Jane Eyre X -- chapter 10: DEPARTURE with a TAILWIND BLAST FROM THE PAST

Reading Questions

1. Mr. Brocklehurst: neglectful or dishonest?
2. The use of the word "inmate" in the third paragraph interests me.  By our modern connotation of the word, its usage here appears to further fulfill the dichotomy of tone thus far: good while being bad; bad while being good.  Since Bronte put pen to paper, has the connotation of the word changed? because etymologically speaking, it's simply this: inmate -- 1580s, "one allowed to live in a house rented by another" (usually for a consideration), from in "inside" + mate "companion." Sense of "one confined to an institution" is first attested 1834 (thanks, etymonline.com).
3. Could any man, no matter how noble, have been more than "almost worthy of such a wife" as Miss Temple?
4. How this chapter reminds me of my former employment!  Secret applications (though I expect my motivations for secrecy differed from Jane's) and only getting one response--if any! --to a submitted request.  Why isn't Jane telling anyone her ambition to get away?
5. Interesting that Jane is so optimistic upon the arrival and reading of the letter from Mrs. Fairfax, so much so that she brushes off the doubt of "getting into a scrape."  But as she proceeds to envision the woman and her possible situation in Thornfield, what risk does she run, anway?
6. For better or worse, the narration of this story has a heavily feminist tone (a common avenue, feminism, for literary analysis, by the way, and one which I haven't spent much time with).  It would be interesting to read as contrast one of the many novels from the same general period, also with female protagonists but written by men (The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins; Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dreiser; Pamela, by Samuel Richardson; or Evelina, by Frances Burney, to name a few).
7. Was there evidence in the Gateshead chapters sufficient to justify Bessie's effusion here?  Also, is there any significance to the catchings-up of the Reeds' goings-on?  I expect that Jane, if anticipation of such knowledge had been possible, would have looked forward to news of the Reeds' general lack of grandness, yet what might she be learning of herself now instead?
8. The final mentioned detail of the conversation is another cliffhanger, the MIA uncle, and this potentially much more significant than the issue of the Helen's family and grave marker.  Any ideas or thoughts?
9. What is it about Miss Temple's departure that is the required catalyst to Jane's self-awareness?
10. Chapter 10 marks the end of the second chapter of her life, at least as we know it.  What do you think so far, especially compared to the end of chapter 5, when she left Gateshead?

Jane Eyre IX -- chapter 9: SPRING AND DEATH AT LOWOOD

Reading Questions

1. It's not particularly interesting that as Jane arrived at Lowood and its initial torments, having left the long dark of Gateshead, in November when it was cold and nasty, so her life was terrible, and now that the weather is improving, so is her situation.  I say "not particularly interesting," because this sort of parallel is almost cliche nowadays, at least in the obvious nature that it's used here.  It's about as bad as the rain that falls so obsequious to mood in HP7's tent scene (book, not movie) when Ron takes off in a huff.  So the questions: 1, is it indeed cliche; 2, is there a better way to emphasize the emotions; 3, is winter really so bad; and 4, does this mean we have to wait until Fall for her life to drop back to torment again, or should we expect Spring thunderstorms and hurricanes?
2. There's a shock to the system of cheerfulness, just a few paragraphs down from the chapter's top, with the rising of the fog: dank and deadly! as if the thaw of Spring has done little more than permit the zombies and their pestilence (flea- and louse-carriers of typhus, which very word means "foggy") to escape their icy, winter prisons.  Is the beauty of spring really no more than a bate?  Yet, ironic it is, leastway for those who've escaped the disease: life becomes even more pleasant for their increased freedom, as the teachers are all locked up with the infirm!  Blessed be those of strong constitution, and O, pity the poorly frail!  At least the dying have the comfort of a beautiful view.
3. Is there no remorse or second thought for those not free to roam the woods?  At least Mr. Brocklehurst stays away, right?  Is Jane really so cruel?  Shouldn't she abscond to see her most valued friend earlier than she finally does?  Why does she take so much time with the callow Mary Ann?
4. Interesting, contrary to the weather-plus-mood, that as Jane finally begins to think about the death and disease around her and its contingency of heaven and hell, she gets news of Helen's imminent death.  So what of Helen?  What might this say about Jane?
5. Are those who die young to be envied?
6. The melodrama of Jane Eyre reminds me of Anne of Green Gables, only, of course, darker.  (I've been trying to figure out this connection out since chapter 3--Jane is a goth Anne Shirley!)
7. Helen has a father.  Was her little speech about him not missing her, distracted by his recent marriage, just euphemism?  After all, she's not even taken home for burial, and it's 15 years before a grave marker is placed.  And who will have placed the marker, and what's up with the idiot father?

