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Charlotte Bronte
As an orphan, Jane s childhood is not an easy one but her independence and strength of character keep her going through the miseries inflicted by cruel relatives and a brutal school. However, her biggest challenge is yet to come. Taking a job as a governess in a house full of secrets, for a passionate man she grows more and more attracted to, ultimately forces Jane to call on all her resources in order to hold on to her beliefs.
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Charlotte Bronte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire on the 21st April 1816. The third of six children, bought up, after her mother’s death, by her clergyman father in Haworth. Apart from Jane Eyre she wrote Shirley (1849), Villette (1853) and The Professor (published posthumously in 1857). She died of tuberculosis (though there is some dispute about this) in 1855.
topAbout the Book
As an orphan, Jane s childhood is not an easy one but her independence and strength of character keep her going through the miseries inflicted by cruel relatives and a brutal school. However, her biggest challenge is yet to come. Taking a job as a governess in a house full of secrets, for a passionate man she grows more and more attracted to, ultimately forces Jane to call on all her resources in order to hold on to her beliefs.
topStarting Points for Discussion
- How much difference does it make to Jane Eyre that it is told in the first person? What sort of voice does Jane have? Do you trust her as a narrator?
- Jane is not a typical Victorian heroine – she has no wealth, family, social position or beauty. In what ways is she a true heroine? Which other literary heroines does she remind you of?
- Several religious or moral figures appear in Jane Eyre . How do you think they are represented? Think in particular of Helen Burns, St John and Mr. Brocklehurst.
- Is Mr. Rochester an attractive character? What makes Jane fall in love with him?
- Is Jane Eyre a feminist novel? If so, why?
- Jane has several homes during the course of the novel, which she is either forced to leave or runs away from. Why do you think this is? Does she ever really belong anywhere?
- How does Jane’s character grow and change? How important is her childhood and education to her adult self? Does she change when she is at Thornfield?
- Why do you think that Bertha, once beautiful, has become insane and violent? how do you think Rochester would treat Jane if she became insane? Would it be different from how he treated Bertha?
Other Books by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre
As an orphan, Jane s childhood is not an easy one but her independence and …
Shirley, The Professor
Struggling manufacturer Robert Moore has introduced labour saving machinery to…
The Bronte Collection
Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Villette The…
Villette
When Lucy Snowe leaves England to look for a new life on the Continent she has…
Suggested Further Reading
- Thirteenth Tale ~ Diane Setterfield
- Wide Sargasso Sea ~ Jean Rhys
- Rebecca ~ Daphne du Maurier
- Mansfield Park ~ Jane Austen
- North & South ~ Elizabeth Gaskell
- Wuthering Heights ~ Emily Bronte
- Agnes Grey ~ Anne Bronte
- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ~ Anne Bronte
- The Life of Charlotte Bronte ~ Elizabeth Gaskell
- The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination ~ Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar