The pointlessness of examinations is reinforced as another batch takes over again.Yet exam time is somehow also the time when I am at my creative powers are at their most productive, case in point, this blog post. The theory goes something like this. Since exams are inescapable by this point of time, every other opportunity which this world has to offer becomes so visible and oh so doubly attractive.
Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity of "diversion" to give an insight into my so-called productive pursuits from the last batch of examinations. That is when I finished this book called Jane Eyre, written by this lady called Charlotte Brontë. Yeah, in case you are wondering, The Jane Eyre, written by The Legend, Charlotte Brontë!, How could I never have read it before! To which I'd reply by thanking my most wonderful CBSE education and my rather sparse school library, as far as Classic literature was concerned.
I curled up to read Jane Eyre right before my Civil Procedure Code II exam. The mood was just right. It was dark, gray and raining outside, and it was a wonderful feeling to find yourself in a blanket with an engrossing book. And that too, engrossing enough to finish in one sitting.The story is about an orphaned girl, Jane Eyre, and traces her growth from a child to adulthood. As I began reading one thing which immediately struck me was that this story was rather different from the usual Victorian Classic stuff. For one, most of them have these really pretty ladies in the role of the protagonist, and who for some reason are always, more or less stuck up on getting married and hunting for their "perfect gentleman". Jane Eyre, on the other hand, fulfills none of these qualifications. She is, in Brontë's own words, extremely plain, and in most instances of her childhood, is greatly ostracised for it. Plus, in no part of the book is Eyre actively looking to get married. Charlotte Brontë perhaps had reason enough to carve out a character like that.
In her book, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell relates an anecdote about Charlotte, "She once told her sisters that they were wrong - even morally wrong in making their heroines beautiful, as a matter of course. They replied that it was impossible to make a heroine interesting on any other terms. Her answer was, 'I will prove to you that you are wrong; I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours.' Hence Jane Eyre, said she in telling the anecdote: 'but she is not myself, any further than that.' As the work went on, the interest deepened to the writer. When she came to 'Thornfield' she could not stop. Being short-sighted to excess, she wrote in little square paper books, held close to her eyes, and (the first copy) in pencil. On she went, writing incessantly for three weeks; by which time she had carried her heroine away from Thornfield, and was herself in a fever which compelled her to pause."
So seems like for Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre was not just about writing a book, but more about making a statement. I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours. Not to say, that while discarding the Make-Your-Protagonist-Ooze-Oomph formula, she succeed make a heroine not just as interesting, but more interesting than any of her peers. To say the truth, all of Jane Austen is complete sham when drawn with Charlotte Brontë. [No offence to Austen fans, just a personal, and perhaps not very qualified an opinion.]
Another thing I really liked about Jane Eyre was that it was truthful. Eyre is a completely unaffected character, not touched or influenced by social proprieties, not hypocritical, who does one thing and says another, much unlike the other protagonists [and I include both male and female protagonists here], of her day. In other words, a coarse work, according to the critics of her time, and a strong, courageous, according to those of today. But the strength is not manifested in as many words or images as one could be led to believe. Throughout the book, Jane Eyre comes across as a very confused and impulsive character, who is perpetually taken aback by the way things shape her and who has little control over the situation. And this was another aspect where I could relate to her, 'cause well, I am always apprehensive about what life might throw at me, and hey, who isn't? But what's admirable about Jane [a rather plain name too, don't you think?] is that she handles her circumstances in the only way she knows, that is, by doing what seems right to her. If a particular thing seems just to her, she bothers little about consequences or social mores; she's totally confident about doing it. This way it's a story of an ordinary character, who just does what her mind and heart tell her. Of course, on many occasions, it borders on the point of naiveté. For instance, when Jane runs away from her employ and her only home, without any money or clothes, basically, without any resource which would help her sustain existence. As a result she is forced to sleep in the woods and wander as a hungry beggar. What I liked here was that Brontë has not tried to paint too rosy a picture of Jane in these times. She has summed up her situation simply like it would have been. Desperate. And desperate to the point where Jane, in a tattered semblance and ashamed of her predicament, attempts to sell her used handkerchief in return for a small piece of cake, as she has not eaten for days. And as Brontë would have it, she is of course, refused; this is what our legendary writer reduces a formerly independent, dignified woman to. A scrounger.
The idea Brontë tries to put is straightforward. The world is not a happy-go-lucky place. However, at the same time, she somehow manages to emphasise on the need of trying to make mistakes. Because if one is not making mistakes, one is not living. And not all so-called mistakes are actually mistakes. One has to discover for herself if it is. Thus, Jane is manifested as freedom, a point which much of the feminist critique of the book has lingered upon considerably. And this is not freedom where everything will go right, and where you will not regret past actions and choices, but it is the real kind of freedom, where Jane also acquires for herself the freedom to make mistakes. However, even in this freedom, there is little regret, albeit of another nature. Because had Jane not done what she wanted to in a particular moment, she would never have known for herself which ones were perhaps not very wise choices to make and which ones were not. To prevent the dishonour of brevity anymore than already done, I found Jane Eyre's an interesting character sketch. Many of the questions raised by Jane are questions we ask ourselves in personal life. This is a book which talks about choices which we implicitly make, and the unique ones which one woman, Jane Eyre, had the courage to make.
Anyway, tell me what you thought about the book, if you've read it, and I'd recommend it on your reading list if you haven't. Cheers! =)
Interesting Fact: Jane Eyre was originally published as an autobiography of a lady called Jane Eyre [who even then was obviously fictitious, but which makes the whole book a first person narrative- again, something I love] under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, and in three volumes. Following this, there was a lot of speculation whether Currer Bell was, in fact, a man or a woman.
