Jane Eyre Essays (Examples)

Jane Eyre Movie
A new version of Jane Eyre has just been directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga who directed Sin Nombre and the screenwriter Moira Buffini who is best known for Tamara Drewe (Jane Eyre, N.d.). The story is set in the nineteenth century and is based on a novel by English writer Charlotte Bronte. It was originally published on October 16th, 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. Of London, England, under the pen name "Currer Bell." Later, the first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. The book was written from a first person perspective and much of this book was adapted to fit the movie. Although the movie was ahead of its time and included some aspects of sexuality, religion, and proto-feminism, these aspects were dramatized and many gothic elements. Some have referred to it as a "Reader's Digest" version of the…

..(Lamonaca, 2002, pg. 245)
Within the work is a clear liberalization of Jane's ideas of spiritual fate and a challenge to the standards of the day, of a wife as a spiritual and physical subordinate to a husband.

Jane's insistence on a direct, unmediated relationship with her Creator uncovers a glaring inconsistency in Evangelical teaching that posed for women of faith a virtual theological impasse: Evangelicals championed the liberty of discernment and conscience for all believers, but also prized a model of marriage in which wives were spiritually subordinate to their husbands.

Given the religious and cultural context in which it was written, Jane Eyre proclaims what could be considered a message of radical spiritual autonomy for women. (Lamonaca, 2002, pg. 245)

Following in the line of her progression through the work the ending passage, including her no less than perfect description of her marriage to othschild is a picture of the demands of…

The girls at Lowood are made to persist on a diet of precious little, sometimes spoiled food. The dormitories were too cold and the halls damp. Many essentials were denied the girls under the premise sited by Brocklehurst in an especially despicable scene where he lambastes Temple for apprising the girls with a lunch of bread and cheese after breakfast arrived spoiled and inedible. Brocklehurst informs her that in such a circumstance, the spoiled food should more appropriately have been seen as a lesson from God. He determines that a more suitable instructor would instead "take the opportunity of referring to the sufferings of the primitive Christians; to the torments of martyrs; to the exhortations of our blessed Lord himself, calling upon his disciples to take up their cross and follow him." (Bronte, 70) In one manner, we may take this sentiment as fundamentally similar to those expressed by…

Jane Eyre: 1996 Movie Assessments
The novel Jane Eyre ends, not with a reference to the love of Jane and Rochester, but to Jane's cousin St. John River. Jane's distant cousin is a missionary who has exorcized his passion for a worthless woman from his heart and stripped himself clean of all worldly desires in the pursuit of his faith. He dies, a faithful man in a far-off godless land, filled with the knowledge that what he has done is right for his own personal soul and struggle. This last, novelistic reference to St. John, although not nearly as famous as the statement 'reader, I married him,' is just as important when analyzing the differences between the book and movie versions of Charlotte Bronte film. This last reference to St. John, and the intimate reference to the reader of the text stresses the two key elements of distinction between film and…

Jane Eyre's Lessons In Inner Beauty
The notion of beauty, what it is and whether it is an inner or outward quality, has been long debated. For centuries people, and particularly women, have struggled with the concept of their own inner beauty as something as important, if not more important than their outward, physical beauty. This is no less true in literature. The idea of female inner beauty has not always been valued. In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, the protagonist, Jane, rejects her own outer beauty in favour of nurturing her intellect, her humility and those other inner qualities that she herself views as beautiful. She respects her wisdom and philosophy before any of her physical attributes, partly because of her need as a child to read, partly from the lessons she is taught. The ideas she embraces as a child regarding outer beauty are reinforced as they reappear in her…

1847, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is structured like a puzzle. The title page reads Jane Eyre: An Autobiography but the work is credited to Currer Bell, an apparently male pseudonym. The author's involvement with the text is therefore signposted from the moment we open the book -- what does it mean for a work to be described as an "autobiography" but ascribed to a different writer? Obviously an autobiography can be ghost-written -- it is unlikely most of the Hollywood celebrities who publish an autobiography in 2015 have written these books without assistance -- but a ghost-writer is not normally credited on the title page, which ought to read "The Autobiography of Jane Eyre." Instead, the author is asking us to read the work as a fictional autobiography of a woman, but one that is apparently written by a man. Now of course that we know the author of…

1847 Novel and the 1973 Film
The novel Jane Eyre was written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847. Although the novel is widely considered a classic, and is therefore presumed to be timeless in terms of its characters and themes, when a contemporary filmmaker wished to adapt its themes for present day audiences, there were certain aspects of the work that demanded changes, not in plot but in thematic emphasis and visual depiction. First of all, the religious themes of the novel were toned down. Bronte's religious concerns were presumed to be of less interest to modern audiences. Secondly, the passion between Jane and Mr. Rochester was made much more explicit in the film. hen a viewer sees a romance on screen, the unspoken thoughts in the characters mind must be turned into a picture. In prose, Jane's doubts about Rochester's love sound more real. Lastly, the contrast between book and…

Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre, the desire of the protagonist to be loved is overpowered by her desire to be independent and autonomous. The difficulty, of course, is that Jane Eyre is first published in 1847: this was a world in which the humble governess who gives the novel its title was without rights and opportunities. In their groundbreaking feminist study of English literature The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar note that the novel was considered shocking, but not for any of the reasons that a twenty-first century reader might expect: they note that "Victorian reviewers….were disturbed not so much by the asocial sexual vibrations between hero and heroine as by the heroine's refusal to submit to her social destiny" (338). This "refusal to submit to…social destiny" is the heart of Jane's desire for independence and autonomy, to the extent that they were even…

Jane Eyre and Orientalism
The quality of Orientalism in Jane Eyre is that of the exotic, wild and impassioned element that lurks both within the mysterious character of Mr. Rochester and his imprisoned/insane wife in the attic. The "oriental" character is viewed as something that is foreign, in need of order, restraint and reason and yet which attracts the characters (including both Mr. Rochester and the missionary St. John, who wants to go abroad to preach the Bible) albeit for different reasons; the former seeks to lose himself, the latter seeks to find/redeem those who are lost. Yet the effects of the "oriental" on the spirits and moods of the two extremes represented by Rochester and St. John are similar: each becomes a kind of representation of death -- Rochester is trapped by a former, erotic love, now cut off from romantic love due to the laws of God and Church…

epresentation of women in Jane Eyre, Great Expectations and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales
In Victorian culture, Women were Idolized, Protected and Oppressed

During the Victorian era from the year, 1837-1901 there was a definite gender role in England. During the period, women and men had very different roles in the society. Women and men perceptions were ideologically different. Men were superior to women during this period. It was a believe during the Victorian era that men had the capacity to reason, had their own self-interest, had the right of choice, as well as independence. This was not the case for women since women did not enjoy such rights (Goldhill, 2011). A woman of this era had to portray her feminine characteristics, which meant that one had to be emotionally dependent on their men, and had to be submissive.

Following such outlook and perception of the…

Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre have captured the imagination of successive generations of critics, from the time they were published till today. Widely acclaimed, these two novels continue to literally mesmerize scholars as the harbingers of a unique literary genre of romance in a gothic drama setting, which is related with harsh vitalism and lack of moral zeal.
More than their technical aspects, however, a review of the critical literature on these two works reveals an almost unanimous view that the enduring appeal of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre lies in the works' ability to virtually unplug human emotion and expose it in its raw form.

Charlotte ronte, the author of Jane Eyre, and Emily ronte, the author of Wuthering Heights were sisters. It was, therefore, but natural that a shared upbringing, a sibling relationship, and common influences found its way into the literary works that they penned. As such, it is…

GOTHIC NOVEL & JANE EYRE
According to E.F. leiler, "efore Horace Walpole, the word 'gothic' was almost always a synonym for rudeness, barbarousness, crudity, coarseness and lack of taste. After Walpole, the word assumed two new major meanings -- first, vigorous, bold, heroic and ancient; and second, quaint, charming, romantic, but perhaps a little decadent in its association with Romanticism, but sentimental and interesting" (12). Of course, leiler is referring to Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, first published in 1764, which introduced English readers to what is now called "Gothic Romanticism," a style of fiction characterized by the use of desolate or remote settings and macabre, mysterious or violent incidents.

