Forgive the deliberately provoking title, I was feeling dramatic.
I’m determined to finish Jane Eyre because I want to read “Wide Sargasso Sea” but jeez, Edward Rochester is the most unpalatable pos. Obviously this book was written in the 1800s, ~~well before the suffragette movement~~ but other writers of the time (Charlotte’s own sister even) were examining domestic abuse in their work so it’s interesting that Jane Eyre might show the most subtle examination of the machinations of controlling abusers.
After Rochester proposes, he tells Jane that the best part of marrying her is that she has no relations. He also wants to send Adele off to boarding school when they marry. Isolate from people who care about her? Check.
He tries to dress her like a doll, bedeck her in jewels and silks. She rebels and instead of recognizing her as a person, he delights in making her anxious. Controlling her appearance? Check.
Mrs. Fairfax says Jane is Mr. Rochester’s “little pet” and tries to warn her off him. This annoys Jane and puts distance between them.
Mr. Rochester is always calling Jane weirdly possessive and diminutive pet names while the writer hints at his lust in the moment- “my good little girl” etc. At some point, Mrs. Fairfax points out that he’s more like a father to her than an equal which makes Jane balk.
I can’t help but feel, especially because Jane is really chaffing against these aspects of Rochester’s courtship, that Charlotte was trying to explore how abuse looks early on, how to tell when something is going to be toxic before it goes to far. She also is very frank about the things that make Jane vulnerable to Rochester: her loveless childhood, her lack of family support, the reliance of women on men to provide for them financially…
But then, the ending. Why put them together in the end after all this exposition that the man is, tbh, awful? Am I putting too much of my modern sensibilities into reading this?
Thoughts?
EDIT: Wow, I did not expect this to blow up to the degree that this did. Obviously people have strong opinions about Jane Eyre
I wanted to make a correction to my original post because u/I-hear-the-coast rightly pointed out that the suffragette movement, in the US, began in the 1840s and as u/Vio_ reminded me, Mary Wollstonecraft published “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” in the 1790s.
I also wanted to address the number of comments calling me variations on “ignorant”, or “uneducated” because I asked if Charlotte Bronte intended to imply that Jane was being “groomed”. While, yes, words like “feminist” didn’t enter the zeitgeist until the 1890s, and “kink” was not a subculture in the way we think of it today (even if there were fetishist practices in the 1800s that we would think of as “kinky” in today’s terms), I find it bizarre to argue that women like the Bronte’s weren’t thinking/talking about their rights, their limited agency, and even sex, when it’s a major theme in their books? Sure, it’s possible Charlotte didn’t have the vocabulary to talk about grooming, but she sure as heck knows how to depict Jane’s discomfort in how Rochester is treating her post-engagement.
Anyway, my point is, if I misrepresented history in my post, it’s in that I wasn’t generous enough to women of the 1800s. They understood their own oppression more than I gave them credit for originally. I’m sorry if I hit a nerve because you’re a Rochester or Bronte fan. I’m not coming to take your fave book from you. I really appreciate everyone‘s thoughtful responses here, and want to thank anyone who drew attention to my own mistakes.
EDIT 2: rereading my edit from last night and it definitely comes off spicy and condescending- especially the last part. Sorry to anyone I offended by that, it wasn’t the intent. I’ve really loved reading the dialog on this thread and am genuinely grateful to everyone for engaging with this subject.
by Nervous-Revolution25