Springtime at Lowood

Jane Eyre VIII -- chapter 8: EXONERATION

Reading Questions

1. "If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends."
2. Helen intrigues me: additional to and shortly after the above quotation, she says, "you think too much of the love of human beings;" what does this say about Helen's past?  Is this pertinent only to orphans?  What if we expand the definition of "orphan" to include something like that of an "emotional orphan?"
3. This might be a premature question, but I'm going to ask it anyway, because it has already crossed my mind, prompted by the graceful care and reassurance from Miss Temple: What if Jane Eyre had been written by a man?  (Knowing me as I do, I expect I will ask this question again, ere we reach the end.)
4. Just as premature--or early, at least--as the previous question was, so risky is the next: Is Jane whiny, is she just a girl, or are they (it's not my intent to invite reprobation (in any of its various usages)) the same?
5. Is the tangible reality of the haunting in the red room escalating in the natural exaggeration of Jane's memory?
6. A little more than halfway through my first year in Michigan, a student of mine came to me with a funny report.  He'd been in the office waiting to speak to someone there about something--for why else is a student ever sitting in the school office? --and he happened to overhear the principal talking with the guidance counselor.  They were talking about me, of all people, and in the course of the conversation, the principal used a label for me which I'd never heard or thought before in my reference, thinking myself relatively subdued, obedient, and conscientious, none of which, I felt, aligned themselves with her label.  She called me a "loose canon."  Regardless of how she meant it, I've come to think of it as a complement.  I am proud to be a loose canon--or of having been one (I'm not sure I might still qualify, if ever I really did).  Miss Temple, I believe (and this is in no way intended to pat me on the back, as may appear so by any comparison between self and this wonderful woman, or denigrate my former principal, whom I happen to greatly respect and admire), might be labeled similarly by Mr. Brocklehurst.  I expect he recognizes her for what she is.  The question, then, is why does he keep her around?

Jane Eyre VII -- chapter 7: GOT BIG HAIR? HIGHLIGHTS? BRAIDS? Guess Where You're Going.

People do weird things in the names of Faith and Belief, but there is a narrow margin between acting for God and forgetting you're not God.  While we haven't seen direct evidence yet, I expect Brocklehurst is clergy from the school of hellfire.  Personally (and this isn't to press my opinion, but offer an example), I don't believe in scaring or intimidating a flock into submission (and forgive the unintended, pacifist rhetoric), but that doesn't mean it's wrong.  In fact, I'm sure there are some in the/a flock for whom this works better than anything else.  And that's the point I'm going for, as it's a recurrent theme in this chapter: as you read, or as you  review while answering questions, be diligent in your effort to be objective and to separate yourself from your personal beliefs, at least inasmuch as they may skew your judgment.  Remember, sometimes things that are different are just that--different, not wrong; of course, sometimes things are indeed just wrong.

Another point at issue in this chapter is the comparison between Jane's situations are Gateshead and Lowood.  Are the motives behind the privations of each adequate to justify one over the other?

Finally, this whole chapter exaggeratedly reminds me of administrator evaluations in my classroom.  You may remember your principal with clipboard in hand coming into one or more of your classrooms to judge your teachers.  These episodes are generally frustrating, often intimidating, and never accurate.  Really.  Never.  Even when they're good!  (*tongue in cheek*)  More frustrating, many principals actually believe they can get an accurate measure of the classroom, the teacher, and their product in naught but two or three quarter-hour visits.  No!  One wrong thing in the classroom is as likely to draw conclusion on an entire year's work--successes and failures--as one good thing, and I've experienced both.  It just doesn't work that way.

(Note to principals: I've been one, and I've been guilty of the same.  Feel free to defend yourselves and/or complain HERE.)

