Jane Eyre is absolutely the worst book which ever, for reasons I cannot fathom, ended up on anyone’s list of Great Books.
It is awful. Just awful.
Now that we have established that fact, perhaps you can help me solve a mystery.
I have talked about this book many times with students. I always have exactly the same experience. To take an example:
I once read the book with five amazing students (all women) in a tutorial. I told the students they should each pick a Great Book and we would read them and discuss them. Much to my horror, and I do mean horror, one of them picked Jane Eyre.
So, I read it again. (Yes, I merit a Great Professor Badge for subjecting myself to this book (again!) for the benefit of a set of students.)
Just to be clear: When I reread it, I hated it. All of it. Every single page of it.
Then we gathered to talk about it in the tutorial. Everyone else in the tutorial…loved…the book.
We start every tutorial with the simple question “What did you think about the book?” Such paroxysms of joy have ne’er been heard by mortal ears.
“Jane Eyre is a role model, a stunningly great example of womanhood and a daring, brave, courageous, independent woman.”
I would have thought that Jane Eyre was the woman being described in the brochures for Mount Holyoke from listening to the students in the tutorial. And all of them loved her. Loved her.
So, here I have a problem. Jane Eyre is often listed as a Great Book. Presumably, lots of people have read it for pleasure and profit for many years. Five bright, intelligent women in my tutorial loved the book. And I hate it. Something is wrong here.
Jane has got to be the most whiny protagonist ever.
I mentioned this in the tutorial. Everyone there told me I was wrong, that she isn’t whiny at all. I opened the book at random, read the first sentence—Jane was whining. I thought, “Aha!”
I was told she wasn’t whining in that sentence. I was stunned. How could nobody else in the room notice that this sentence I choose at random was an example of being whiny? Something is wrong here.
I then tried on Rochester—the guy is the least lovely romantic love interest ever. Oddly, they all agreed. I thought “Aha!”
I was then told it didn’t matter that Jane was in love with an Absolute Loser. The guy has his wife locked in an attic and Jane loves this guy? Yet, somehow, “Jane is still amazing.” How can this be? Something is wrong here.
And so on. For two hours, I made the case this book is terrible and for two hours I was told that I was wrong. Every inane, silly thing about the book simply didn’t matter.
Yes, the plot is contrived. But “Jane is still amazing.”
Yes, in the end she ends up playing the servant anyway. But “Jane is still amazingly independent.”
Yes, she didn’t really have that hard of a life. “But her cousins were really mean to her, and Jane is really amazing.”
On and on and on.
I have no idea what to make of this. Either I am wrong and this book does have merit or the rest of humanity is wrong and it is a really idiotic book, a half-penny romance novel masquerading as literature.
Just to be clear: I really hate this book.
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I have the exact same feeling. I guess maybe Jane’s value is completely different from mine so inwardly I cannot accept the character and the choices she make. For the sake of her questionable values, I personally cannot treat her as a marvelous female role model.
I heard back from a lot of people about this post. Suffice it to say that there is a very sharp difference of opinion here. It is interesting that you focus on Jane’s values.
I hate it too. I feel like I carried that book with me for an entire semester at college, with my friends making fun of me (constantly asking me when I was finally going to finish it). I hated every part of it. Jane allows herself to be a victim, and her love interest is seriously the worst guy ever.
Thanks for validating my feelings!
I certainly agree! I had to read Jane Eyre for my english class and it was just dreadful- though I don’t think I hated it quite as much as you. Either way, I just don’t understand how this novel could be considered romance??? The relationship between Jane and Rochester is really psychologically abusive and it made me really uncomfortable to read about it, especially when Brontë constantly romanticizes it! I do, however, see how Jane could be a feminist heroine as she constantly seeks independence and tries to attain her self-worth.
Only read the wikipedia entry about the story and the only reaction I had was that this is just an awful story. Then gogled that thought and here I am.
To elaborate slightly to call the plot a farce would be a vast understatment..
Only read the wikipedia entry about the story and the only reaction I had was that this is just an awful story. Then gogled that thought and here I am.
To elaborate slightly to call the plot a farce would be a vast understatment. A Blackwood article extended to novel length.
It’s not only that she’s whiny and that everyone besides Jane is always the problem, it’s that the writing itself is undeserving of any praise. The pace is plodding because Brontë is overly-descriptive and seemingly obsessed with phrenology, the characters are one-dimensional and lack reasonable motivations, and each chapter becomes increasingly tedious because events are entirely disconnected from one another. This book is the exact opposite of Chekhov’s gun (Brontë’s needle?) and the author clearly had never heard of the economy of language. If brevity is the soul of wit, then Jane Eyre is the bloated corpse of aridity. Every single page of this book is the literary equivalent of self-flagellation.
Brilliantly phrased!
I’m with you all the way. I cannot fathom how anyone likes this dreadful book. Jane Eyre sucks nearly as much as Wuthering Heights.
Sucks almost as much as Wuthering Heights.
I read the print copy twice over the span of a few decades and then decided to listen to the audio book to see if I would like it better. A little better, but the story itself still sucked. There is just too much drama over little things. It seems a very toxic relationship which really makes the “love” of this story confusing to me. Rochester needs professional help as does Jane.
You probably hated it because you don’t understand it. It’s a fabulous book, one of the best ever written.
Read this when I was 18, 50 now and still consider it to be the worst classic novel I ever read. I’m pretty sure if she wasn’t the sister of the infinitely superior Emily she would have been forgotten to time.
I had to read Jane Eyre in junior high. I hated then. I hate thinking about it now. It was so tedious, my mom had to read it to me just to get through it. I wish we could find the professors who said this was good and throw many copies of this horrible, horrible book at them all. Thank you, James, for so eloquently describing how awful, horrible, and dreadful everything about this story truly is.
I had to read Jane Eyre in junior high. I hated it then. I hate thinking about it now. It was so tedious, my mom had to read it to me just to get through it. I wish we could find the professors who said this was good and throw many copies of this horrible, horrible book at them all. Thank you, James, for so eloquently describing how awful, horrible, and dreadful everything about this story truly is.
Just finished reading this and genuinely did not enjoy myself at all. Unsure how she or the book itself is lauded as some heroic example of feminism. I’ve read other classics, Madame Bovary and The Blue Castle come to mind, that feel like better examples of feminism to me. Jane was a victim at the start but by the end of the novel she made herself a victim in the choices she made. Emotional distress can cause us to make choices we regret, of course, but she had been depicted until then as some shining example of intelligence and strength. Given that, I had expected her to not totally collapse and ready herself for death. At that point in the book the rambled sermonizing between John and herself had me skimming multiple pages. The way she worshipped him felt contrived, especially when I remembered her dislike and hatred of Brocklehurst in the school. Had she acted like that to please him or Reed in the beginning, it may not have felt so disingenuous to her character so late in the game. I saw someone elsewhere mention that her relationships here throughout are thinly veiled kink due to the exchange of power/sapphic undertones, and that esteems it a bit higher, but not by much.
The concern with Jane’s character is that she is baffled by the socioeconomic realities of her life—the orphans with naturally curly hair must have their cut off and must wear shabby clothing while the rich women can have curly hair and fine clothes, etc. Jane describes what she sees and says, “What is happening? I don’t lie. Why does everyone believe Mrs. Reed?” Jane is unwilling to bow down to John Reed, so John hits her and causes a concussion. She reacts and is locked in a “haunted” room and told her evil nature will cause a demon to come in through the chimney. Why is she not allowed to ponder this situation? Finally, Rochester is a liar and a narcissist who love bombs Jane—she is certainly not the first to have fallen for this type of courtship. Nor will Jane be the last.