Frankenstein Journals: Through the eyes of a Jungian analyst
Ch 3-5
Pg. 28- “She had, at first, yielded to our entreaties; but when she heard that the life of her favourite was menaced, she could no longer control her anxiety.She attended her sick bed—her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper—Elizabeth was saved, but the consequences of this imprudence were fatal to her preserver.”
In this quote we can see how Caroline, Victor’s mother takes her place in the novel as the figure of the caregiver once again. She belongs to what is called the family archetype, where the mother is the feeding, soothing, nurturing figure. She id there for others and sacrifices herself.
Pg. 28- “My children,' she said, ' my firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union. This expectation will now be the consolation of your father. Elizabeth, my love, you must supply my place to my younger children.”
In this passage, the mother of the two makes it kind of like a final wish for Victor and Elizabeth to be together. They may or may not be each other’s anima/animus, but it is already rather planned for them to be together. Whether or not they are soul mates, known as the “divine couple” or Syzygy, is not really a factor, because it is expected of them to be together. But they do show affection toward each other and seem to compliment one another.
Pg. 29- “It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she, whom we saw every day, and whose very existence appeared a part of our own, can have departed for ever—that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished, and the sound of a voice so familiar, and dear to the ear, can be hushed, never more to be heard. These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences.”
Victor is beginning to feel the grief of losing his mother. That part of him is now gone and it is beginning to affect him. He begins to miss his mother’s presence and that comfort which she provided and which he was accustomed to. This begins to seep into his mind and interferes with what he feels subconsciously.
Pg. 29- “She indeed veiled her grief, and strove to act the comforter to us all. She looked steadily on life, and assumed its duties with courage and zeal. She devoted herself to those whom she had been taught to call her uncle and cousins. Never was she so enchanting as at this time, when she recalled the sunshine of her smiles and spent them upon us. She forgot even her own regret in her endeavours to make us forget.”
Elizabeth takes on the role of Caroline, as caretaker, after her mother dies. As the woman, and only “motherly” figure around, it is her duty to comfort others. She soon takes it upon herself to
comfort those who surround her, and hide her own feelings and anguish.
Pg 30- “I threw myself into the chaise that was to convey me away, and indulged in the most melancholy reflections. I, who had ever been surrounded by amiable companions, continually engaged in endeavouring to bestow mutual pleasure, I was now alone.”
After his mother’s death, the only comfort he feels comes from his family; mainly Elizaeth. Clerval serves as a companion as well. But he is sson sent off to a University and all of this is removed from him. He begins to finally feel alone. This loneliness eventually leads to his need and passionate approach to create a being.
pg.37-“After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life ; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.”
Shelly gives Victor the knowledge and power to bestow life upon a thing, just as a god would, but she doesn’t warn him about the effects of his actions. Victor is misguided by his subconscious mind into reanimating dead matter, but it overpowers his consciousness and he does not think about the consequences.This points out an idea that perhaps Shelley believed that although the works of god could try to be imitated, they can never be fully replicated because one cannot challenge God in his own game. Throughout her life the only one who would always be there for her was god, and so he influenced her mind, as is reflected and mentioned often throughout the novel.
pg. 38- "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow."
Once again Shelley subconsciously warns, through Victor, on trying to imitate god's actions. When one goes against what is natural and it's forces, the outcomes are not too favorable.
pg. 38- "It was with these feelings that I began the creation of a human being."
Victor's loneliness and his passion for scientific endeavors cause him to lose focus on life, and he focuse more on what is already dead. He becomes obsessed with the idea to reanimate matter and from this he creates a being. this being turns out to be the artwork that allows his archetype of a "shadow" to finally rise.
pg. 42- "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form ?
but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart."
When he completes his objective, and his passion begins to dissolve, he begins to recover his conscious mind, only to finds that he has made a huge mistake. He becomes afraid of what he sees in front of him. what he does not realize is that he can no longer hide from what he already unleashed, and that was giving his subconscious a body.
pg. 43- "But it was in vain : I slept, indeed, but I was disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her ; but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death ; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms ; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel."
Now that the shadow is finally out, Victor is enveloped by fear, and this is expressed even in his dreams. He once again needs comfort, but when he tries to reach for it, he finds hinself overcome by darkness. he brings misery to those around him. He finds himself next to his dead mother;meaning that there is no one left to understand and nurture him anylonger.
"pg.43- "Mingled with this horror, I felt the bitterness of disappointment ; dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me ; and the change was so rapid, the overthrow so complete ."
Victor is dissappointed , because he was led by passion and not reason. He blindedly fell into creating the being, and later did not know what to do with it or about it. He never considered the fact that after creating it, the being would need him, and he would need the being as well.. He always pushes it aside and hides from it, not knmowing that by coming together they become one.
CH 20-22
pg 144- "I was now about to form another being, of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate, and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness. He had sworn to quit the neighbourhood of man, and hide himself in deserts; but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation. They might even hate each other ; the creature who already lived loathed his own deformity, and might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form ? She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man ; she might quit him, and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species."
The being comes to understandthat in life, there seems to be a "guardian like figure". A woman provides this, whether it be through being a wife or a mother, and he feels deprived of both. H searches for Victor and demands a female. He wants his "anima" but Victor as his creator, will not grant him one because he is not "deserving" of it. He fears creating a scond being, and does not rlate to the being as having human like qualities and needing a womanly figure.(just as he only understands that only he needs one;Elizabeth).
pg 146- "Shall each man,' cried he, ' find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone ?"
Here once again the being refers to a desire for his anima and finding himself complete with a soulmate/companion.
pg. 146- "Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power ; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. Your are my creator, but I am your master—obey !"
This is a very strong quote. It represents the costant battle between the conscious mind against the unconscious. This shows a face to face battle between Victor(the concsious) and the Being (the unconscious). One tries to dominate the other. in this case, the being tries tointimidate Victor in order to manipulate him.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Jungian Criticism
Jungian Criticism, is a type of literary analysis named after Carl Jung a student of Sigmund Freud. It is important to understand this, because Freud’s studies influenced those of Carl’s in the way that they both believed in the unconscious mind and the effects it has on humans.
Carl Jung perceived the human mind as made up of an unconscious divided into two discreet parts. The personal unconscious was those feelings that could not be accessed without therapy and dream work. The universal unconscious was a shared set of images, called archetypes, common to all people. The universal unconscious was expressed in art, literature and myth, and Jungian literary criticism focused specifically on the analysis of archetypes in literature and written mythology.” The main archetypes described by Jung, are said to be the shadow and the anima/animus (the female and male “other half”). The shadow, is a very common archetype that reflects deeper elements of our psyche . The name makes it clear that it is related to darkness and relates to trouble as well as the unknown. The shadow thus tends not to obey rules, and in doing so may discover new lands or plunge things into chaos and battle. Often the shadow is reflected upon or through someone else, and denied within ourselves. “It can also have a life of its own, as the other. A powerful goal that some undertake is to re-integrate the shadow, the dark side, and the light of the 'real' self. If this can be done effectively, then we can become 'whole' once again, bringing together that which was once again, bringing together that which was once split from us.” “While reading literature in Jungian literary criticism, the central character is viewed as real, while most other characters are seen as symbolic representations of aspects of the hero’s unconscious self.” Many times it is assumed that stories under the Jungian criticism are linked to mankind’s past or are based on mythic models. Many believe that Jungian literary criticism is a way to understand the psychological struggle of the human to overcome hidden thoughts and feelings, a struggle common to us all. “The anima/animus represents our true self, as opposed to the masks we wear every day and is the source of our creativity.” “Whilst men have an fundamental anima and women an animus, each may also have the other, just as men have a feminine side and women a masculine. Jung saw men as having one dominant anima, contributed to by female members of his family, whilst women have a more complex, variable animus, perhaps made of several parts.
Jung theorized the development of the anima/animus as beginning with infant projection onto the mother, then projecting onto prospective partners until a lasting relationship can be found.” According to Jung man shares knowledge, experiences, images with entire human race, resulting in archetypes that affect how people respond to life--when certain images are in lit, they call up our archetypal feelings
http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes.htm/
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/04/
http://web.olivet.edu/english/rbelcher/lit310/310PSY.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-jungian-literary-criticism.htm
Jungian Criticism, is a type of literary analysis named after Carl Jung a student of Sigmund Freud. It is important to understand this, because Freud’s studies influenced those of Carl’s in the way that they both believed in the unconscious mind and the effects it has on humans.
