huge number of adaptations in film, music and television form throughout the 20th century, involving such names as Hitchcock, Welles, and Huxley. I would suggest that this is due to the timeless structure of the plot and its miraculous convergence with the narrator's own thoughts about romance and purposeful life. Film pitch: independent woman is down for some reason or other, meets some guy who is totally not her type, God, goes off and does something else, gets the guy in the end once he's renounced his fault(s) in her eyes. I don't know how common it was to have a female first-person narrator in the mold of Jane Eyre in the 19th century, but in its favour Jane Eyre does at least pass the DTWOF test.
Jane certainly wouldn't warrant a profile in Ms., but she is a perfect match for what I would call "post-feminism", which in its extremest form is roughly "that set of views in which a woman who dresses tarty, gets smashed, and sleeps around is the really free feminist". To transpose to the context of Jane Eyre: Jane is a free woman, free to choose the life of a dutiful wife with the perfect man, but not until he's really proven himself and she has proven that she could have got on without him.
But enough of this more-feminist-than-thou mockery. Jane Eyre is a great read, well-paced and well-written (apart from the occasional spell of overwritten dialogue) with a classic plot that ends well for all the characters Bronte has you sympathise with. Remove the Christian moralizing and the weird demon wife and you've pretty much got the blueprint for a modern romantic film script. I'd like to conclude by quoting my favourite passage from Jane Eyre:
Ahh, unrequited love...
Jane certainly wouldn't warrant a profile in Ms., but she is a perfect match for what I would call "post-feminism", which in its extremest form is roughly "that set of views in which a woman who dresses tarty, gets smashed, and sleeps around is the really free feminist". To transpose to the context of Jane Eyre: Jane is a free woman, free to choose the life of a dutiful wife with the perfect man, but not until he's really proven himself and she has proven that she could have got on without him.
But enough of this more-feminist-than-thou mockery. Jane Eyre is a great read, well-paced and well-written (apart from the occasional spell of overwritten dialogue) with a classic plot that ends well for all the characters Bronte has you sympathise with. Remove the Christian moralizing and the weird demon wife and you've pretty much got the blueprint for a modern romantic film script. I'd like to conclude by quoting my favourite passage from Jane Eyre:
"Are you well?" she asked. Well might she put the question: his face was blanched as her gown.
"Quite well," he enunciated; and, with a bow, he left the gate. She went one way; he another. She turned twice to gaze after him as she tripped fairy-like down the field; he, as he strode firmly across, never turned at all.
Ahh, unrequited love...
Looks like someone has changed his tune from book club, I seem to remember everyone saying there was less romance than an ACT on Campus group meeting.
ReplyDeleteI've really got to stop this compulsive insulting of ACT on Campus. Its going to get me assassinated.
I'm sure ACT on Campus would point to
ReplyDeleteAtlas Shrugged as a magnificent achievement in romantic writing.