Following Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, the Gothic novel took on new dimensions and the terms Gothicism and Romanticism became linked forever in many other works of fiction between 1750 and 1850. This link is connected chronologically by numerous themes such…

Victorian novel Jane Eyre including societal rules, social position of Jane, writing style of Bronte, use of dark language and metaphors.
JANE EYE

Jane Eyre is one of the most interesting heroines of the Victorian age and her unique position in the novel has sparked many debates regarding the role of women in old English societies. The fact that Jane was a governess and not a rich person suitable for ochester adds to her miseries. It appears that the beautiful emotion of love was missing from that society because though Jane understands the feeling, she knows that ochester wouldn't be able to reciprocate due to society strictures. In that age, it was believed that one must marry a person equal in social standing and thus love rarely was accepted as a reason to tie the knot. Jane's low social position adds to her wretched circumstances as ochester, though he loves her,…

Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre illustrate Jane's troubled beginnings as an orphaned girl. The narrator of the story, Jane describes her being raised by her cruel aunt Mrs. Reed at the family's Gateshead Hall. At only ten years old, Jane's formative years fill with psychologically traumatic experiences. Her own aunt and cousin John act as Jane's primary antagonists at this point in the novel. Resentful of Jane and patronizing her for her poor and orphaned state, Mrs. Reed and her son John tease and patronize the young girl. But her strength of character succeeds; although at first Jane maintained a low profile at Gateshead in an attempt to ignore John's punishments, she finally reacts. Fighting John landed Jane in the red-room, but it also led her to the kind-hearted Bessie and Mr. Lloyd. Jane's honesty and ability to open up to the nurse and apothecary garner sympathy and she…

Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre the main character Jane is faced with many difficulties while attending Lowood School that force her to strengthen her resolve to persiveer in spite of many obsticles. While initially Jane is eager for an escape from her life at Gateshead she soon finds that the past often shapes ones future and that life away from her cruel Aunt does not necessarily mean an end to her unhappiness. Jane realizes that her own views of religion vary greatly from those around her and have potential to greatly influence the path her life takes. She also soon learns that the school is under the total domination of Mr. Brocklehurst, which adds to her torment as she realizes that, even that kind to her must in the end bend to his will.
At the novels opening Jane Eyre is subjected to various cruelties by Mrs. Reed leading her…

Jane and Bertha also share other characteristics that emphasize Bertha's significance in the novel. As an adult, Jane comes to certain realizations about her life and the world in which she lives. First she realizes that men and women are basically the same in that "women feel just as men feel" (117) and 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"(117). Jane is aware of this fact but there is little outside her own mind that she can do about it. It should come as no surprise that Jane hears Bertha's outburst after conceiving such unconventional thoughts. Here we can see how the two women are living parallel lives in that they are both strong women that do not wish to be held back by the constraints of a male-dominated world.…

' "You should hear mama on the chapter of governesses: Mary and I have had, I should think, a dozen at least in our day; half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous, and all incubi -- were they not, mama?" says the beautiful Blanche Ingram, with whom Mr. Rochester is rumored to be in love (Bronte 179). Instead, Rochester says chooses Jane for her character. However, there is always the social barrier between them, which makes Jane uncomfortable: "I ask only this: don't send for the jewels, and don't crown me with roses: you might as well put a border of gold lace round that plain pocket handkerchief you have there" (Bronte 265). And Jane soon discovers that Rochester is already married. She refuses to be his mistress, which would have lowered her social status even more, and deprived her of the one thing she does own -- her…

Cultural Reflection of Charlotte ronte's Jane Eyre
In Charlotte ronte's novel Jane Eyre, we are introduced to a timid, insecure orphan child who is set extraordinary odds to find happiness and eventually love in 19th Century England. Jane Eyre is the story of a reluctant and fairly plain woman who believes that she is unloved because of these physical traits, yet she is strong-principled, intelligent and possesses a desire to do better in life and become independent. Of her greatest obstacles to overcome, the crude Victorian society is the hardest, and ronte pits her character against many Victorian taboos and religious fervor that she herself must have witnessed in her own life.