Carl Jung perceived the human mind as made up of an unconscious divided into two discreet parts. The personal unconscious was those feelings that could not be accessed without therapy and dream work. The universal unconscious was a shared set of images, called archetypes, common to all people. The universal unconscious was expressed in art, literature and myth, and Jungian literary criticism focused specifically on the analysis of archetypes in literature and written mythology.” The main archetypes described by Jung, are said to be the shadow and the anima/animus (the female and male “other half”). The shadow, is a very common archetype that reflects deeper elements of our psyche . The name makes it clear that it is related to darkness and relates to trouble as well as the unknown. The shadow thus tends not to obey rules, and in doing so may discover new lands or plunge things into chaos and battle. Often the shadow is reflected upon or through someone else, and denied within ourselves. “It can also have a life of its own, as the other. A powerful goal that some undertake is to re-integrate the shadow, the dark side, and the light of the 'real' self. If this can be done effectively, then we can become 'whole' once again, bringing together that which was once again, bringing together that which was once split from us.” “While reading literature in Jungian literary criticism, the central character is viewed as real, while most other characters are seen as symbolic representations of aspects of the hero’s unconscious self.” Many times it is assumed that stories under the Jungian criticism are linked to mankind’s past or are based on mythic models. Many believe that Jungian literary criticism is a way to understand the psychological struggle of the human to overcome hidden thoughts and feelings, a struggle common to us all. “The anima/animus represents our true self, as opposed to the masks we wear every day and is the source of our creativity.” “Whilst men have an fundamental anima and women an animus, each may also have the other, just as men have a feminine side and women a masculine. Jung saw men as having one dominant anima, contributed to by female members of his family, whilst women have a more complex, variable animus, perhaps made of several parts.Jung theorized the development of the anima/animus as beginning with infant projection onto the mother, then projecting onto prospective partners until a lasting relationship can be found.” According to Jung man shares knowledge, experiences, images with entire human race, resulting in archetypes that affect how people respond to life--when certain images are in lit, they call up our archetypal feelings
http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes.htm/
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/04/
http://web.olivet.edu/english/rbelcher/lit310/310PSY.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-jungian-literary-criticism.htm
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Journal for Jane Eyre
Pg 10- All John Reed's violent tyrannies, all his sisters' proud indifference, all his mother's aversion, all the servants' partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned ? Why could I never please? Why was it useless to try to win any one's favour? Eliza, who was headstrong and selfish, was respected. Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged. Her beauty, her pink cheeks and golden curls, seemed to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indemnity for every fault. John, no one thwarted, much less punished ; though he twisted the necks of the pigeons, killed the little pea-chicks, set the dogs at the sheep, stripped the hothouse vines of their fruit, and broke the buds off the choicest plants in the conservatory: he called his mother "old girl," too; sometimes reviled her for her dark skin, similar to his own; bluntly disregarded her wishes; not unfrequently tore and spoiled her silk attire; and he was still " her own darling." I dared commit no fault: I strove to fulfil every duty; and I was termed naughty and tiresome, sullen and sneaking, from morning to noon, and from noon to night.
It is impossible for Jane to please anybody no matter how hard she tries. On the other hand, Georgia and John do not need to do anything to be respected. They can be as bad as they want, and everyone will turn their heads the other way. Yet, she is accused of everything, even the things that are not her fault.
Pg-11 - In such vault I had been told did Mr. Reed lie buried ; and led by this thought to recall his idea, I dwelt on it with gathering dread. I could not remember him; but I knew that he was my own uncle — my mother's brother — that he had taken me when a parentless infant to his house ; and that in his last moments he had required a promise of Mrs. Reed that she would rear and maintain me as one of her own children. Mrs. Reed probably considered she had kept this promise; and so she had, I dare say, as well as her nature would permit her; but how could she really like an interloper not of her race, and unconnected with her, after her husband's death, by any tie? It must have been most irksome to find herself bound by a hard-wrung pledge to stand in the stead of a parent to a strange child she could not love, and to see an uncongenial alien permanently intruded on her own family group.
Mr. Reed was her uncle. It was Jane’s mom’s brother, and he loved her dearly. As a result, when Jane’s parents deceased, he took her in as her own child. This made Mrs. Reed jealous, for how could he take a “poor, little, insignificant, orphan girl” in as if it were his own and give her more care and attention than to his actual children. But once he becomes ill, and at the point of preparing to “go on to a better place”, he makes Mrs. Reed promise to keep Jane and be her guardian..
Pg 17- My feet they are sore, and my limbs they are weary; Long is the way, and the mountains are wild; Soon will the twilight close moonless and dreary Over the path of the poor orphan child. " Why did they send me so far and so lonely, Up where the moors spread and grey rocks are piled ? Men are hard-hearted, and kind angels only Watch'd o'er the steps of a poor orphan child. " Yet distant and soft the night-breeze is blowing, Clouds there are none, and clear stars beam mild. God, in His mercy, protection is showing, Comfort and hope to the poor orphan child. " Ev'n should I fall o'er the broken bridge passing, Or stray in the marshes, by false lights beguiled, Still will my Father, with promise and blessing, Take to His bosom the poor orphan child. " There is a thought that for strength should avail me, Though both of shelter and kindred despoiled; Heaven is a home, and a rest will not fail me; God is a friend to the poor orphan child." This is the song that Bessie is singing, and Jane pays close attention as she listens. It speaks of a “poor orphan child and how his/her relationship with god will guide him/her through any obstacle/difficulty in his/her life. It makes Jane very sad, because it relates to her very easily and she cannot help but fill in the shoes of that poor orphan child.
She doesn’t see being poor as desirable. She thinks of them as low and would rather be rich even if being poor as meant being happy and/ or free.
Pg 17- "This precious vessel was now placed on my knee, and I was cordially invited to eat the circlet of delicate pastry upon it. Vain favour ! coming, like most other favours long deferred and often wished for, too late! I could not eat the tart: and the plumage of the bird, the tints of the flowers, seemed strangely faded: I put both plate and tart away."
Something has come over Jane. For some reason, nothing seems appealing to her. The things that would normally make her up are not making her sadness go away. She seems to find sadness everywhere she goes and with everything she does. The favors Bessie does to cheer her up from her “illness” are not helping at all. (she doesn’t feel like eating the tart, Gilligan’s island doesn’t soothe her, and the song Bessie sings fills her with sadness).
Pg 20- "Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners, and debasing vices: poverty for me was synonymous with the degradation. "
Pg 21- "could not see how poor people had the means of being kind; and then to learn to speak like them, to adopt their manners, to be uneducated, to grow up like one of the poor women I saw sometimes nursing their children or washing their clothes at the cottage doors of the village of Gateshead : no, I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste. "
Pg 22- "my father had been a poor clergyman; that my mother had married him against the wishes of her friends, who considered the match beneath her; that my grandfather Reed was so irritated at her disobedience, he cut her off without a shilling; that after my mother and father had been married a year, the latter caught the typhus fever while visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town where his curacy was situated, and where that disease was then prevalent; that my mother took the infection from him, and both died within a month of each other.
Her mother was rich and disobeyed her family’s orders not to marry the man she loved because he was poor. She went off with him and with that no more wealth. Unfortunately when Jane was very little her dad got typhus and infected his wife. Both died shortly after, making Jane dependant on only destiny.
Pg 22- "if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that."
How sad! How can they say such things! How can they give so much importance to looks and let that affect the way you treat others. Especially not when dealing with a kid. The way they treat Jane, really strikes me because after all, she is just a little girl. This poor little 10 year old faces so much, and it all happens in the miniature society created within the Reed’s household! How can they ever expect her to be a better person if they do not let her be or teach her anything in any way? All they seem to do is make her feel worse by all their criticism, and the fact that she does not have a voice in the household.
Pg 25- "To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow. It puzzles me now to remember withwhat absurd sincerity I doated on this little toy, half fancying it alive and capable of sensation. I could not sleep unless it was folded in my night-gown; and when it lay there safe and warm, I was comparatively happy, believing it to be happy likewise"
It is pretty sad to think that the only one who will “listen” to you, will not judge you, and will be there by your side anytime you need, is a doll! Every human has something to love, the only thing she has is her doll. It is the only thing to keep her company, and it will not be unjust or cruel. All she can do is love it, and imagine that it loves her back and is happy.
