Book of the Month: December - Jane Eyre

Dear book clubbers, we have decided on Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre to read for December.

Here are some questions to generate discussion during the month. Please do not feel obliged to answer all or even any of them if you don’t wish to - it’s just for fun!

1. Why does Bronte juxtapose Jane's musings about women's social restraints with the mysterious laugh that Jane attributes to Grace Poole (p. 125-26)?

2. Rochester tells Jane, "if you are cast in a different mould to the majority, it is no merit of yours; Nature did it" (p. 153-54). Are we intended to agree or disagree with this statement?

3. After Mason's visit to Thornfield, Jane asks herself, "What crime was this, that lived incarnate in this sequestered mansion, and could neither be expelled nor subdued by the owner?" (p. 237). What crime does Bertha represent? Why does Rochester keep her at Thornfield?

4. Does Rochester ever actually intend to marry Blanche Ingram? If so, when does he change his mind? If not, why does he go to such lengths to make Jane believe he does?

5. Rochester's disastrous marriage to Bertha was based on passion, while St. John refuses to marry Rosamund because of his passion for her. What is Brontë saying about the role passion should play in marriage?

6. What does St. John feel for Jane? Why does Jane end her story with his prayer?

7. Jane asserts her equality to Rochester (p. 284), and St. John (p. 452). What does Jane mean by equality, and why is it so important to her?

8. When Jane first appears at Moor House, Hannah assumes she is a prostitute, but St. John and his sisters do not. What distinguishes the characters who misjudge Jane from those who recognize her true nature?

9. When Jane hears Rochester's voice calling while he is miles away, she says the phenomenon "is the work of nature" (p. 467). What does she mean by this? What are we intended to conclude about the meaning of this experience?

10. Brontë populates the novel with many female characters roughly the same age as Jane—Georgiana and Eliza Reed, Helen Burns, Blanche Ingram, Mary and Diana Rivers, and Rosamund Oliver. How do comparisons with these characters shape the reader's understanding of Jane's character?

11. What is the balance of power between Jane and Rochester when they marry? Does this balance change from the beginning of the marriage to the time ten years later that Jane describes at the end of the novel (p. 500-501)?

12. In a romantic relationship, does one partner inevitably dominate the other?

13. Should an individual who holds a position of authority be granted the respect of others, regardless of his or her character?

(This set of questions issued by Penguin Classics Edition.)

Looking forward to December 1st!

Laurelite

Hey Book Clubbers,

How are you finding this months book so far? I started on December 1st and I must say that I got into it straight away. I’m eager to get back to it, it’s been on my bookshelf for a while so this is a great excuse to get reading it.

Looking forward to reading your thoughts,

Laurelite

Good morning from Italy.
December 1, I started reading our book of the month. For now I have read a few chapters, but the intriguing thing is how two sisters( Emily and Charlotte Brontë) who are almost the same age, with the same education, the same culture and probably the same life experiences have two different styles. This is the first impression I had when I read the first page of the book.
Have a nice day.
Perseo

Ciao! Hola! Hallo! Hello! Did anyone finish Jane Eyre for December? I am still reading it! I would love to know your thoughts on this fantastic book and any quotes you have picked out along the way.

Love,
Laurelite

I'm reading Jane Eyre and I like it very much????
I am at chapter 27 and each page manages to involve me just as it has managed: "wuthering heights" .... there are a lot of quotes that I really liked, and in many pages there are small and nice quotes that make you laugh or smile and then there are the most important and profound sentences (and being a hopeless romantic I will mention those ):

-"He is not to them what he is to me," I thought: "he is not of their kind. I believe he is of mine- I am sure he is- I feel akin to him- I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him."

-"I see no enemy to a fortunate issue but in the brow; and that brow professes to say,--'I can live alone, if self-respect and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure, born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld; or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.' The forehead declares, 'Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms. The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they are; and the desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgment shall still have the last word in every argument, and the casting vote in every decision. Strong wind, earthquake-shock, and fire may pass by: but I shall follow the guiding of that still small voice which interprets the dictates of conscience'" 

-""Because, he said, "I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you - especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land some broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you, - you'd forget me."

-"It is a long way off, sir.”
"No matter — a girl of your sense will not object to the voyage or the distance.”
"Not the voyage, but the distance: and then the sea is a barrier "
"From what, Jane?”
"From England and from Thornfield: and — ”
“Well?”
"From YOU, sir.”

-"You — you strange — you almost unearthly thing! — I love as my own flesh. You — poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are — I entreat to accept me as a husband."

Perseo