Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Literary Analysis #3

1. So as you might of noticed in my last LA, I have a tendency to go on and on in my summaries and essentially just tell you everything in the story so for this LA I decided that I would just let someone else tell you the gist of the story and I fill in the holes. So watch this video first and then come back so that we may continue on our epic quest that we like to call Literary Analysis #3!

1. Done already? Fantastic! So here's what else you need to know in addition to what you just watched! So Jane Eyre, which is the girl in the thumbnail for the trailer, is becomes a governess (live-in teacher) at Thornfield Hall which is owned by Edward Rochester who is portrayed by Michael Fassbender in the movie. While there Jane and Mr. Rochester develop this great friendship where Mr. Rochester feels so at ease with Jane that he tells her of all his fumbles in life (except that part where he ended up marrying this lady who went insane, but we'll get to that in a little bit). So as fate would have it they inevitably fall in love and decide to get married, but there is only one issue.... He's already married to Bertha Mason, a woman he met in Spanish Town, Jamaica who went insane shortly after they were married. With this news Jane tries to preserve what little dignity she feels she has left and flees into the unknown. It is there that she meets St. John "Sinjin" Rivers who gives her a job as a teacher in a village. After establishing a bit of independence, Jane then finds out that she has not only inherited a fortune from her now deceased uncle, but that Sinjin would like her to be his wife so that they can be missionaries (she says no because she is still in love with Mr. Rochester). With this news she picks up and leaves to find Mr. Rochester and eventually does find him, but he has gone blind due to an accident at Thornfield Hall in which Bertha was let free from her room and then set the estate ablaze. So, in an effort to save Bertha, Mr. Rochester evacuated the entire estate and went back to save Bertha but she unfortunately jumped from the building and plummeted to her death leaving Rochester to tumble and fall to safety. When Jane finally sees Rochester and learns he is single she commits herself to being his wife and they live happily ever after...more or less.
2. The theme of the novel is that redemption comes in unsuspecting form and is given to those who not only believe they are undeserving, but have lived long without it. 
3. There's a melancholic tone to this novel which makes sense because Jane's character has dealt with much adversity and heartache through the years which in some ways has made her austere, but deep within her lies a passion for something more, something meaningful. This is really reflected throughout the entire novel even when speaking about her childhood where she was neglected and physically abused and then later in her adult life where she is betrayed by Mr. Rochester and yet again when she must deny both friendship and marriage from Sinjin because her heart belongs to another. 

CHARACTERIZATION:

1. The two examples of direct characterization are first in describing Jane's personality and then Mr. Rochester's temperament. The two examples of indirect characterization are when the author describes Jane's childhood which then directly molds who she is as a character and then when Bronte describes the ever increasing emotional connections between Rochester and Jane. I believe the author makes the reader uses these methods to characterize the characters because it makes them easier to connect with.
2. The author's diction and syntax doesn't really change through the entirety of the novel most likely because Jane is a very formal and proper character even in the most informal of situations.
3. The protagonist is static because her character never really goes through this dramatic change. She remains faithful to who she is and what she believes and the only drastic change was that she fell in love, but even that didn't change who she was. Yet it is because she fell in love that she became a round character because she broke her cycle of indifference and showed something other than a cold apathy towards the world since she was so greatly spurned by it. 
4. In the end I felt as if I had read a character but not in a bad way. I really connected with Jane's plight and her emotions towards well...everything, but because things just seemed to fall into place for her like the inheritance and then marrying Mr. Rochester (again), it seemed a little too surreal for my taste.