Nov 03, 2008 05:19 PM
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When I first read this book little did I know that this is one book I will go back to reading again and again. The first time I read it I truly felt the book was Victorian too conservative, too stuffy, talk about giving up the love of your life only cause he is not legally divorced and suffering loneliness and refusing to move on with life. But then I could not stop reading it again because there was this elusive quality to the Jane character. On the surface of it she is actually too much of a sufferer to be your avarage heroine, but as I read it again I realized the silent strenght imbibed into the character. Well it still reeks of medival modern christian woman prototype but hey, the author was after all from the old world she was not exactly writing for the empowered women of this century.
There are some scenes in the book that are great master pieces, like the argument between Mr.Rochester and Jane after she finds out the truth, the one where Mr.Rochester comes dressed as a gypsy and ofcourse the one where he proposes to her. Simply superb narrative and dialouges.
Overall the writing style in great but there is some symbolisim attached that might generally be lost on the average 21st century reader like lightining striking down an old chestnut tree after Mr.Rochester proposes to Jane and her dreams on the eve of her marraige.
None of the characters in the plot or simple, they have so many layers to them and so many varied. Take Jane's aunt who detests her yet feels so intensely about her behaviour that she goes crazy towards the end yet she cannot truly forgive Jane for standing up to her. Then there is Jane's cousin who is a missionary who loves for some other girl yet insists that Jane marry him because she is a worthy missionary's wife. Of course Mr.Rochester who tries to capture love through lies and manipulation, a dark brooding character who revels in his strengh gaurding his secters, a sinner looking for redemption yet who will have it only on his terms.
The book is definitely worth reading because it has depth, variety and it grows on you gradually. It is a story of a simple woman who never finds love as a child and yet when she finds it for the first time she has the courage and the strengh to walk away for she believes it is the right thing to do. Then again when she is offered marraige she does the unthinkable, in her times, by refusing to marry without love. She is a monument to silent strengh and courage and a tribute to women all over. All you girls/woman out there pick it up and celebrate your strength and boys/men pick it up to know what you should be looking for in a woman.
