On this day in 1847, Jane Eyre was published for the first time by Charlotte Bronte, writing as Currer Bell! This three-volume novel, written and published in secret by a painfully shy woman to help shore up her family's finances, would become one of the most famous stories of all time. It has been translated into at least 57 languages at least 593 times.
The two sister protagonists in my novel Veiled in Smoke are big fans of Charlotte Bronte. They are bookstore owners, so it stands to reason Meg and Sylvie feel passionately about books. So as part of my preparation to write their story, I read Jane Eyre and Villette, along with biographies of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell and Claire Harman.
Based on all of that reading, here are three things I appreciate about Jane Eyre and its author.
1. Charlotte Bronte was deliberate about creating a heroine that was not beautiful.
In the Gaskell biography, we read:
She once told her sisters that they were wrong--even morally wrong--in making their heroines beautiful as a matter of course. They replied that it was impossible to make a heroine interesting on any other terms. Her answer was, 'I will prove to you that you are wrong; I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours.' Hence 'Jane Eyre,' said she in telling the anecdote: 'but she is not myself, any further than that.'
I love this about Charlotte and Jane, and find it very forward-thinking. Of course there's nothing wrong with being beautiful. But the idea that it isn't a prerequisite for heroines translates into readers' lives, doesn't it? We don't have to achieve a certain society-set ideal of beauty in order to be the heroines of our own stories.
2. Charlotte took her faith very seriously, and wasn't afraid to admit her struggles.
That is, she wasn't afraid to admit them to her friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. There is a line in Jane Eyre, spoken by Mr. Rochester, which states: "I wish to be a better man than I have been; than I am.”
Whether Charlotte intended it or not, this is an echo of her own heart. Consider the following, which she confided in a letter to Gaskell:
I do wish to be better than I am. I pray fervently sometimes to be made so. I have stings of conscience, visitings of remorse, glimpses of holy, of inexpressible things, which formerly I used to be a stranger to; it may all die away, and I may be in utter midnight, but I implore a merciful Redeemer, that, if this be the dawn of the gospel, it may still brighten to perfect day.
Then in a different letter, she wrote:
When I decide on an action I scarcely remember to look to my Redeemer for direction. I know not how to pray; I cannot bend my life to the grand end of doing good; I go on constantly seeking my own pleasure, pursuing the gratification of my own desires. I forget God, and will not God forget me? And, meantime, I know the greatness of Jehovah; I acknowledge the perfection of His word; I adore the purity of the Christian faith; my theory is right, my practice horribly wrong.
I think we can all relate to this struggle. It reminds me of what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:15. "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
What I love is that Charlotte considered her Christian faith worth working at, even when it was hard. She considered improving herself a worthwhile endeavor, even when she stumbled.
3. Jane Eyre displays conviction and strength at her darkest hour.
Near the end of Jane Eyre, Jane is utterly distraught over the fate of Mr. Rochester, but refuses to compromise her own moral compass to help him herself. I love this moment of spiritual strength in the novel:
Worn out with this torture of thought, I rose to my knees. Night was come, and her planets were risen: a safe, still night; too serene for the companionship of fear. We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us: and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. I had risen to my knees to pray for Mr. Rochester. Looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty milky-way. Remembering what it was—what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light—I felt the might and strength of God. Sure was I of His efficiency to save what He had made: convinced I grew that neither earth should perish, nor one of the souls it treasured. I turned my prayer to thanksgiving: the Source of Life was also the Savior of spirits. Mr. Rochester was safe: he was God’s and by God would he be guarded. I again nestled to the breast of the hill; and ere long, in sleep, forgot sorrow.
That's my favorite part of the book. The passage above is also one that my character Sylvie references in Veiled in Smoke when she is navigating her own trial.
There's certainly more to appreciate and more to discuss from Jane Eyre, but I'll leave it at that for now.
Did any of these quotes surprise you in any way? Which one(s)?