Pg 30- "Psalms are not interesting," I remarked. " That proves you have a wicked heart; and you must pray to God to change it : to give you a new and clean one : to take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."
Brockelhurst does not have the right to make such horrible comments to Jane.he is trying to make her feel guilty , for something she has never been taught before. He is judging her and making her feel bad. Just because she does not enjoy psalms does not prove her wicked! Even in this aspect she is not being allowed to voice her opinion.
Pg 31- "I should wish her to be brought up in a manner suiting her prospects," continued my benefactress ; " to be made useful, to be kept humble : as for the vacations, she will, with your permission, spend them always at Lowood."
Awww, Mrs. Read is taking advantage of Jane’s wanting to attend school. She is sending her away so she wont have to deal with her, and she doesn’t even want her back during vacation, she makes Jane look completely bad in the eyes of Mr. brocklehost. She is not even ashamed of admitting the truth, even in Jane’s presence
Pg 34- I am not deceitful : if I were, I should say I loved you ; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed ; and this book about the liar, you may give to your girl, Georgiana, for it is she who tells lies, and not I."
After the meeting with Mr. Brockelhurst, Jane somehow gains enough courage to make herself heard. She speaks out against Mrs. Reed and speaks what is on her mind. She does not let anything get in her way and Mrs. Reed stands completely dumbfounded. She feels offended, even though she knows everything Jane says is true. She just cannot take it because Jane has been the only one with enough courage to confront her.
Pg 55- (chapter six)
She becomes acquainted with Helen burns. As soon as Jane lays eyes on Helen, something about her intrigues Jane. She becomes very curious, and she even attempts to “befriend someone” for the first time. Their friendship soon blooms successfully and it introduces a new world to Jane. I am not sure what about her, catches Jane’s attention,but it turns out great for both of them and it really helps Jane grow as a person. It definitely inspires her greatly and influences who she is to become in the near future.
Pg 59-60- "I hold another creed ; which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom mention; but in which I delight, and to which I cling : for it extends hope to all : it makes Eternity a rest — a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. Besides, with this creed, I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the last : with this creed revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low: I live in calm, looking to the end." Helen's head, always drooping, sank a little lower as she finished this sentence. I saw by her look she wished no longer to talk to me, but rather to converse with her own thoughts"
Pg 68-" this is a sad, a melancholy occasion; for it becomes my duty to warn you, that this girl, who might be one of God's own lambs, is a little castaway: not a member of the true flock, but evidently an interloper and an alien. 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, scrutinise 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! "
Pg 69- This I learned from her benefactress; from the pious and charitable lady who adopted her in her orphan state, reared her as her own daughter, and whose kindness, whose generosity the unhappy girl repaid by an ingratitude so bad, so dreadful, that at last her excellent patroness was obliged to separate her from her own young ones, fearful lest her vicious example should contaminate their purity : she has sent her here to be healed, even as the Jews of old sent their diseased to the troubled pool of Bethesda; and, teachers, superintendent, I beg of you not to allow the waters to stagnate round her."Oh my gosh! Mr. Brocklehurst is so cruel! He seems to be the evil one. How could he teach such isolationist behavior to these poor girls, I cannot believe he just did that to Jane. It does not seem logical that such behavior can be taught to these girls and at such a young age. What kind of morals is he teaching? And what kind of “ladies” is he making them become? He definitely needs some sense knocked into his head, and needs to provide suitable accommodations to those girls.
Pg 71- "No; I know I should think well of myself; but that is not enough: if others don't love me, I would rather die than live — I cannot bear to be solitary and hated, Helen. Look here; to gain some real affection from you, or Miss Temple, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse, and let it dash its hoof at my chest," ".
Jane wouldn’t care what happened to her as long as she is loved.
Pg 78 - " I would not now have exchanged Lowood with all its privations, for Gateshead and its daily luxuries.
Jane has begun to love Lowood she appreciates much more than she over did Gateshead, and is bewildered by the education she receives and the things she is able to do their.Spring arrives, brings a whole new aspect to Lowood (Gateshead never was mentioned as a happy warm place such as Lowood is now.) It was always described as cold, dark, and gloomy. Lowood is now being described as warm, bright, and somewhat cheerful)
(chapter nine)-
Pg 82-83- And then my mind made its first earnest effort to comprehend what had been infused into it concerning heaven and hell: and for the first time it recoiled, baffled; and for the first time glancing behind, on each side, and before it, it saw all round an unfathomed gulf: it felt the one point where it stood — the present; all the rest was formless cloud and vacant depth: and it shuddered at the thought of tottering, and plunging amid that chaos.
Jane retakes for the first time the true meaning of death.
Pg 88-89- I walked about the chamber most of the time. I imagined myself only to be regretting my loss, and thinking how to repair it; but when my reflections were concluded, and I looked up and found that the afternoon was gone, and evening far advanced, another discovery dawned on me, namely, that in the interval I had undergone a transforming process ; that my mind had put off all it had borrowed of Miss Temple — or rather that she had taken with her the serene atmosphere I had been breathing in her vicinity — and that now I was left in my natural element, and beginning to feel the stirring of old emotions. It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone : it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquillity was no more. My world had for some years been in Lowood: my experience had been of its rules and systems ; now I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.
Jane learns a lot from miss temple. Even from her departure. She is saddened and feels that her motifs are gone, but soon after realizes that there is much more out there in the world and she wants to explore.
Pg 117- "It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do ; they suffer from too rigid a constraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex."
Jane addresses the limits put on people, especially on women. The expectations they take and the limited actions based on custom or classification
Pg 134- "The subjects had, indeed, risen vividly on my mind. As I saw them with the spiritual eye, before I attempted to embody them, they were striking; but my hand would not second my fancy, and in each case it had wrought out but a pale portrait of the thing I had conceived."
Imagery- describes her paintings. She paints beautifully, but complains that her artwork looks pale compared to what she envisioned and would have liked to have been able to produce.
1st painting-why would she draw a corpse? What is its meaning / significance? The bracelet?
2nd-Peak of hill, grass, and, leaves, woman’s shape/star.
3rd-Pinnacle of iceberg
Pg 146- Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre: remorse is the poison of life." "
Mr. Rochester declares himself unpure, unlike Jane. That he was her equal at that age and that he envies her purity, he also tells Jane, that remorse is the poison of life.
Pg 155-156- On recognising him, the fang of the snake, jealousy, was instantly broken; because at the same moment my love for Celine sank under an extinguisher. A woman who could nsr for: betray me for such a rival was not worth contending forfor: betray me for such a rival was not worth contending for: she deserved only scorn ; less, however, than I, who had been her dupe. "
Mr. Rochester reveals a secret to Jane. He explains that Adele is the daughter of a Celine Varens, whom he loved and cherished. He always gave her gifts and held her highly. But one day he caught her with another man, whom he already disliked, and he decided she wasn’t worth his love and affection. He later found out that she abandoned her daughter to runaway with some musician in Italy , but felt bad for the poor Adele and took her in. It had been said that she was his daughter, but he never believed so. He just wanted her to have a home and be brought up correctly.
Pg 159- And was Mr. Rochester now ugly in my eyes? No, reader: gratitude, and many associations, all pleasurable and genial, made his face the object I best liked to see; his presence in a room was more cheering than the brightest fire.
Jane is becoming accustomened to having Mr. Rochester around.
Pg 161-
Pg 173- I had indulged for nearly a fortnight past; Reason having come forward and told in her own quiet way, a plain, unvarnished tale, showing how I had rejected the real, and rabidly devoured the ideal; — I pronounced judgment to this rabidly devoured the ideal; — I pronounced judgment to this effect:— That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life: that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar. "
You," I said, " a favourite with Mr. Rochester? You gifted with the power of pleasing him ? You of importance to him in any way? Go! your folly sickens me. And you have derived pleasure from occasional tokens of preference — equivocal tokens, shown by a gentleman of family, and a man of the world, to a dependant and a novice. How dared you? Poor stupid dupe!— Could not even self-interest make you wiser? You repeated to yourself this morning the brief scene of last night ? — Cover your face and be ashamed ! He said something in praise of your eyes, did he ? Blind puppy ! Open their bleared lids and look on your own accursed senselessness ! It does good to no woman to be flattered by her superior, who cannot possibly intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication. "
Jane is beginning to have feelings for Rochester, but feels stupid because of it. She feels she has been fooling herself by considering that he might also feel something for her. She feels she was blind and that she nothing to offer. She rejects herself and cannot believe she thought something was kindling between the two.
