简爱英文赏析

简爱英文赏析

AFTER READING JANE EYRE
If you love someone who also loves you, if the one who loves you wants to marry you and if you hope to be with him so earnestly, won’t you feel happy? But what if the one who loves you is married and what if he cannot get divorced with his wife who is insane and whom he doesn’t love at all? Will you still love him and stay together with him or will you choose to leave him? It is not an easy one for any of us to choose and it is also a tough choice for Jane Eyre. I couldn’t stop thinking all these questions after finishing the classic novel Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte.

The heroin of the novel, Jane orphaned when still an infant, lived with her aunt Reed and three cousins. Though her late uncle Mr. Reed on her mother’s side required his wife to treat Jane as her own child while dying, cruel Mrs. Reed raised Jane in a very cold and unloving way. As the maid said to little Jane “it’s your place to be humble”, but even if Jane remained humble- “dare commit no fault, strive to fulfill every duty”, she was still termed to be naughty and tiresome. Every one including the maids looked down upon her and Jane became very rebellious and was sent to Lowood School, a bleak charity school, at the age of eleven.

Lowood was prison-like and life there was not better. Conditions were poor at the school. Besides, when Jane first came there, the tyrannical master of the school humiliated Jane publicly. Not until typhus killed many of the students did conditions improved. Meanwhile, Jane studied hard and was very polite and she gained friendship and care from others. After she completed her education she became a teacher there and later she obtained a position as a governess at a house names Thornfield.

It was at Thornfield that the writer allocated most of her ink and it was there Jane met her lover, Mr. Rochester, owner of Thornfield. Mr. Rochester was around forty and he was rude and insensitive and with a very bad temper. Worst of all, he harbored a very big secret, which later proven to be an impediment in his marriage with Jane. Thought Mr. Rochester was the owner, he seldom stayed there. And Jane first saw him after several weeks of work there. At Thornfield, there were so many odd things: Jane often hears strange laughter and thuds. One night, Jane was woken up by strange noises and the smell of smoke. She found Rochester unconscious in his bed, which was on fire. Though Jane counld not know why there were so many odd things. She felt happy at Thornfield and gradually she found that Mr. Rochester was a gentle and kind person. At the same time, Jane has realized that she loves Rochester but in her pride refuses to confess it. Later, when Mr. Rochester proposed to Jane, she agreed with great joy. But God’s plan was unpredicted. And Jane had to make hard choices as mentioned at the very beginning of this article.

There is no doubt that the whole story is very fascinating and suspensive and when you start reading, you cannot help reading the next chapter and hope to know what is going to happen. In addition, the way Jane Eyre was written was also very good. The heroin Jane told us her own story from the start, in which way we can read her thoughts and feelings as if we were in her position.

Thought our focus is on Jane, rebellious, spirited, intelligent, and fiercely independent, the other characters in the novel can also catch our attention as we listen to Jane’s story. At her Aunt Reed’s, we will meet John Reed, Jane’s arrogant and spoiled cousin, who liked to beat Jane for punishment and amusement. At Lowood, we will encounter Helen, Jane’s best friend there who is overly mature and fatalistic; Mr. Brocklehurst, a mean master who humiliated Jane in public and Miss Temple, the superintendent who cared Jane and Helen. At Thornfield, we will see Jane’s student and Mr. Rochester’s ward Adele Varens, a loving but petulant girl and you cannot help guessing her own identity and the mad women Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester’s first wife who was kept in an antic but retaliated, trying to kill Rochester and ruining his home and name. And more after Jane’s choice between leave and stay. All characters are unforgettable.

Another amazing thing about the novel is that when it was initially published, it was subtitled "An Autobiography”. And to some extent, we can say it is the author’s autobiography. So we have to know something about the time when the author lived. Charlotte Bronte lived in the 18th century. At that time, the English workers organized the Chartist Movement. They demanded basic rights and better living and working conditions. The middle-class life of the time was characterized by prosperity、respectability and material progress. People as a whole were trying to live up to a national spirit of earnestness, respectability, modesty and domesticity. In the period, there were many famous novelists who were the critical realists. They concerned about the fate of the common people. They attacked the Victorian conventions and morals. Charlotee Bronte was among them. Actually she was sent to the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. "The food was poor and insufficient and they were treated with inhuman severity." Two of the Bronte sisters actually died as a result of the treatment and the sickness contracted there. Lowood should be modeled after the Clergy Daughter's Institution and Jane’s best friend Helen in some sense died just as Charlotte’s sisters did. Charlotte has done so many of the same things as Jane: she has attended the same sort of school, both as pupil and teacher; she has worked as a governess, and has fallen in love with an older man, and had to make hard choice to leave him. We did not know about Charlotte’s religious convictions, but as she was the daughter of a parson we might deduce that Jane’s mix of inbuilt Christian belief and natural moral independence are shared with her author.

Most importantly, "Jane Eyre" has many recurring themes including: relationships between men and women, their roles and limitations in society; relations between social classes; religion and morality; the need to fulfill the desires of loved ones versus the necessity to maintain one's personal integrity; the conflict between reason and passion, and, of course, Jane's deep need to love and be loved. However, primary to the tale is the magnificent, complex character of Jane herself.

If you want to know the details of story of Jane and if you want to feel her love with Mr. Rochester and if you cannot wait to know whether Jane can be together with Mr. Rochester at the end or not, and if you hope to see the beautiful surroundings in England, do not hesitate, just read Jane Eyre which will never fade with time.

And please allow me to end with Jane’s word, which is also my favorite:

“I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities or even of moral flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal as we are!”

very good