Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Acceptable Absurdities of Romance

     From the beginning of chapter 23 you could feel the onset of some Gothic expression of all consuming love. The first sentence alone: 'A SPLENDID Midsummer shone over England: skies so pure, suns so radiant as were then seen in long succession, seldom favour, even singly, our wave-girt land." Basically saying that "Today is an exceptionally beautiful, and wholly uncommon day." Bronte may as well have gone the way of the cliche by furthering the sentence with "and love was in the air"
     And though it was drawn out, and Gothic, and altogether reprehensible, I couldn't help but get sucked into the whole affair. Casting aside my twenty-first century sense of things i read on in a fervor blazing through the pages of this, and later chapters with reckless abandon. Much in the way (however no where near as vehemently) Rochester and Jane find the idea of separation painful, i found myself quite grudgingly setting aside this novel to continue with life.
    Moving on...About the climax (which is, oddly, the beginning) of the love affair between Rochester and Jane. It's important to note that as the passion begins to come to a head in their shouting fest of equally cast rebukes and rebuttals, Jane again spits in the face of conformity. In a short (while impassioned) speech, Jane sets herself her masters equal. Not in the sense of class and caste, but in spirit as a person. She followed her own mold and made well her feelings known, not for the first time, nor the last (i suspect).


Also, as a side note, do you think this is where the term "Plain Jane" came from?

1 comment:

  1. I agree -- I get caught up in the ending myself, every time. What about novel overcomes our cynicism, even in this age?

    I'm not sure about the "plain Jane" question -- I'll ask around!

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