Pg 189- Most true it is that " beauty is in the eye of the gazer." My master's colourless, olive face, square, massive brow, broad and jetty eyebrows, deep eyes, strong features, firm, grim mouth, — all energy, decision, will, — were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me: they were full of an interest, an influence that quite mastered me, — that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his. I had not intended to love him: the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected ; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong ! He made me love him without looking at me.
Jane admits that what she feels for Rochester really is love.
Pg 194- " Poor, puny things not fit to stir a step beyond papa's park-gates : nor to go even so far without mama's permission and guardianship! Creatures so absorbed in care about their pretty faces and their white hands, and their small feet; as if a man had anything to do with beauty! As if loveliness were not the special prerogative of woman — her legitimate appanage and heritage ! I grant an ugly woman is a blot on the fair face of creation; but as to the gentlemen, let them be solicitous to possess only strength and valour: let their motto be: — Hunt, shoot, and fight: the rest is not worth a fillip. Such should be my device, were I a man." " Whenever I marry," she continued after a pause which none interrupted, " I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me. I will suffer no competitor near the throne; I shall exact an undivided homage: his devotions shall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror.
Ms. Ingram criticizes society and its expectations for women and their “beauty”, and how those differ from men’s.
Pg 202- I saw he was going to marry her, for family, perhaps political reasons; because her rank and connections suited him; I felt he had not given her his love, and that her qualifications were ill adapted to win from him that treasure. This was the point — this was where the nerve was touched and teased— this was where the fever was sustained and fed : she could not charm him. ,
Jane realizes that Ms. Ingram has nothing to offer to Rochester. She has no feelings or original. She is somewhat fake because everything good from her (her talents,etc) all have been taught to her and she has no true values. Jane feels she does not have what it takes to fulfill Rochester.
Pg 257-258- Georgiana, a more vain and absurd animal than you, was certainly never allowed to cumber the earth. You had no right to be born; for you make no use of life. Instead of living for, in, and with yourself, as a reasonable being ought, you seek only to fasten your feebleness on some other person's strength: if no one can be found willing to burdenher or himself with such a fat, weak, puffy, useless thing, you cry out that you are ill-treated, neglected, miserable. Then, too, existence for you must be a scene of continual change and excitement, or else the world is a dungeon: you must be admired, you must be courted, you must be flattered — you must have music, dancing, and society — or you languish, you die away. Have you no sense to devise a system which will make you independent of all efforts, and all wills, but your own? Take one day; share it into sections; to each section apportion its task: leave no stray unemployed quarters of an hour, ten minutes, five minutes, include all; do each piece of business in its turn with method, with rigid regularity. The day will close almost before you are aware it has begun ; and you are indebted to no one for helping you to get rid of one vacant moment: you have had to seek no one's company, conversation, sympathy, forbearance; you have lived, in short, as an 'independent being ought to do. Take this advice: the first and last I shall offer you; then you will not want me or any one else, happen what may. Neglect it — go on as heretofore, craving, whining, and idling — and suffer the results of your idiocy, however bad and insufferable they may be. I tell you this plainly; and listen: 'or though I shall no more repeat what I am now about to say, I shall steadily act on it. After my mother's death, I wash my hands of you : from the day her coffin is carried to the vault in Gateshead Church, you and I will be as separate as if we had never known each other. You need not think that because we chanced to be bom of the same parents, I shall suffer you to fasten me down by even the feeblest claim: I can tell you this — if the whole human race, ourselves excepted, were swept away, and we two stood alone on the earth, I would leave you in the old world, and betake myself to the new."
For the first time, Eliza confronts Georgiana., and tells her what she had been holding in all these years. Everything she kept bottled up inside her, came out and Eliza put her into her place. She told her everything she was and everything she was not. She advises that she should become more independent and not to rely on only being complemented etc. she warns Georgiana that she wants to go her own separate ways and that Geaorgiana has to learn to look out for yourself.
Pg 283- It can never be, sir; it does not sound likely. Human beings never enjoy complete happiness in this world. I was not born for a different destiny to the rest of my species; to imagine such a lot befalling me is a fairy tale — a daydream."
Jane does not feel as if she deserves to be in love and feel as happy as she is at the moment. It seems like a fairytale to her.She feels that humans never quite feel happy,something always gets in the way.She just cannot comprehend how it is possible to feel happiness.
Pg 283- And then you won't know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any longer, but an ape in a harlequin's jacket, — a jay in borrowed plumes. I would as soon see you, Mr. Rochester, tricked out in stage-trappings, as myself clad in a court-lady's robe; and I don't call you handsome, sir, though I love you most dearly: far too dearly to flatter you. Don't flatter me."
Mr. Rochester is now trying to get Jane to be someone who she doesn't want to be. He wants to spoil her with jewels and dresses, but h eforgets that she is not accustomed to a luxurious life, and sh eprobably does not feel comfrtable to a life lik ethat. She would feel uncomfortable with such a sudden change. And Jane feels that luxury is not a part of he, an dit never will be. She is plain Jane and she does not want to change her identity by changing th eway she looks just because she marries a elathy man. She tries to make Edward understand this.
It is impossible for Jane to please anybody no matter how hard she tries. On the other hand, Georgia and John do not need to do anything to be respected. They can be as bad as they want, and everyone will turn their heads the other way. Yet, she is accused of everything, even the things that are not her fault.
Pg-11 - In such vault I had been told did Mr. Reed lie buried ; and led by this thought to recall his idea, I dwelt on it with gathering dread. I could not remember him; but I knew that he was my own uncle — my mother's brother — that he had taken me when a parentless infant to his house ; and that in his last moments he had required a promise of Mrs. Reed that she would rear and maintain me as one of her own children. Mrs. Reed probably considered she had kept this promise; and so she had, I dare say, as well as her nature would permit her; but how could she really like an interloper not of her race, and unconnected with her, after her husband's death, by any tie? It must have been most irksome to find herself bound by a hard-wrung pledge to stand in the stead of a parent to a strange child she could not love, and to see an uncongenial alien permanently intruded on her own family group.
Mr. Reed was her uncle. It was Jane’s mom’s brother, and he loved her dearly. As a result, when Jane’s parents deceased, he took her in as her own child. This made Mrs. Reed jealous, for how could he take a “poor, little, insignificant, orphan girl” in as if it were his own and give her more care and attention than to his actual children. But once he becomes ill, and at the point of preparing to “go on to a better place”, he makes Mrs. Reed promise to keep Jane and be her guardian..
Pg 17- My feet they are sore, and my limbs they are weary; Long is the way, and the mountains are wild; Soon will the twilight close moonless and dreary Over the path of the poor orphan child. " Why did they send me so far and so lonely, Up where the moors spread and grey rocks are piled ? Men are hard-hearted, and kind angels only Watch'd o'er the steps of a poor orphan child. " Yet distant and soft the night-breeze is blowing, Clouds there are none, and clear stars beam mild. God, in His mercy, protection is showing, Comfort and hope to the poor orphan child. " Ev'n should I fall o'er the broken bridge passing, Or stray in the marshes, by false lights beguiled, Still will my Father, with promise and blessing, Take to His bosom the poor orphan child. " There is a thought that for strength should avail me, Though both of shelter and kindred despoiled; Heaven is a home, and a rest will not fail me; God is a friend to the poor orphan child." This is the song that Bessie is singing, and Jane pays close attention as she listens. It speaks of a “poor orphan child and how his/her relationship with god will guide him/her through any obstacle/difficulty in his/her life. It makes Jane very sad, because it relates to her very easily and she cannot help but fill in the shoes of that poor orphan child.
She doesn’t see being poor as desirable. She thinks of them as low and would rather be rich even if being poor as meant being happy and/ or free.
Pg 17- "This precious vessel was now placed on my knee, and I was cordially invited to eat the circlet of delicate pastry upon it. Vain favour ! coming, like most other favours long deferred and often wished for, too late! I could not eat the tart: and the plumage of the bird, the tints of the flowers, seemed strangely faded: I put both plate and tart away."
