How Jane Eyre Scandalised Victorian High Society | Literary Classics | Absolute History

[Music] upon its release in 1847 janire was instantly recognized as a masterpiece of literature the novel is both a critique and a celebration of Victorian society and remains as engaging and entertaining as ever Jane I never meant to wound youas if the man who had but one little Ulan that was as dear to him as a daughter that ate of his bread drank of his cup lay in his bosom had by some mistake slaughtered of the shambles he could not Ru his bloody blunder more than I now Ru mine will you ever forgive [Music] me reader I forgave him at the moment and on the spot there was such deep remorse in his eye such true pity in his tone and such manly energy in his Manner and besides Ides there was such unchanged love in his whole look and mean I forgave him all yet not in words not outwardly only at my heart's call O Jer is a marvelous novel it's one of those most powerful and influential novels in the whole of English literature uh it leaves a lasting impact I think on anybody who has read it and it had a tremendous effect on the world the literary world that came after it its author Charlotte Bronte was born on the 21st of April 1816 to the Reverend Patrick Bronte and his wife Maria she was their third daughter and the next four years would see the birth of two more daughters Emily Jane and Anne as well as a son branwell when Charlotte was 4 years old the family moved from shopshire to Hoth a small miltown in West Yorkshire where the Reverend Bronte held a permanent position in the local Parish we have to remember that Charlotte Bronte herself was only five when her mother died uh she herself said later that she had no memory of her mother instead Charlotte grew up in a household of sisters and one brother it was her siblings who were terribly important to her and the household was ruled ruled and I think ruled is probably the right word by a father who was quite distant from them who found it difficult to express love uh the other major influence on her life uh and a parental role was her aunt who came to live with them after her mother's death well came actually shortly before her mother died but in her earliest years uh Charlotte was surrounded by sickness by illness by the spirit of death and I think you can see that brooding and gloomy atmosphere very forcibly in the first part of Jan a uh and also perhaps the search for an identity um as an orphan Charlotte's early life was a time of some sadness her mother died in 1821 and Charlotte and Emily along with their older sisters Maria and Elizabeth were sent to cowbridge clergy daughters School the harsh conditions of this institution are reflected in Charlotte's description of lowwood in Jane air our clothing was insufficient to protect us from the severe cold we had no boots the snow got into our shoes and melted there our ungloved hands became numbed and covered with chill blaines as were our feet then the scanty supply of food was distressing with the Keen appetites of growing children we had scarcely sufficient to keep alive a delicate invalid they time at Cohen Bridge was brought to an end by an epidemic of tuberculosis which swept through the school causing the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth at home once more Charlotte and her siblings were cared for by their mother's and married sister Miss Elizabeth branwell and their education was overseen by their father the Reverend Bronte had been born into a poor laboring family in County Down Ireland and only by his own determined efforts had he been able to over overcome these early disadvantages he succeeded in graduating from Cambridge University and entering the Church of England he was therefore acutely aware of the value of education and he encouraged his children to make full use of the library at howth parsonage with little else to amuse them the Bronte children read widely and in the mid 1820s they began to take an interest in writing for themselves they created long romantic sagas set in imaginary kingdoms Charlotte and branwell's fantasy world was called angria and Emily and an's was gondal they continued to add to these tales for over 10 years Charlotte and all her sisters were voracious readers they learned to read very early they had a lot of books at home and they had access to to private libraries in um stately homes near where they lived they couldn't stop reading and the impact of what they read is very present in Jane a the writer who is often stated as being the most influential is Lord Byron and you see the byonic hero in in Rochester uh The Man of Action the man of passion the man who carries with him Dark Secrets um the man who is impulsive uh whom you can never really fathom uh who where there are touches of evil in the background it is that that has the most enduring influence on jire Charlotte returned briefly to rad as a teacher in 1835 and in 1839 she went to work as a governor firstly to the white family and subsequently to the swick these experiences were far from enjoyable and her dislike of teaching is mentioned frequently in her letters and journals of those years also during this period Charlotte received and refused two proposals of marriage it was not until Charlotte and Emily went to study at the pchar heer in Brussels in 1842 that Charlotte fell hopelessly in love unfortunately it was with Constantin heer the school's proprietor who was happily married and he did not in any way reciprocate Charlotte's feelings Charlotte's first realistic novel The