Charlotte ronte herself was born and raised in Victorian England, one of three sisters who all became published authors. "The prejudice against women in the nineteenth century was such that the three sisters were forced to adopt male pseudonyms…

Rebellion and Conformity in Jane Eyre
This paper focuses on the elements of rebellion and conformity that make frequent appearances in Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece, 'Jane Eyre'. The novel contains many instances of rebellion but there are also some occasions when the protagonist chooses to conform to societal and religious traditions. Thus the book would be considered by many a healthy and balanced blend of defiance and peaceful surrender and this is what turned it into one of the best-known works of Victorian era.

REBELLION AND CONFORMITY IN 'JANE EYRE'

In Jane Eyre, we notice those first few sparks of rebellion, which later resulted in active feminist movement in England. While the novel itself is not free from Victorian strictures, there are certain moments when an independent rebellious voice surfaces and takes hold of the very proper and logical Jane Eyre. We need to understand that the novel itself is not about rebellion or…

Ironically, although Jane begins her titular novel as a child, dependant upon the good and not so good will and promise of the Reeds to her father, Raney is utterly emotionally dependant upon her mother for her opinions, as well as financially and socially dependant, even as she is ready to be married to Charles. Marriage, at the beginning of the tale for Raney, thus is merely a continuation of her childlike life, moving from her parental to a patriarchal home. Jane, in contrast, fears losing her sense of self through marriage, a sense of self she has had since she was a child. Before Jane nearly enters into a bigamous marriage, Jane notes her guise in the mirror. "I saw a robed and veiled figure, so unlike my usual self that it seemed almost the image of a stranger. 'Jane!' called a voice, and I hastened down." (http://www.literature.org/authors/bronte-charlotte/jane-eyre/chapter-26.html)…

Jane Eyre and OatesAs Oates says, Jane Eyre is a reflection of real life because it has a voice that is true to life, and that is what distinguishes it from other tales, including fairy tales: it is the material of legends and fairy tales, perhaps; yet also, sometimes, this time at least, of life. For we are led to believe Jane Eyres good fortune because we are led to believe her voice (Oates). Thus, Jane Eyre is as the title proclaimsan autobiography; a fictional autobiography, yesbut no fairy tale. Jane Eyre is a first-person account of a womans own journey to becoming a wife and mother, as Oates points out. The elements of the story are fantastical at times, which is why it resembles the fairy tale genre (that and the fact that it has a fantastical ending that seems very much like the and-they-lived-happily-ever-after endings that we have…

Jane Eyre PassageThe passage I have chosen is from Chapter 4, when Jane pushes back against Mrs. Reed: How dare I, Mrs. Reed? How dare I? Because it is thetruth. You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity. I shall remember how you thrust me backroughly and violently thrust me backinto the red-room, and locked me up there, to my dying day; though I was in agony; though I cried out, while suffocating with distress, Have mercy! Have mercy, Aunt Reed! And that punishment you made me suffer because your wicked boy struck meknocked me down for nothing. I will tell anybody who asks me questions, this exact tale. People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted.Youare deceitful!Ere I had finished this reply, my soul began to…

343). This same pious fellow who reports in his letter that he hears God announcing His approach is also the picture of imperial majesty, brave, stern, and exacting, and of course only working for the betterment of those he is bringing into his empire. St. John's rousing finale allows the work to finish as it almost physically completes a conquering of Jane's secular world, as well.
The celebratory nature of Jane's (and apparently Charlotte Bronte's) attitude towards imperialism is off-putting to some scholars, who find Jane Eyre and other "women's texts" to be a feminist re-appropriation of imperial ideals and mechanisms, and it must certainly be acknowledged that Jane is only able to exalt fully in this image of British dominance when she herself has found the freedom she sought and that was so long denied her as a woman (Spivak, p. 243). More important than the timing of Jane's…

