Comment 21
’’Jane Eyre’’ by Charlotte Bronte is one of the best books you can ever read. The setting for this novel is in the northern England countryside and the fictitious villages of Gateshead Hall, Lowood, Millcote, and Moor House during the 19th century. In this novel, we get to recognize the conflicts between love and independence, conscience and passion, and the struggle of a young girl and woman to maintain her self-esteem.
Concerning the author, Charlotte Bronte was an English novelist and poet, and the eldest of three Bronte sisters who were all writers. Born in Thornton, Yorkshire, in 1816, Charlotte's father was an Irish Anglican clergyman. After Charlotte's mother died of cancer in 1821, the clergyman and also father had no time to care for his daughters. Therefore, in August of 1824, he sent Charlotte with her two sisters to the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. This school became the basis for Lowood School in the novel Jane Eyre. Bronte then continued her education at Roe Head in Mirfield 1831-1832 and became a teacher there between 1835-1838. During the period 1843-1844, Charlotte attended a language school in Brussels, Belgium, where she fell in love with a married professor at the school. This life experience is strongly shown in Jane Eyre in the relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester at Thornfield Hall.
The main character of the story is Jane Eyre, a nine-year-old orphan, who is being raised by her maternal aunt, Mrs. Reed. The story begins with Jane telling her life story in the first person. She relates how as an orphan since being a baby, she has been raised by her maternal uncle's wife, Mrs. Reed. Recently she has been treated very cruelly both physically and emotionally by her aunt and cousins. Later, her aunt decides to send Jane to a boarding school for orphans at Lowood School. After being a model student and surviving a typhoid epidemic at the school during her first year, Jane graduates from Lowood six years later and stays two more years as a teacher.
Later, shortly after finding work as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Jane starts to find some real happiness in life. She is entrusted with educating the ward of the master of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester, a man of about 40. After formally meeting Mr. Rochester and numerous hours spent talking together, Jane truly falls in love with him. However, a series of bizarre and spooky events occur at Thornfield Hall which forces Jane to leave and seek her fortune in another place.
All in all, ‘’Jane Eyre’’ is an exciting and captivating love story. What’s more, the early sequences, in which Jane is sent to a boarding school in Lowood, are based on the author's own experiences, which makes the story even more interesting.