Reading Questions

1. The act of issuing a mandate of conformity against the natural curls of Julia Severn's red hair (ought it not to be dyed also?) is an example of Brocklehurt's   stupidity / wisdom   (circle one).  Explain your selection.
2. * hair as an excrescence
3. "Madam," he pursued, "I have a Master to serve whose kingdom is not of this world: my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh; to teach them to clothe themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with braided hair and costly apparel; and each of the young persons before us has a string of hair twisted in plaits which vanity itself might have woven: these, I repeat, must be cut off; think of the time wasted, of—" and I interrupt him as did the three conspicuous visitors: This remonstrance smacks of chauvinism and even cruelty to our contemporary sensibilities, but even now, contemporarily, isn't this part of what any good Christian claims to believe?  Is it so wrong to chop off one's hair and live in sackcloth and ashes?  Additionally, however, and considering the identity of the guests, whom is Mr. Brocklehurst favoring; whom is he slighting?  Does this not show what he truly believes?
4. Is it just for physical effect that Brocklehurst is regularly described as a feature of architecture?  Something about this imagery, coupled with the essence of the man, reminds me of Claude Frollo, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  (I can't speak of the Archdeacon as represented in the Disney movie, as I haven't seen it; I mean the book, which, by the way, I highly recommend.  It often drags, but the characters and setting are vivid, and the ending is perhaps the greatest I've ever read.)
5. Brocklehurst's description of Jane as an "interloper" beggars a comparison: Take ten minutes and read "The Interlopers," by Saki.
6. "You must be on your guard against her; you must shun her example: if necessary, avoid her company, exclude her from your sports, and shut her out from your converse. Teachers, you must watch her: keep your eyes on her movements, weigh well her words, scrutinize her actions, punish her body to save her soul, if, indeed, such salvation be possible, for (my tongue falters while I tell it) this girl: this child, the native of a Christian land, worse than many a little heathen who says its prayers to Brahma and kneels before Juggernaut—this girl is—a liar."  Are the Brocklehursts hypocrites?  If so, take a second and fundamentally compare "hypocrite" to "liar."
7. And what of the girls in the school?  How do they impart strength to Jane, and why does this affect Jane likely more than they know?  What of the teachers?

Jane Eyre VI -- chapter 6: EVERY KID WANTS TO BE JANE EYRE

Scottish Castle

Take a look at children's novels, or stories--within novels, or novels themselves--which include the realization of childish fantasies: nearly without exception there is escape involved.  Escape from home, from relations, from reality....  Whether the children involved come from strong families like Alice, or broken like Harry, children want to get away.  The escapist fantasy of leaving the mundanity, pressures (and, yes, contrary to silly adultish assumptions, there's big-time pressure for kids), confusion, cruelty, or whatever is ubiquitous.  I had a great childhood, and generally I entirely disregarded my parents, preferring instead the various worlds I created or read about.  But Jane Eyre is not, so far, any kind of fantasy, inasmuch as the connotation of the word tends to positive.  Even the  terrors of Wonderland are exciting and wonderful--or wondrous, at least--and I often went there and enjoyed myself.  The morbid and dreary reality of Jane Eyre seems to prevent it from achieving some similar sort of attraction, yet still it fits the bill.  What possible comfort is there for a kid in reading about Jane's terrible life and fantasizing it for him-/herself?

Reading Questions

1. Teachers have pets and monsters, both are favorites; interesting that one can be both, depending on the teacher.
2. What is the benefit of a place like Lowood, at least in the creation of one's person, self, and identity?
3. Ah, little Helen Burns; a truly complex character at last!  I simply can't imagine she's as simple as the unilateral pedant she pretends, and the measures this farcical pretense requires, and what it must therefore cover up, indicates by necessity of its complexity.  Who is she--or, perhaps more accurately, what is she?  
4. "Probably you would do nothing of the sort; but if you did, Mr. Brocklehurst would expel you from the school; that would be a great grief to your relations. It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil."  Define "evil," both in context of the Bible (Romans 12:14-21) and Helen Burns's usage.
5. Deliberately obtuse question: Who is the better teacher (considering a teacher's primary objective and perhaps disregarding method of execution), Miss Scatcherd or Miss Temple?  Bronte's choices for their names seems to indicate her own feelings, or intent at least to influence the reader's prejudice.
6. “Yes, in a passive way: I make no effort; I follow as inclination guides me. There is no merit in such goodness.”
7. Jane's response to this statement is interesting to me--that of striking back strong and hard to preclude further retaliation--and reminds me pointedly of Ender Wiggin from Ender's Game.
8. Bronte Politics.  Which side do you believe Bronte herself is partial to, Jane's or Helen's?
9. Any other thoughts about Jane and Helen's conversation?

Jane Eyre V -- chapter 5: FIRST DAY OF INSTITUTION

Chapter five brings us out of the first scene of Jane's youth.  The chapter is fairly simply a transition--the drawing and raising of the curtains, of shifting of the lights.  Reset the stage for school and move one.  So, for a moment, disregard all the investigative and interpretative questions and, while the stage crew arranges, answer this only:

What do you think so far?

(The questions below are optional--except #2.  Answer #2.  Please.)


Reading Questions

1. Why is Mrs. Reed at all concerned with how Jane may speak of her and Gateshead while at Lowood?
2. Now that Jane is away from Gateshead, how do you think her behavior will change or how others think of her?
3. What lesson is Jane to learn from the girl with the book?
4. What do we know about Jane, combined with what we know about storytelling in general, that might help us make some predictions for her future?
5. What of the other orphans?