Lecture on Jane Eyre (Volume 2, Chapters XVI-XXVI) (Patreon)

'The whole consciousness of my life lorn, my love lost, my hope quenched, my faith death-struck, swayed full and mighty above me in one sullen mass.'

Today our journey through Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre continues and we are discussing the dramatic events and revelation of volume two.

We're talking about passion, secrets, jealousy, anger, love, inner development, true homes, forgiveness, growth, power, identity, sanity, marriage, symbolism, the gothic, and much more.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 living in the world of Jane Eyre
• 3:00 structure, tension, passion & fire
• 5:00 dramatic irony over the darkness
• 8:00 power, society & the supernatural
• 10:00 Freudian exploration of jealousy
• 14:00 how the real love rival is herself
• 15:00 inner struggle of reason vs passion
• 17:00 Charlotte Brontë’s ekphrasis
• 18:00 analysing Jane Eyre’s self-talk
• 21:00 society’s view of governesses
• 23:00 Victorian view of physiognomy
• 25:00 Rochester tells Jane’s fortune
• 27:00 the web of horror in the novel
• 30:00 life as standing on a crater crust
• 32:00 ‘overleaping an obstacle of custom’
• 34:00 external vs internal locus of control
• 36:00 ‘presentiments are strange things…’
• 38:00 our heroine’s inner development
• 39:00 how do we find our true home?
• 41:00 how returns reveal our progression
• 46:00 meditating upon the emotion of anger
• 48:00 psychoanalytical reading of Jane Eyre
• 50:00 on home being where the heart is
• 52:00 ‘I strangled a new born agony’
• 54:00 ‘wherever you are is my home’
• 55:00 ignoring our intuition when in love
• 57:00 Rochester proposes to Jane Eyre
• 59:00 ‘do you think I am an automaton?’
• 1:00:00 desiring one’s equal & likeness
• 1:01:00 the symbolism of the chestnut tree
• 1:03:00 how Jane’s sense of self changes
• 1:04:00 ‘I will be myself, Mr Rochester’
• 1:06:00 the dangers of idealising another
• 1:07:00 does Jane truly master Rochester?
• 1:10:00 receiving premonitions of ruin
• 1:12:00 Rochester’s marriage is revealed
• 1:14:00 the depiction of Bertha Mason
• 1:16:00 ‘I am little better than a devil’
• 1:18:00 mental health in the Victorian era
• 1:19:00 what do we make of Rochester?
• 1:20:00 Jane Eyre’s crisis of identity
• 1:21:00 what are you making of the novel?

Resources:

• Recommended Adaptation: As we are blessed with many great adaptations of Charlotte Brontë's great novel, I would like to give you another recommendation. The 1983 television adaptation starring Zelah Clarke as Jane and Timothy Dalton as Rochester is excellent.
• Critical Essays: Jon Sutherland has an excellent collection of essays exploring puzzles at the heart of great literature that is well worth checking out. It's called Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? Another book you might find to be thought provoking is Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic.
• Literature: I would like to express my appreciation for so many readers making the powerful recommendation of Jean Rhys' masterful response to Charlotte Brontë's classic work with the 1966 Wide Sargasso Sea.
• Popular Culture: One of my favourite episodes of the sitcom Friends has always been the one in which Phoebe and Rachel take a literature class on the Brontë sisters. You can enjoy their discussion of Jane Eyre here.
• Documentary: The wonderful Tony Robinson has a phenomenal documentary on the tragic lives of the Brontë sisters, which is available to view here.
• Our Journey: If you would like to revisit our earlier discussions of this book, you can check out our first lectures here and here.
• Reading Assignment: Our next discussion will take us through the third volume of the story, which runs to the end of the novel.

Questions for You:

1) What did you make of the reveal of Bertha Mason?

2) How has your view of Rochester changed?

3) What aspect of the story is most personally resonant for you?

And please do share with us your favourite passages from the story.

Happy reading, everybody!