But Now, I Thought

I'm not sure how to say this without sounding pretentious, but I'm pretty well read. I've been around the proverbial literary block and because of this, I thought I knew what to expect from Jane Eyre. Not only were my expectations completely wrong, I had absolutely no concept of what I was getting myself into. It was an exhilarating experience. Every now and again, there is a novel that is really, truly new. It's a departure from everything that has been done before. It strikes out into new terrain. Jane Eyre is a novel like that.

The most remarkable thing about the novel to me, and to most of the people I've talked to about this book, is how strong the character of Jane is. She's a force of nature. She marches to the beat of her own drum. She thinks, and she decides things.  At a crucial point in the narrative, Jane makes this statement that sums up her attitude toward life brilliantly.

"till now I had only heard, seen, moved-followed up and down where I was lead or dragged- watched event rush upon event, disclosure open upon disclosure: but now, I thought." (pg. 267)

Rather than being pushed about from plot point to plot point, Jane's character makes things happen, and takes charge of her own life. 

Portrait by J.H. Thompson at the Bronte Parsonage Museum

Reading about the history of this novel more, I found that Jane comes by her fortitude and depth of character honestly. Charlotte Bronte, the author of Jane Eyre, lived a very individualistic life. She lost her mother and several siblings when she was young. She, like Eyre, lived and eventually worked at schools far away from home. She wrote, despite social pressures, and published under a pseudonym in order to protect her privacy and to conceal her gender.

She didn't do what people thought was proper. She did was she decided to do, including, at one point, falling deeply in love with a married man. Bronte endowed her heroine with the same strong character that she had in abundance, and people felt the effects of it.

The book was a hit immediately. People saw it as fresh, raw and challenging the status quo- which it was. A book detailing the life of a woman who chose who she was going to be, who defied the circumstances of her birth and made something, not only respectable, but remarkable of herself, was in direct contrast to the almost fatalistic view of socioeconomic standing and rank-by-birth that prevailed at the time.

 It was revolutionary to purport that a man could become something of his own choosing- even more so to assert that a woman could do the same. It struck the hearts and deepest desires of everyone who read it, and it's still doing that today.

We are a lot more free to decide our own futures than those who read this book on it's first printing, but the message of unwavering identity, of choosing your own path, still resonates soundly. All of us, especially women, are still trying to find our voices. We're still trying to find the ground we're most comfortable standing on, and Jane Eyre speaks to that search eloquently.

The obstacles may change, the end goals may shift, but the yearning of the human soul to be expressed and individual will always be the same. And for as long as people are looking to the future with a hope of a better tomorrow, Jane Eyre will be there to urge them on.
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