Jane Eyre? Puh-lease
Watched Jane Eyre, the BBC version with Samantha Morton, yesterday. The story really, really got on my nerves. Always has, ever since I read the book at twelve or so, but yesterday it was worse. Goodness, the man is such a fraud. Jane is a fiercely independent woman - I believe that's the purpose of the beginning sequence telling of her childhood - and her meeting with Rochester, though fiery at first, ends with submission brought about by emotional blackmail of the worst kind. And that's even before we hear of the woman in the attic.
He curses her, he orders her around, he goes wild when he's not her top priority (over her family at the death of her aunt!), he pretends to be engaged to another woman (what about the cruelty to Blanche, huh?), he keeps information from her as if drugging her with calming pills - he's everything I would loathe in someone as a romantic partner. And then, of course, there is the ultimate act of cruelty - he proposes and goes with the ceremony without a morsel of regret, knowing not only that it makes him a bigamist, but her, too, unknowingly. He leads her to the altar without any attempt to be honest with her and present her with all the facts so she can freely and autonomously shape her own life. It's as if he wants to devour her, not live at her side. When his terrible lie is uncovered, he expects her - and others - to forgive this heartless act when introducing them to Bertha, his insane wife. How cruel, how selfish, how out-of-touch with other people's feelings can one be?
And the worst thing, is that while doing all this, he makes Jane become an idiot - giving up the possibility of marriage with a considerate, gentle, affectionate man only to return to the Mansion of Madness and seek him, and then he even berates her for "coming to pity a blind man".
It's a horrible story. And what's most horrible about it is that, by being a gothic classic, it might lead female readers to believe that love "must" be dramatic, crazy, manipulative, and that dishonesty and deceipt is a romantic quality.
He curses her, he orders her around, he goes wild when he's not her top priority (over her family at the death of her aunt!), he pretends to be engaged to another woman (what about the cruelty to Blanche, huh?), he keeps information from her as if drugging her with calming pills - he's everything I would loathe in someone as a romantic partner. And then, of course, there is the ultimate act of cruelty - he proposes and goes with the ceremony without a morsel of regret, knowing not only that it makes him a bigamist, but her, too, unknowingly. He leads her to the altar without any attempt to be honest with her and present her with all the facts so she can freely and autonomously shape her own life. It's as if he wants to devour her, not live at her side. When his terrible lie is uncovered, he expects her - and others - to forgive this heartless act when introducing them to Bertha, his insane wife. How cruel, how selfish, how out-of-touch with other people's feelings can one be?
And the worst thing, is that while doing all this, he makes Jane become an idiot - giving up the possibility of marriage with a considerate, gentle, affectionate man only to return to the Mansion of Madness and seek him, and then he even berates her for "coming to pity a blind man".
It's a horrible story. And what's most horrible about it is that, by being a gothic classic, it might lead female readers to believe that love "must" be dramatic, crazy, manipulative, and that dishonesty and deceipt is a romantic quality.