Professor was however not a success it was rejected by Publishers when it was completed in 1846 and only appeared in print after Charlotte's death her second novel Jane air which appeared in 1847 was greeted with great enthusiasm by both Publishers and the reading public alike now established as a successful writer orbe it initially under the vaguely masculine pseudonym of kurabell Charlotte was able to dedicate herself to literature she published Shirley a story set amidst Lite riots and Industrial unees in 1849 and vet her most autobiographical work in 1853 in 1854 a proposal of marriage came from Arthur Bel Nichols her father's assistant although Charlotte's feelings for the Reverend Nichols lacked the intensity of those she had had for Miss haer she accepted his proposal we do not know whether Charlotte would have continued to write great novels after her marriage or whether she would simply have settled down to her duties as a curate's wife Charlotte Bronte died of dehydration as a result of pneumonia In 1855 one year after her marriage marriage she was 39 years old and pregnant with her first child she is buried at the Hoth [Music] passage her most famous novel Jane air clearly reflects many aspects of Charlotte's own life the hardships endured at lowwood school Jane's experiences as a governess her love for a man who is already married but to what extent is Jane air an autobiographical novel some elements of j a are no doubt autobiographical the terrible conditions at lowwood Echo the conditions at cow and Bridge the um outbreak of typhus fever recalls the fever which killed Mariah and Elizabeth Bronte um John Reed's drunken excesses are no doubt based on branwell's even the character of Jane herself small and plain sounds a bit like Charlotte and maybe when Jane says that she wishes she were more aesthetically pleasing that May well be Charlotte's own sentiment the novel begins with the young Jane living in the house of her unpleasant relations the reads Jane's Uncle Mr Reed appears to have been a kind man who undertook to care for his orphan niece as his own following his death however his wife's resentment of Jane becomes apparent Jane can do no right whilst Mrs Reed's own spoiled selfish children can do no wrong her aunt sends her to lowwood school on the understanding that Jane will remain there even during vacation times lowood is initially a terrible and frightening place the food is poor the clothing is inadequate and the whole establishment is run by the hypocritical Mr brocklehurst who Advocates these privations for the pupils while at the same time providing silk dresses and other luxuries for his wife and daughters although brocklehurst is unpl Pleasant to the other girls in the school he seems to take a particular dislike to Jane whom he attempts to Brand a liar in front of the other pupils fortunately lowwood has some compensations Jane makes friends with a longsuffering and Pious older girl Helen Burns whom critics believe to be modeled upon Charlotte's own elder sister Maria Jane also meets Miss Temple a kind and compassionate teacher who is was able to appreciate Janee for her good qualities an epidemic of fever breaks out in the school after which brocklehurst loses his power and conditions improve Jane remains at the school as a teacher until Miss Temple leaves to get married and Jane begins to wish for greater stimulation than the school can provide she advertises her Services as a governor and is offered a position at thornfield Hall her charge is a friend girl called Adele varen Adele is spoiled and willful but she is also sweet and well-meaning Jane's experiences of govering and of teaching in general seemed to be better than Charlotte bronte's own Jane a is a novel that is about repression and it's about a free spirit it's about somebody trying to escape institutions so the experiences at lowwood school are some of the harshest and angriest experiences of the novel uh Jana objects violently to being regimented she objects to ways in which men repress women at school whether they are teachers or whether they are little girls she objects to the fact that the children all have to have their haircut in the same way uh she objects to the punishment she objects to the hypocrisy that she sees in the Victorian educational system that masquerades under the guise of being a charitable Institution thus far Jane has only come into contact with her pupil the servants and the housekeeper Mrs Fairfax the Master of the House Edward Rochester is away on business when Rochester returns he and Jane are clearly attracted to each other although Jane is not aware of the depth of her feelings she believes he is drawn to the hay blanch Ingram whose social status is much near his own you've been resident in my house for 3 months yes sir where do you come from from lowwood school ah a charitable institution how long were you there 8 years 8 years you must be tenacious of life I would have thought half that time time in a place like that would have done up any Constitution no wonder you have rather an otherworldly look about you I marveled where you'd got that sort of face when you came upon me in Hal Lane last night I thought unaccountably of fairy stories and I was about to demand whether you had Bewitched my horses I'm not sure yet where are your parents I have none orever how that I suppose do you remember them no I thought not do you have any other sort of kins folk uncles and a no none that I can remember go home I I have none where do your brothers and sisters live I have no