Something has come over Jane. For some reason, nothing seems appealing to her. The things that would normally make her up are not making her sadness go away. She seems to find sadness everywhere she goes and with everything she does. The favors Bessie does to cheer her up from her “illness” are not helping at all. (she doesn’t feel like eating the tart, Gilligan’s island doesn’t soothe her, and the song Bessie sings fills her with sadness).
Pg 20- "Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners, and debasing vices: poverty for me was synonymous with the degradation. "
Pg 21- "could not see how poor people had the means of being kind; and then to learn to speak like them, to adopt their manners, to be uneducated, to grow up like one of the poor women I saw sometimes nursing their children or washing their clothes at the cottage doors of the village of Gateshead : no, I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste. "
Pg 22- "my father had been a poor clergyman; that my mother had married him against the wishes of her friends, who considered the match beneath her; that my grandfather Reed was so irritated at her disobedience, he cut her off without a shilling; that after my mother and father had been married a year, the latter caught the typhus fever while visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town where his curacy was situated, and where that disease was then prevalent; that my mother took the infection from him, and both died within a month of each other.
Her mother was rich and disobeyed her family’s orders not to marry the man she loved because he was poor. She went off with him and with that no more wealth. Unfortunately when Jane was very little her dad got typhus and infected his wife. Both died shortly after, making Jane dependant on only destiny.
Pg 22- "if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that."
How sad! How can they say such things! How can they give so much importance to looks and let that affect the way you treat others. Especially not when dealing with a kid. The way they treat Jane, really strikes me because after all, she is just a little girl. This poor little 10 year old faces so much, and it all happens in the miniature society created within the Reed’s household! How can they ever expect her to be a better person if they do not let her be or teach her anything in any way? All they seem to do is make her feel worse by all their criticism, and the fact that she does not have a voice in the household.
Pg 25- "To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow. It puzzles me now to remember withwhat absurd sincerity I doated on this little toy, half fancying it alive and capable of sensation. I could not sleep unless it was folded in my night-gown; and when it lay there safe and warm, I was comparatively happy, believing it to be happy likewise"
It is pretty sad to think that the only one who will “listen” to you, will not judge you, and will be there by your side anytime you need, is a doll! Every human has something to love, the only thing she has is her doll. It is the only thing to keep her company, and it will not be unjust or cruel. All she can do is love it, and imagine that it loves her back and is happy.
Pg 30- "Psalms are not interesting," I remarked. " That proves you have a wicked heart; and you must pray to God to change it : to give you a new and clean one : to take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."
Brockelhurst does not have the right to make such horrible comments to Jane.he is trying to make her feel guilty , for something she has never been taught before. He is judging her and making her feel bad. Just because she does not enjoy psalms does not prove her wicked! Even in this aspect she is not being allowed to voice her opinion.
Pg 31- "I should wish her to be brought up in a manner suiting her prospects," continued my benefactress ; " to be made useful, to be kept humble : as for the vacations, she will, with your permission, spend them always at Lowood."
Awww, Mrs. Read is taking advantage of Jane’s wanting to attend school. She is sending her away so she wont have to deal with her, and she doesn’t even want her back during vacation, she makes Jane look completely bad in the eyes of Mr. brocklehost. She is not even ashamed of admitting the truth, even in Jane’s presence
Pg 34- I am not deceitful : if I were, I should say I loved you ; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed ; and this book about the liar, you may give to your girl, Georgiana, for it is she who tells lies, and not I."
After the meeting with Mr. Brockelhurst, Jane somehow gains enough courage to make herself heard. She speaks out against Mrs. Reed and speaks what is on her mind. She does not let anything get in her way and Mrs. Reed stands completely dumbfounded. She feels offended, even though she knows everything Jane says is true. She just cannot take it because Jane has been the only one with enough courage to confront her.
Pg 55- (chapter six)
She becomes acquainted with Helen burns. As soon as Jane lays eyes on Helen, something about her intrigues Jane. She becomes very curious, and she even attempts to “befriend someone” for the first time. Their friendship soon blooms successfully and it introduces a new world to Jane. I am not sure what about her, catches Jane’s attention,but it turns out great for both of them and it really helps Jane grow as a person. It definitely inspires her greatly and influences who she is to become in the near future.
Pg 59-60- "I hold another creed ; which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom mention; but in which I delight, and to which I cling : for it extends hope to all : it makes Eternity a rest — a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. Besides, with this creed, I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the last : with this creed revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low: I live in calm, looking to the end." Helen's head, always drooping, sank a little lower as she finished this sentence. I saw by her look she wished no longer to talk to me, but rather to converse with her own thoughts"
Pg 68-" this is a sad, a melancholy occasion; for it becomes my duty to warn you, that this girl, who might be one of God's own lambs, is a little castaway: not a member of the true flock, but evidently an interloper and an alien. 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, scrutinise 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! "
Pg 69- This I learned from her benefactress; from the pious and charitable lady who adopted her in her orphan state, reared her as her own daughter, and whose kindness, whose generosity the unhappy girl repaid by an ingratitude so bad, so dreadful, that at last her excellent patroness was obliged to separate her from her own young ones, fearful lest her vicious example should contaminate their purity : she has sent her here to be healed, even as the Jews of old sent their diseased to the troubled pool of Bethesda; and, teachers, superintendent, I beg of you not to allow the waters to stagnate round her."Oh my gosh! Mr. Brocklehurst is so cruel! He seems to be the evil one. How could he teach such isolationist behavior to these poor girls, I cannot believe he just did that to Jane. It does not seem logical that such behavior can be taught to these girls and at such a young age. What kind of morals is he teaching? And what kind of “ladies” is he making them become? He definitely needs some sense knocked into his head, and needs to provide suitable accommodations to those girls.
Pg 71- "No; I know I should think well of myself; but that is not enough: if others don't love me, I would rather die than live — I cannot bear to be solitary and hated, Helen. Look here; to gain some real affection from you, or Miss Temple, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse, and let it dash its hoof at my chest," ".
Jane wouldn’t care what happened to her as long as she is loved.
Pg 78 - " I would not now have exchanged Lowood with all its privations, for Gateshead and its daily luxuries.
Jane has begun to love Lowood she appreciates much more than she over did Gateshead, and is bewildered by the education she receives and the things she is able to do their.Spring arrives, brings a whole new aspect to Lowood (Gateshead never was mentioned as a happy warm place such as Lowood is now.) It was always described as cold, dark, and gloomy. Lowood is now being described as warm, bright, and somewhat cheerful)
(chapter nine)-
Pg 82-83- And then my mind made its first earnest effort to comprehend what had been infused into it concerning heaven and hell: and for the first time it recoiled, baffled; and for the first time glancing behind, on each side, and before it, it saw all round an unfathomed gulf: it felt the one point where it stood — the present; all the rest was formless cloud and vacant depth: and it shuddered at the thought of tottering, and plunging amid that chaos.
Jane retakes for the first time the true meaning of death.
Pg 88-89- I walked about the chamber most of the time. I imagined myself only to be regretting my loss, and thinking how to repair it; but when my reflections were concluded, and I looked up and found that the afternoon was gone, and evening far advanced, another discovery dawned on me, namely, that in the interval I had undergone a transforming process ; that my mind had put off all it had borrowed of Miss Temple — or rather that she had taken with her the serene atmosphere I had been breathing in her vicinity — and that now I was left in my natural element, and beginning to feel the stirring of old emotions. It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone : it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquillity was no more. My world had for some years been in Lowood: my experience had been of its rules and systems ; now I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.
Jane learns a lot from miss temple. Even from her departure. She is saddened and feels that her motifs are gone, but soon after realizes that there is much more out there in the world and she wants to explore.
Pg 117- "It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do ; they suffer from too rigid a constraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex."
Jane addresses the limits put on people, especially on women. The expectations they take and the limited actions based on custom or classification
Pg 134- "The subjects had, indeed, risen vividly on my mind. As I saw them with the spiritual eye, before I attempted to embody them, they were striking; but my hand would not second my fancy, and in each case it had wrought out but a pale portrait of the thing I had conceived."
Imagery- describes her paintings. She paints beautifully, but complains that her artwork looks pale compared to what she envisioned and would have liked to have been able to produce.
1st painting-why would she draw a corpse? What is its meaning / significance? The bracelet?
2nd-Peak of hill, grass, and, leaves, woman’s shape/star.
3rd-Pinnacle of iceberg
Pg 146- Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre: remorse is the poison of life." "
Mr. Rochester declares himself unpure, unlike Jane. That he was her equal at that age and that he envies her purity, he also tells Jane, that remorse is the poison of life.