The comparison between Jan's bright eyes and the "red balls" that hold the same station in Bertha's animalistic face, as well as Bertha's size and girth in comparison to Rochester (his equal in size) and Jane, small young and proper is meant also to show Bertha as a tyrant, though her size has nothing to do with choice it is a point of comparison which separates her from the ideal, Jane's slender (almost weak appearing) frame. The final passage in the work that expresses this comparison, between acting right in the face of restraint and breaking ranks with the proper is when Jane goes back to Thornfield Hall, after having found a rightful place among proper family, she previously did not know existed, and accepting that her fate is back with Rochester. She finds the Hall burned to the ground, at the hands of Bertha, who has thrown herself…

Wide Sargasso Sea is primarily narrated by Rochester's other wife, Antionette, who has not had the opportunity to develop the same ideas about marriage and love that Jane has. She does not mention Rochester -- indeed, is not aware of him, for the very simple reason that he has not entered her life -- until the third part of the novel, at which point she is already being held in the attic, seeing almost no one except for Grace Poole. Her sanity is also in some doubt for this section of the book, and Rochester is possibly at least partially to blame for the degradation of her mental state. All of this adds up to a confused and distant view of Rochester; Antoinette longs for him to rant her release, but he is not the focus of her anguish. The middle section of the novel is much more revelatory as…

Helen and Miss temple are appealing to Jane because she discovers something in both of them to which she feels she should aspire. Upon overhearing a conversation between the two women, Jane writes, "They conversed of things I had never heard of: of nations and times past; of countries far away; of secrets of nature discovered or guessed at. They spoke of books: how many they had read! hat stores of knowledge they possessed!" (76). This passage emphasizes the importance that Jane places not only on knowledge but the sharing of that knowledge. The eloquence of their conversation set a standard to which Jane would measure for the rest of her days. hat we must note from these observations thus far is that while Jane is the narrator of this story, she has no qualms sharing the limelight with those of which she is fond. In fact, it is…

Rochester was burned and maimed in a fire set by his first wife who had all this time lived in the attic of the house guarded by a nurse. The man who once had the confident gait is seen standing blindly in the rain as Jane approaches the house after her decision is made to return to Rochester. The scene is reversed as Jane stands talking to Rochester who is now groping through air with a stump for an arm and with blinded eyes straining to see and it is now her turn to assure him of her devotion because she is already fulfilled in the knowing that she is just what he wants:
On this arm, I have neither hand nor nails," he said, drawing the mutilated limb from his breast, and showing it to me. "It is a mere stump -- a ghastly sight! Don't you think so,…

Abandonment in Shelley's Frankenstein and Bronte's Jane Eyre: a Comparison
Abandonment is a substantial theme in literature written by women. It appears in the poems of Emily Dickinson, in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and in the novels of the Bronte sisters -- uthering Heights and Jane Eyre. It is not a theme that is only addressed by women in literature, to be sure, but it is one that seems to be utilized most evocatively by them. This paper will provide a comparative analysis of two literary sources -- Shelley's Frankenstein and Bronte's Jane Eyre -- to show how abandonment can cause depression, deep emotions and despair, but how it can also open up new doors for an individual; it will show how unprofitable it can be and yet how beneficial to one's life it can also prove in the long run.

Jane Eyre is a romantic-gothic novel by Charlotte…

women's places through the writing of British fiction. Using three classic examples of women's fiction in British literature the writer examines the overt and underlying relationship women have in the world and with society throughout the evolvement of literature. There were three sources used to complete this paper.
Throughout history authors have used their works to explore societal lessons. British literature is well-known for its ability to draw attention to moral, societal or other lessons by which the society reflects on the changes it experiences. The role of females has been a favorite topic of British authors for many years, perhaps spurred on by the various class elements that society has experienced along the way. Three classic works of British fiction provide a blueprint of women's changing role in society by allowing for a time span within their measurement. Charlotte Bronte's, "Jane Eyre"; Virginia Woolf's, "A oom of One's Own";…