brothers and sisters who recommended you to come here I advertised and Mrs Fairfax answered my advertisement class was very important in the 19th century both in fact and in fiction charlot was quite familiar with work the working classes and the middle classes though she had more difficulty um with the upper classes with whom she wasn't particularly familiar discover the past with exclusive history documentaries from history hit and uncover the secrets of some of the most famous people and events in history history hit gives you access to a growing range of documentaries presented by and featuring historians at the Forefront of research and debate whether you are looking to find out more about charismatic leaders like Cleopatra or to discover the story behind the industrial revolution history hit will have something for you we also aim to bring you the stories and legends that shaped our world through our award-winning podcast Network sign up now for a free trial and absolute history fans get 50% off their first 3 months just be sure to use the code absolute history at checkout you have lived the life of a nun no doubt you are well drilled in religious forms brocklehurst who I understand directs lowood is a Parson is he not yes sir and I'm sure you get girls worship him as a coment full of religioes would worship their director oh no you are very cool no how a novice not worship our director that sounds Blasphemous I disliked Mr Brookhurst and I was not alone in the feeling he is a harsh man at once ppus and meddling he cut off our hair and for economy sake bought us bad thread and needles with which we could hardly sew and was that the head front of his offending he starved us when he had so superintendence of the provision Department before the committee was appointed and he bored us with long lectures once a week and with evening readings from books of his own indicting about sudden deaths and judgments which made us afraid to go to [Music] bed whilst she has been living at thornfield Jane has occasionally heard a woman's strange manic laughter coming from the upper reaches of the house she assumes that a servant with a taste for strong drink is the source when a fire almost breaks out in Rochester's bed chamber he himself confirms Jane's suspicion however various other events occur which gradually reveal to Jane as well as to the reader that there is something more peculiar going on in the house than just the drunken excesses of a maid who is there who's [Music] there who's [Music] there a stranger Mr Mason arrives at the house and is mysteriously wounded during the night before Jane has time to discover more she receives a message that her Aunt Reed is dying and returns to her childhood home Mrs Reed shows No Remorse at the way she has treated Jane over the years but she does reveal that Jane has a rich relative John air whose existence she had previously kept secret Mrs Reed dies and Jane returns to thornfield where Rochester proposes to her Jane accepts although we sense that she may have some misgivings about the match then 2 days before her wedding Jane finds her bridal veil torn to shreds and on the day of her marriage a man appears and announces that Rochester already has a wife her name is Bera and because she is insane she is kept locked in the Attic Grace pool is her keeper although because of her fondness for alcohol not the most effective of jailers it is Bera not Grace who has been heard laughing and who has occasionally escaped to wound Mason her own brother and Destroy Jane's Veil although Rochester ins insists that he was trapped into his first marriage Jane is horrified at the deception which has taken place Jane a is composed of a series of Unforgettable uh Tableau really little Cameo scenes the wedding scene is one of these because the whole point about a wedding scene is that's normally the moment at which the Victorian novel ends you only have to think of earlier fictions things like um J novels for example they end with marriage uh what happens in Jane a is that you actually get what would you would expect to be the closure of that novel halfway through the book and it changes the direction of Jam's life does anyone here present know any just cause or impediment why these two persons here may not lawfully be joined together in holy matrimony the marriage cannot go on I declare the existence of an impediment proceed I cannot proceed the marriage is quite broken off I am in a condition to prove my allegation an insuperable impediment to this marriage exists what is the nature of this impediment can it not be overcome hardly I have called it insuperable and I speak advisedly it simply consists in the existence of a previous marriage Mr Rochester has a wife now living who are you my name is Briggs the solicitor from London and you would thrust upon me a wife I would remind you of your lady's existence sir which the law recognizes if you do not favor me with an account of her of her name her parentage the place of her Abode certainly I affirm and can prove that on the 20th of October 15 years ago Edward Fairfax Rochester of thornfield Hall and of fern Dean Manor in England was married to my sister Bera anetta Mason daughter of Jonas Mason Merchant and of anetta his wife a Creole in Spanish toown Jamaica the record of the marriage can be found in the register of that church a copy of it is now in my possession signed Richard Mason that if a genuine document may prove that I have been married but it does not prove that the woman mentioned there in is my wife is still living