Pg 155-156- On recognising him, the fang of the snake, jealousy, was instantly broken; because at the same moment my love for Celine sank under an extinguisher. A woman who could nsr for: betray me for such a rival was not worth contending forfor: betray me for such a rival was not worth contending for: she deserved only scorn ; less, however, than I, who had been her dupe. "
Mr. Rochester reveals a secret to Jane. He explains that Adele is the daughter of a Celine Varens, whom he loved and cherished. He always gave her gifts and held her highly. But one day he caught her with another man, whom he already disliked, and he decided she wasn’t worth his love and affection. He later found out that she abandoned her daughter to runaway with some musician in Italy , but felt bad for the poor Adele and took her in. It had been said that she was his daughter, but he never believed so. He just wanted her to have a home and be brought up correctly.
Pg 159- And was Mr. Rochester now ugly in my eyes? No, reader: gratitude, and many associations, all pleasurable and genial, made his face the object I best liked to see; his presence in a room was more cheering than the brightest fire.
Jane is becoming accustomened to having Mr. Rochester around.
Pg 161-
Pg 173- I had indulged for nearly a fortnight past; Reason having come forward and told in her own quiet way, a plain, unvarnished tale, showing how I had rejected the real, and rabidly devoured the ideal; — I pronounced judgment to this rabidly devoured the ideal; — I pronounced judgment to this effect:— That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life: that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar. "
You," I said, " a favourite with Mr. Rochester? You gifted with the power of pleasing him ? You of importance to him in any way? Go! your folly sickens me. And you have derived pleasure from occasional tokens of preference — equivocal tokens, shown by a gentleman of family, and a man of the world, to a dependant and a novice. How dared you? Poor stupid dupe!— Could not even self-interest make you wiser? You repeated to yourself this morning the brief scene of last night ? — Cover your face and be ashamed ! He said something in praise of your eyes, did he ? Blind puppy ! Open their bleared lids and look on your own accursed senselessness ! It does good to no woman to be flattered by her superior, who cannot possibly intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication. "
Jane is beginning to have feelings for Rochester, but feels stupid because of it. She feels she has been fooling herself by considering that he might also feel something for her. She feels she was blind and that she nothing to offer. She rejects herself and cannot believe she thought something was kindling between the two.
Pg 189- Most true it is that " beauty is in the eye of the gazer." My master's colourless, olive face, square, massive brow, broad and jetty eyebrows, deep eyes, strong features, firm, grim mouth, — all energy, decision, will, — were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me: they were full of an interest, an influence that quite mastered me, — that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his. I had not intended to love him: the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected ; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong ! He made me love him without looking at me.
Jane admits that what she feels for Rochester really is love.
Pg 194- " Poor, puny things not fit to stir a step beyond papa's park-gates : nor to go even so far without mama's permission and guardianship! Creatures so absorbed in care about their pretty faces and their white hands, and their small feet; as if a man had anything to do with beauty! As if loveliness were not the special prerogative of woman — her legitimate appanage and heritage ! I grant an ugly woman is a blot on the fair face of creation; but as to the gentlemen, let them be solicitous to possess only strength and valour: let their motto be: — Hunt, shoot, and fight: the rest is not worth a fillip. Such should be my device, were I a man." " Whenever I marry," she continued after a pause which none interrupted, " I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me. I will suffer no competitor near the throne; I shall exact an undivided homage: his devotions shall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror.
Ms. Ingram criticizes society and its expectations for women and their “beauty”, and how those differ from men’s.
Pg 202- I saw he was going to marry her, for family, perhaps political reasons; because her rank and connections suited him; I felt he had not given her his love, and that her qualifications were ill adapted to win from him that treasure. This was the point — this was where the nerve was touched and teased— this was where the fever was sustained and fed : she could not charm him. ,
Jane realizes that Ms. Ingram has nothing to offer to Rochester. She has no feelings or original. She is somewhat fake because everything good from her (her talents,etc) all have been taught to her and she has no true values. Jane feels she does not have what it takes to fulfill Rochester.
Pg 257-258- Georgiana, a more vain and absurd animal than you, was certainly never allowed to cumber the earth. You had no right to be born; for you make no use of life. Instead of living for, in, and with yourself, as a reasonable being ought, you seek only to fasten your feebleness on some other person's strength: if no one can be found willing to burdenher or himself with such a fat, weak, puffy, useless thing, you cry out that you are ill-treated, neglected, miserable. Then, too, existence for you must be a scene of continual change and excitement, or else the world is a dungeon: you must be admired, you must be courted, you must be flattered — you must have music, dancing, and society — or you languish, you die away. Have you no sense to devise a system which will make you independent of all efforts, and all wills, but your own? Take one day; share it into sections; to each section apportion its task: leave no stray unemployed quarters of an hour, ten minutes, five minutes, include all; do each piece of business in its turn with method, with rigid regularity. The day will close almost before you are aware it has begun ; and you are indebted to no one for helping you to get rid of one vacant moment: you have had to seek no one's company, conversation, sympathy, forbearance; you have lived, in short, as an 'independent being ought to do. Take this advice: the first and last I shall offer you; then you will not want me or any one else, happen what may. Neglect it — go on as heretofore, craving, whining, and idling — and suffer the results of your idiocy, however bad and insufferable they may be. I tell you this plainly; and listen: 'or though I shall no more repeat what I am now about to say, I shall steadily act on it. After my mother's death, I wash my hands of you : from the day her coffin is carried to the vault in Gateshead Church, you and I will be as separate as if we had never known each other. You need not think that because we chanced to be bom of the same parents, I shall suffer you to fasten me down by even the feeblest claim: I can tell you this — if the whole human race, ourselves excepted, were swept away, and we two stood alone on the earth, I would leave you in the old world, and betake myself to the new."
For the first time, Eliza confronts Georgiana., and tells her what she had been holding in all these years. Everything she kept bottled up inside her, came out and Eliza put her into her place. She told her everything she was and everything she was not. She advises that she should become more independent and not to rely on only being complemented etc. she warns Georgiana that she wants to go her own separate ways and that Geaorgiana has to learn to look out for yourself.
Pg 283- It can never be, sir; it does not sound likely. Human beings never enjoy complete happiness in this world. I was not born for a different destiny to the rest of my species; to imagine such a lot befalling me is a fairy tale — a daydream."
Jane does not feel as if she deserves to be in love and feel as happy as she is at the moment. It seems like a fairytale to her.She feels that humans never quite feel happy,something always gets in the way.She just cannot comprehend how it is possible to feel happiness.
Pg 283- And then you won't know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any longer, but an ape in a harlequin's jacket, — a jay in borrowed plumes. I would as soon see you, Mr. Rochester, tricked out in stage-trappings, as myself clad in a court-lady's robe; and I don't call you handsome, sir, though I love you most dearly: far too dearly to flatter you. Don't flatter me."
Mr. Rochester is now trying to get Jane to be someone who she doesn't want to be. He wants to spoil her with jewels and dresses, but h eforgets that she is not accustomed to a luxurious life, and sh eprobably does not feel comfrtable to a life lik ethat. She would feel uncomfortable with such a sudden change. And Jane feels that luxury is not a part of he, an dit never will be. She is plain Jane and she does not want to change her identity by changing th eway she looks just because she marries a elathy man. She tries to make Edward understand this.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Lovely Bones
Darlene Ruiz
AP English Lit.