shades of colorful descriptions, the prevalent mood, characters of Jane and Rochester as portrayed by the author as well as the use of language and image patterns in the novel Jane Eyre penned down by the popular author of the Victorian and the contemporary age, Charlotte Bronte. The orks Cited appends one source in MLA format.
Jane Eyre, the masterpiece by Charlotte Bronte conveniently made it to the victory stand and tops the list of some of the world's best literary works because of the skillful blending of various themes and several thought-provoking issues enveloped in the novel. It follows the rules of the Gothic literature and the intense mythic quality of Jane Eyre differentiates it from the modern literary text. Jane Eyre is no doubt a Victorian Novel, addressing the norms of the Victorian society, the societal pressures compelling women to remain suppressive and inducing chauvinistic attitude in men…

The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad -- as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation:" (such as, one might add, when the writer's sister is raped, as Dubus' Kathryn)
Rather, Jane continues, laws and faith "are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth -- so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane -- quite insane: with my veins running fire,…

Did Bertha not subscribe to the "cult of true womanhood" in which a real woman was believed to be without any sexual feelings, to be responsible for the man's sexual behavior, to be religious, obedient to her husband, and to provide a serene haven for him? After all, the man had to do business in a dangerous and corrupt world and needed rest and regeneration in a serene and cheerful household where all his needs and wants were met. ochester complains, "...I perceived that I should never have a quiet nor settled household..." The ideal Victorian real woman suffers any mistreatment without complaint. She is non-assertive.
It's obvious that Bertha does not fit this role at all and is therefore liable to be labeled "crazy" because she doesn't conform. Waller (2004) discusses sexuality as insanity in 19th century literature and argues that "the rejection of a proper woman's role... is…

Shaw's primary purposes in writing Pygmalion, the story of a phonetics professor who, on a bet, transforms a guttersnipe of a flower girl into a lady, was to educate. The title of the play comes from the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who created a statue of surpassing beauty; at his request, the gods animated the statue as Galatea. The myth is updated, and substantially altered, by Shaw; instead of a statue, Galatea is Eliza Doolittle, a Covent Garden flower girl, whose accent immediately marks her out as from the very bottom of the English class structure. Professor Henry Higgins, an expert on accents and pronunciation, represents Pygmalion. He undertakes to transform her speech so that she can be taken for a duchess at a society party and succeeds in spite of the inherent difficulties.
In his foreword to the play, Shaw writes, "It is so intensely and deliberately…

Vic Women
Women as Outsiders: A Comparison of Jane Eyre and "The Horse Dealer's Daughter"

Women are often portrayed as a marginalized "other" or outsider in literature, reflecting the degree to which they are outside the traditional patriarchal concepts of authority and power as well as (for much of Western history) outside the practical and legal means of self-sufficiency and self-direction. As the times have shifted, the particular perspective and definition of women as outsiders has also changed, as can be seen in a comparison of the central figures in Charlotte Bronte's Victorian-era novel Jane Eyre and DH Lawrence's more modern short story "The Horse Dealer's Daughter." Interestingly, both heroines are seen as similarly detached from traditional power structures, yet the degree to which Jane distances herself through her morality actually gives her power, while the increasing amorality of the times leads Mabel (Lawrence's protagonist) down a path of deeper despair, self-directed…

I was stricken at the site of gender representation at the management level in this country, for example.
Jane Eyre and characters like her made me develop a sense of reality when it came to gender roles that was partly distorted. I was of course inclined to think that I had every right to get the same opportunities as my male counterparts and generally I did in my country. but, the trust I had developed in my male coworkers and those I came in contact with was a little far stretched because of characters like Jane. The physical part of a relationship between a man and a woman was not treated in detail because the era did not allow such extravagancy, but the sexual aspects that were left unsaid or that were just alluded to were impossible to understand for a child and hard to explain later for a young…

Bronte and hys
An Extended Conversation

Most conversations we hold in person, sitting next to another as we travel on a train to an unknown or familiar destination, or as we enjoy a coffee break at work, or wait at a busy corner for the light to turn green. And then there are long-distance conversations, some by phone, others by instant message or email. And still others through more literary methods, with one author talking to another, even with one author's characters talking to another. This rather attenuated (though certainly not tenuous) form of communication is evidenced in the dialogue between Jean hys and Charlotte Bronte, or more accurately between the characters in hys's novel Wide Sargasso Sea and Bronte's Jane Eyre.