she was living 3 months ago how do you know that I have a witness to the fact whose testimony even you sir will scarcely controvert produc soon will go to hell my hopes were all dead I looked on my cherished wishes yesterday so blooming and glowing they lay Stark chill livid corpses that could never revive Mr Rochester was not to me what he had been for he was not what I had thought him I would not ascribe Vice to him I would not say he had betrayed me but the attribute of stainless truth was gone from his idea she leaves thornfield having lost all her money she finds herself destitute and homeless fortunately she is taken in by a clergyman the somewhat taciturn singen rivers and his two sisters Mary and Diana primary way in which religion is portrayed in the novel is through um figures who actually profess religious beliefs Charlotte however doesn't give us these three figures as people to emulate and they all come to rather sticky ends Helen dies of consumption in Jane's arms singen Rivers is dispatched to India to be a missionary still unmarried and the implication is that he won't have long to live and Mr brockel Hurst has perhaps the most ignominious end for one of his despotic temperament he's replaced by a committee Rivers is able to find Jane work in a girl's school where she is quite content it is soon revealed however that the rivers are Jane's cousins and that the rich Uncle mentioned by Mrs Reed on her deathbed has died leaving his fortune in equal parts to them and to Jane the poor orphan is now a woman of means singen Rivers intends to go to India as a missionary he is romantically involved with a young Society woman Rosalind Oliver Rosalind however does not possess the qualities which rivers believes are necessary for a missionary's wife Jane on the other hand does he proposes marriage Jane who is aware that he does not love her refuses Jana is passionate about Rochester um there's the scene where he proposes to her on Midsummer eveeve in the garden at thornfield Hall is I think if you read it as a careful reader and are alert to the hidden signals one of the most passionately erotic scenes in Victorian literature however Jane refuses to live with Rochester as his mistress she refuses to be seduced by him she goes against her inner feelings of longing um she overcomes desire in order to conform to what she believes is right and I think there is a sense in which her duty is to be seen at this point not merely as conforming to Christian duty but actually a sense of her personal Integrity it's a real questioning of the clashing desires that are within Jane some time passes and Jane begins to think that perhaps she was wrong to refuse River's proposal she is at the point of agreeing to this Loveless marriage when she hears Rochester's voice calling to her she returns to thornfield where she finds the house and Bera have been destroyed in a fire Rochester is now blinded and disabled but he is free to marry give me the water Mary what's the matter that is you Mary is it not Mary is in the kitchen will you have a little more water sir I spilled half of what was in the glass who is it what is it oh who's speaks great God what delusion has come over me what sweet madness has seized me no delusion no Madness your mind sir is too strong for delusion your health too sound for frenzy who speaks is it only your voice oh I cannot see but I must feel or else my heart will stop and my brain will burst whoever whatever but be perceptible to the touch or I cannot go on living these are fingers a small fine fingers if so there must be more of it Jan what is it this is her shape this is her size and this is her voice she is all here her heart too God bless you sir I am glad to be so near you again J Janet my dear master I have found you out I am come back to you truth in the flesh my living J you touch me sir you hold me and fast enough I am not cold like a corpse nor vacant like air am I my living darling the her lims these are features oh I cannot be so blessed after all my misery what is a dream such a dream that I have had a night when I have clasped her to my bosom as I do now and felt that she loved me I trusted that she would never leave me which I never will sir from this day does the novel have a happy ending Charlotte probably wished us to believe that it did and indeed some Modern critics choose to interpret it as a Triumph of female determination and fortitude others however have a different View I don't think that Jane a can really be regarded as an early feminist role model um certainly she's the heroine of her story and for the most part she's independent but this is an enforced Independence she doesn't choose to Rebel she's made to by circumstances when Rochester for example decides that he wants to deck her out in Fine Jewelry she rejects his gifts but this isn't out of a feminist principle she doesn't feel that by taking gifts from a rich man she'll be sacrificing her her identity as a human being or her equality in 1847 there was no equality between men and women it was an ideology of separate spheres I think that Jane herself is a strong role model in part because she refuses to conform to other Victorian role models of women what we find in Jane a is that Jane herself is measured again and rejects a whole range of Victorian stereotypes of femininity the words reader I married him are perhaps the most famous in the whole [Music] novel

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Length: 31min 25sec (1885 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 14 2024