Mrs. Bosch
11 August 2008
The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold , like many other writers, was inspired to write her stories based on her own experiences; although hers is probably much more unpleasant. As an eighteen year old college freshman at Syracuse University, she was attacked, brutally, beaten, and raped while walking through a nearby park. But the incident did not stop her from continuing to attend Syracuse to finish her bachelor’s degree and study writing. On the contrary, her experience made her want to write and tell her story more than anything. After graduating from Syracuse she continued her education at the University of Houston for graduate school and moved to Manhattan for 10 years. While living in Manhattan, she held several jobs, such as waitressing, but she continued to pursue her career as a writer. Many times she tried expressing herself and telling her storyt hrough poetry. But something always went wrong, and its results were never quite satisfactory. While she was there, she used heroin recreationally for two years until deciding to move to Southern California. There she became caretaker of an arts colony earning $386 per month and living in a cabin in the woods without electricity. But this did not prevent her from continuing to write; she would write by propane candlelight. Soon after, she applied to graduate school at University of California Irvine, in 1995.Here she began her, soon to be, successful career as a writer. Lucky, her first novel was a memoir of her awful rape experience. The title came from a policeman who told her she had been very “lucky” because not long before her attack, another young woman had been killed and dismembered in the same tunnel. She began her story while writing for a ten page assignment at UCI, and ending up with 40 pages. After finally initiating her career as a writer with Lucky, she continued it with her bestselling novel The Lovely Bones; a story that is obviously also influenced by her experience as a teenager. The story deals with a 14 year old girl who is raped and murdered. She tells her story from heaven as she looks down at her family and what becomes of them after her death. During an interview she mentions “I was motivated to write about violence because I believe it's not unusual. I see it as just a part of life, and I think we get in trouble when we separate people who've experienced it from those who haven't. Though it's a horrible experience, it's not as if violence hasn't affected many of us."(Alice Sebold Summary) Her background and experiences have set up the stage of her wonderful career as a writer!
AP English Lit.
Mrs. Bosch
11 August 2008
The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold , like many other writers, was inspired to write her stories based on her own experiences; although hers is probably much more unpleasant. As an eighteen year old college freshman at Syracuse University, she was attacked, brutally, beaten, and raped while walking through a nearby park. But the incident did not stop her from continuing to attend Syracuse to finish her bachelor’s degree and study writing. On the contrary, her experience made her want to write and tell her story more than anything. After graduating from Syracuse she continued her education at the University of Houston for graduate school and moved to Manhattan for 10 years. While living in Manhattan, she held several jobs, such as waitressing, but she continued to pursue her career as a writer. Many times she tried expressing herself and telling her storyt hrough poetry. But something always went wrong, and its results were never quite satisfactory. While she was there, she used heroin recreationally for two years until deciding to move to Southern California. There she became caretaker of an arts colony earning $386 per month and living in a cabin in the woods without electricity. But this did not prevent her from continuing to write; she would write by propane candlelight. Soon after, she applied to graduate school at University of California Irvine, in 1995.Here she began her, soon to be, successful career as a writer. Lucky, her first novel was a memoir of her awful rape experience. The title came from a policeman who told her she had been very “lucky” because not long before her attack, another young woman had been killed and dismembered in the same tunnel. She began her story while writing for a ten page assignment at UCI, and ending up with 40 pages. After finally initiating her career as a writer with Lucky, she continued it with her bestselling novel The Lovely Bones; a story that is obviously also influenced by her experience as a teenager. The story deals with a 14 year old girl who is raped and murdered. She tells her story from heaven as she looks down at her family and what becomes of them after her death. During an interview she mentions “I was motivated to write about violence because I believe it's not unusual. I see it as just a part of life, and I think we get in trouble when we separate people who've experienced it from those who haven't. Though it's a horrible experience, it's not as if violence hasn't affected many of us."(Alice Sebold Summary) Her background and experiences have set up the stage of her wonderful career as a writer!
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold’s bestseller, is a truly captivating story dealing with the sufferings and events in a household after one’s death. Loss and grief along with love are two of the most relevant themes. Not only is her loss very saddening for those who surrounded her, but what hurts the most is their feeling of helplessness and disasperation. . Not knowing how or where Susie had disappeared and died. It was especially difficult to accept Susie’s death because her body was never found. The loss of Susie brings great grief to everyone; but especially to her father. Over the many years that go by, he never copes with her death and he kind of loses himself in a maze of grief and guilt. “Every day he got up. Before sleep wore off, he was who he used to be. Then, his consciousness woke; it was as if poison seeped in. At first he couldn’t even get up. He lay there under a heavy weight. But then only movement could save him, and he moved and he moved and he moved., no movement could save him, and he moved and he moved, and he moved, no movement being enough to make up for it. The guilt on him, the hand of god pressing down on him, saying, You were not there when your daughter needed you” (58). Lindsay, Susie’s younger sister seems to be the strongest. She learns how to deal with the problems and the kind of attention brought on to her by her sister’s death. But she copes perfectly and learns to go on with her life. “I may have begrudged her my father’s attention, but I respected her way of handling things. Of everyone in the family, it was Lindsey who had to deal with what Holly called the Walking Dead Syndrome-when other people see the dead person and don’t see you” (59). Her brother Buckley does just the same, even though he seems to be able to see Susie after her death. He was very small when she died, but was gravely affected by the fact that his father was never recovered from her death, and he seems to be living beneath her shadow. Out of all of them, the strangest way to try and reach recovery was the path taken by Abigail, Susie’s mom. At times, she seemed completely unaffected. And she slowly became detached from her family. She gradually began to lose herself in a world of infatuation and lust with the detective in charge of Susie’s case, Len Fennerman. “I was watching a beg for leniency on my mother’s part. My mother was moving physically through time to flee from me. I could not hold her back. Len kissed her forehead hard and closed his eyes. She took his hand and placed it on her breast. She whispered in his ear. I knew what was happening. Her rage, her loss, her despair. The whole life lost tumbling out in an arc on that roof, clogging up her being. She needed Len to drive the dead daughter out” (152). She eventually becomes tired of her situation and her life and runs away to California. She tried to escape, thinking she could forget and leave her problems in the past while creating a new safe haven for herself. Although her family suffered greatly from the loss, they were not the only ones affected by the grief. Ray Singh, a school mate, loved Susie and it was hard for him to accept reality. He was also Susie’s closest experience to love and because of this she holds hi m dear to her heart even as she watches down from her heaven This love, and family love, both make themselves very present in the story, and are very fundamental to the story. The theme of love marks many points in the story. It is what keeps the people on earth from accepting someone’s death, and what keeps the ones in heaven wanting to come back. But it is also something that is shared between the two and will create a bond that will remain forever.
This novel, written by Alice Sebold, not only has a way of engaging the reader into a saddening yet exciting story, but it has a unique way of incorporating the first person narration with that of an omniscient one. It begins with the rape and murder of fourteen year old Susie Salmon, and continues with observations from her personalized heaven. Susie can see everything from her heaven and constantly watches over everyone on Earth. She carefully observes everyone’s actions and how each one of her family members copes with her death. But just as those on earth cannot accept the fact that she is dead, neither can she. Susie constantly tries to be a part of the world she once knew and experience “living” once again. She has a hard time letting go of those on earth, and this keeps her from many things in her heaven. This novel helps one speculate on the possibility of life after death and how the dead keep watch over us. It helps one realize the many mistakes we make when we lose a loved one and the effect we may have on others. It also lets the reader be a pert of the drama and experience the bitterness of knowing that a murderer can get away so easily, and take the life of so many along with the life of their families.
The Lovely Bones is a one of a kind story that has a somewhat supernatural effect on the reader. It tells of a horrible rape/murder experience and is very uniquely narrated from up in heaven from the victim, as she observes the events that occur after her death. She enjoys watching those who still have a place down on earth, and experiences what she never got to her experience when she was alive, through her sister. She watches her grow up, and fall in love. And she keeps track of all those she once knew down on earth. Because of this , I believe it addresses something that I am sure many have wondered “what would happen if I died? Would anyone care? Would anyone be able to see me? This novel helps you speculate on many aspects of death and life after death. It also gives you a nice idea of what heaven could be like. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in these types of novels. It is filled with mystery, despair, hope, and many other feelings that will definitely keep you reading for hours And it was recently adapted into a film, which I believe is supposed to come out sometime next year (2009).
This novel, written by Alice Sebold, not only has a way of engaging the reader into a saddening yet exciting story, but it has a unique way of incorporating the first person narration with that of an omniscient one. It begins with the rape and murder of fourteen year old Susie Salmon, and continues with observations from her personalized heaven. Susie can see everything from her heaven and constantly watches over everyone on Earth. She carefully observes everyone’s actions and how each one of her family members copes with her death. But just as those on earth cannot accept the fact that she is dead, neither can she. Susie constantly tries to be a part of the world she once knew and experience “living” once again. She has a hard time letting go of those on earth, and this keeps her from many things in her heaven. This novel helps one speculate on the possibility of life after death and how the dead keep watch over us. It helps one realize the many mistakes we make when we lose a loved one and the effect we may have on others. It also lets the reader be a pert of the drama and experience the bitterness of knowing that a murderer can get away so easily, and take the life of so many along with the life of their families.
