Jane Eyre Critics

Reception and early reviews
1. Well received, but censure due to critical representation of religion,vivid emotio, love which transcens class
2. Elizabeth Rigby 1948 'the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code human and divine.... Is the same which nas also written Jane Eyre'
3. Critics saw as having a dangerous underlying message
  1. Jane seen as strong minded and independent, godless and unrestrained
  2. Seen as reflecting Bronte's personality
Contemporary approaches
1. Psychoanalytical readings
  1. Bertha seems opposite to Jane
    1. Imlay 1989 both women are represented at times in similar ways
      1. Bertha seen as ghost/vampire, Rochester sees Jane as witch/imp.
      2. Bertha scratches and bites, Jane scratches John Reed
      3. Jane loses control and put in red room
  2. Gilbert and Gabbar
    1. Bertha is Jane's night-time double
      1. "Bertha is Jane's truest and darkest double; she is the angry aspect Of the orphan, the ferocious secret self Jane has been trying to repress ever since her days at Gateshead
2. Souvlaki 1985
  1. Jane has more rational approach then Bertha
    1. Jane is middle class Protestant
    2. Bertha colonial subject
      1. Rhys novel WideSargasso Sea gives different perspective as give Bertha's prequel
Feminist criticism
1. Radical text in which a woman wrote successfully about the treatment of women in society
  1. Gilbert and Gubar 1979: Madwoman in the Attic
    1. Tend to stress political purpose of novel and advocate for women, as was criticised for initially
    2. Fairy tale transposed to real world and radical implications
Early 20th Century
1. David Cecil 1934 critics scathing because novel is in part fairy tale or narrative of wish fulfillment
2. Seen as
  1. Incoherently written
  2. Containing unnecessary over poetic prose
  3. Plot seen as dependent on luck and coincidence
3. Q.D. Leavis 1966
  1. Argued it was tightly composed with coherent structure and thoroughly controlled in the interest of the theme
  2. That Jane's thoughts and feelings are imagined on the deepest level
Marxist criticism
1. Reassessed the context.....ambiguity of Jane'ssocial position and social mobility which belied the time
  1. Williams 1970
    1. Tensions reflected in representation of desire and fear of isolation
      1. The novel's passion is communicated through a kind of private conversation between reader and narrator
  2. Eagleton 1975
    1. Key theme is submission and when this ceases to be a good thing
      1. Jane is able to climb the social ladder on her own terms
    2. Deconstructionist
      1. Can have interpretations that are opposites yet intertwined
        Eg Rochester thinks his marriage destroyed home yet reader can see it gave him financial independence and social position

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Jane Eyre Critics

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