The Lovely Bones is a one of a kind story that has a somewhat supernatural effect on the reader. It tells of a horrible rape/murder experience and is very uniquely narrated from up in heaven from the victim, as she observes the events that occur after her death. She enjoys watching those who still have a place down on earth, and experiences what she never got to her experience when she was alive, through her sister. She watches her grow up, and fall in love. And she keeps track of all those she once knew down on earth. Because of this , I believe it addresses something that I am sure many have wondered “what would happen if I died? Would anyone care? Would anyone be able to see me? This novel helps you speculate on many aspects of death and life after death. It also gives you a nice idea of what heaven could be like. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in these types of novels. It is filled with mystery, despair, hope, and many other feelings that will definitely keep you reading for hours And it was recently adapted into a film, which I believe is supposed to come out sometime next year (2009).
Biblical Illusions
THE FALL- This is commonly known as the moment when Eve disobeys God by biting the apple in the Garden of Eden. She falls into the Satan’s trick, and God punishes mankind with mortal sin.
-THE FLOOD-was a result of God’s anger toward the people down on earth. He called upon Noah and told him to build an ark in which he was to put pairs of the many animal son earth. He gave him instructions on how to build it and what to do along the way. As soon as the ark was completed, the pouring began and continued for 40 days and nights.
THE CREATION-the creation, is our reference to how life on earth began (religiously, of course). God created plants, humans, and everything on earth during 6 days and took the seventh day to rest.
-THE MARK OF CAIN-this was like a curse put on Cain, for murdering his brother Abel. God marked him with it as punishment and he was not accepted by society after that.
-LOT AND HIS WIFE-lot, his wife, and his family are warned by some angels that they need to leave the city because it will be destroyed. As hey leave they are told to live off by the mountains, and that they are not to look back or they shall perish. Lot’s wife’s instinct makes her look back and she is instantly turned into a pillar of salt.
-SODOM AND GOMORRAH- two cities that were destroyed. Only lot’s family was saved by a warning from some angels. But as they were leaving, Lot’s wife turned her back to look at Sodom for one last time and was turned into a pillar of salt.
-THE NATIVITY-as depicted under many Christmas trees and storybooks, this is known as the time when Jesus was born. The Virgin Mary and Joseph stopped at Nazareth and baby Jesus was born in a stable, where the three kings later made themselves present and brought gifts for the newborn.
-LAZARUS- a man whom Jesus resuscitated from the dead.
-THE CRUCIFIXION-as the scriptures had it, Jesus would be denied and betrayed, and would be sacrificed for our sake and as pardon for our sins. He was crucified by Pontius Pilate, and resuscitated on the third day.
-THE DENIAL-Jesus warned his disciples that he would be betrayed by some of them, and none of them believed him. Later when confronted by authorities, they denied him three times (before the crow sang), and they couldn’t believe what they had just done.
-THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER-when Judas betrayed Jesus he received thirty pieces of silver. This was a reward for such betrayal and in stories an act of betrayal, such as this one, is referred to as the “thirty pieces of silver”.
-DAVID AND GOLIATH (PHILISTINES) - the story in which young David becomes a hero. He takes on the mighty giant Goliath and defeats him with a blow from his slingshot. -
BUDDHA/BUDDHISM- The Buddha taught that the nature of reality was impermanent and interconnected. We suffer in life because of our desire to transient things. Liberation from suffering may come by training the mind and acting according to the laws of karma (cause and effect) i.e. with right action, good things will come to you. This teaching is known as the Four Noble Truths:
Dukkha: Suffering is everywhereSamudaya: There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or misplaced desire (tanha) rooted in ignorance. Nirodha: There is an end of suffering, which is Nirvana (the possibility of liberation exists for everyone). Maggo: There is a path that leads out of suffering, known as the Noble Eightfold Path (right view, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right vocation, right effort, right attention and right concentration). (Based upon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha)
-GOLGOTHA-place for Jesus’ burial
-THE PRODIGAL SON-this is from a story that tells about a father with two sons. He divides all of his belongings into equal parts for both of his sons. The older son was responsible and saved all that he was given but the younger son gathered it all and left far off. He was careless and soon ran out of money. He had nothing left and decided to work. The only job available to him was feeding the swines and he was so poor that even he ended up eating with the pigs. He decided that the only choice left was to return home to his dad and ask for forgiveness and let him at least be a servant. As his father saw him approaching, he was filled with glee and immediately ordered his servants to make a big feast.(the killing of the fatted calf). But when the older son saw this he was mad and did not want to join the celebration. He felt that he had been treated unfairly, because he had been responsible and loyal, but yet his brother was getting a feast. Stories usually allude to “the prodigal son” to symbolize someone who leaves his/her home and eventually returns back in sorrow or shame.
-REVELATIONS (FOUR HORSEMENT, NUMBER OF THE BEAST, ETC.)- (1) THE SEVEN CHURCHES- The Epistles, to the seven Churches. The Churches are Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The Epistles are short exhortations to the Christians to remain steadfast in their faith, to beware of false apostles and to abstain from fornication and from meat offered to idols.
(2) THE BOOK WITH THE SEVEN SEALS- The seven seals and the numbering of the Saints. At the opening of four seals, four horses appear. Their colour is white, black, red, and sallow, or green (chloros, piebald), They signify conquest, slaughter, dearth and death.
The seventh seal. After the interval of about half an hour, the seventh seal is broken; seven angels issue forth, each one holding a trumpet. The sounding of the first four trumpets causes a partial destruction of the elements of nature. One-third of the earth is burned, as also one-third of the trees and all the grass. One-third of the sea becomes blood (cf. Exodus 7:17). One-third of the rivers is turned into water of wormwood. One-third of the sun, moon, and stars is obscured, causing one-third of the day to be dark (cf. Exodus 10:21). At the sounding of the fifth trumpet locusts ascend from the abyss. Their work is to torment men for five months, They are specially charged not to touch the grass. Their shape is that of horses (Joel 2:4) their teeth like those of lions (Joel 1:6), their hair like the hair of women. They have the tails of scorpions where with to chastise man. The command over them is held by the Angel of the Abyss, named Abaddon, the destroyer. At the sound of the sixth trumpet the four angels chained at the Euphrates are let loose. They lead forth an army of horsemen. By the fire which the horses spit out and by their tails which are like serpents, one-third of mankind is killed. After the sixth trumpet there are two digressions. (1) The angel standing on the land and the sea. He swears that at the sound of the seventh trumpet the mystery will be completed. He hands to the Seer a little book. When eaten by him it is found sweet to taste, but bitter when once devoured. Taken from Ezech., ii. 8; iii, 3. (2) The contamination of the court of the Temple by the heathens. It lasts three and a half years. Taken from Dan., vii, 25; ix, 27; xii, 7-11. During that time two witnesses are sent to preach in Jerusalem. They are the two olive-trees foretold by Zach., iv, 3,11. At the end of their mission they are slain by the beast. They are raised to life after three and a half days (= years). The seventh trumpet is now sounded, the nations are judged and the kingdom of Christ is established.( http://www.bookofrevelations.net/)
-JONAH AND THE WHALE-- Jonah was a prophet and he was ordered by god to send a message to the city of Nineveh. But he refused to go there and decided to flee, thinking he could find a way to hide from god. He got on a ship, and it suffered from a great storm caused by god and his anger towards Jonah. The only way to calm the storm was to throw Jonah overboard. So the sailors did this, for their own sake, and god sent a whale to swallow Jonah and safely get him to shore. A “Jonah” is usually referring to someone who brings bad luck along with them.-
SAMSON AND DELILAH-Samson was of the strongest men around and he had a secret for his strength. Delilah was the woman he loved, and he confided his secret to her. He told hr that that the source of his strength came from his hair, and while he was asleep Delilah cut his hair and betrayed him.
-MOSES AND THE FLIGHT FROM SLAVERY IN EGYPT-when Moses was a baby his mother had to save him from the clutches of the authorities.(who at the time were killing all newborns, by orders of the king who was afraid of his crown with the news of the new “savior, Jesus Christ.)She put him in a basket and sent him down the Nile River, where the king’s daughter found him and adopted him as her own. As an adult, god calls upon him to lead the Hebrew to safety and away from slavery. He later hands him the Ten Commandments. Soon after the king follows them to get his slaves back; which angers god and he sends the plagues and Moses saves the Hebrews by escaping through the parted red sea.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)