The theme of hys's novel, and to a lesser extent of Bronte's, is that of doubling, of an image and its reflection, of a world that cannot be considered to be…

hero? Does it depend on whether one is a man or a woman? Is the nature of heroism engendered? Are there different categories of heroism - a heroism of the mind and a heroism of the body, for example? The life and work of the novelist Jean Rhys help us to understand the nature of the heroic. Rhys herself may be considered to be a hero even though her life was not by conventional means a success. Indeed, it might be considered to be a stereotypical failure: She drank heavily, had a number of unhappy love affairs, and seems to have lost her talent or at least her will to write for decades. But in the end. A woman who called herself a "doormat in a world of boots" proved by her life and in her work that doormats are durable indeed.
Rhys's sense of herself as a certainly less-then-conventional-heroic…

omen, Men and Environment
hile we might like to believe that we are each the masters of our own fate, in fact the environment plays an important role in shaping who we become. Guthrie makes this point in The Big Sky, for Boone, Summers and Teal Eye are all more the product of their environment than they are the creators of the world around them. Guthrie suggests that this being-shaped-by rather than shaping-of the environment is especially strong in the est, but he also at least suggests that the environment is a potent force in shaping the lives of people everywhere.

It has become fashionable in recent years to scoff at the myth of the est and to replace this myth with history. This is in large measure what Guthrie has set out to do. He is intent on telling a real story about a real place, and in particular in telling…

"O Sylvan ye! thou wanderer thro' the woods, / How often has my spirit turned to thee!" (http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/ballads.html) Now, the poet wishes to "transfer" the healing powers of nature that he himself has experienced to his sister. By stating."..Nature never did betray / the heart that loved her" (http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/ballads.html) ordsworth assures his sister that she will also find peace in the middle of nature if she believes in the communion with nature. This prediction is an artifice of the poem and is not simple. "ordsworth's ability to look to the future to predict memories of events that are happening in the present is ingenious and complicated. But ordsworth beautifully clarifies this concept by using nature as the ideal link between recollection, foresight, and his relationship with another."(Eilenberg, Susan. Strange power of Speech: ordsworth, Coleridge, and Literary Possession. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
Moreover, by imagining the future of his…

omen struggles in EL
The rights of women in society have always been a topic shrouded in a great deal of discussion. In many ways women are still struggling for equality within society and will likely continue to struggle for some years to come. The purpose of this discussion is to focus on how this theme of women's rights has informed English Literature and the manner in which it has been expressed including those thing that have changed and those things that have remained constant. More specifically the research will focus on women's rights in English literature from the Romantic Age until the 21st century.

The Romantic Age

In the real of English literature the Romantic age (1789-1830) was an extremely important time because it marked a new birth in the type literature that was written and the manner in which readers were exposed to the literature. As it pertains to women's rights…

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." (Bronte, 1922, p. 28)

The young girl was to be defined by her future prospects, being meager, as she was an orphan with little income, she was to be taught an even more extreme form of humility because she would have to use her charm alone to get a good match or secure a position as a governess or ladies maid. There was little love in her early years, whether with her hostile relatives or in her school. As any reader would find it was this poor disposition she gained from her early life that she had to overcome to gain her match.

Just as women were ideally brought up by either love…

Domestic Relations and Domestic Abuse -- the clear-eyed vision of alcoholic dissipation of Anne Bronte's the Tennant of ildfell Hall
According to the posthumous introduction to her final novel, The Tennant of ildfell Hall the Victorian author Anne Bronte was often considered the 'nicest' and most conventionally of all of the three female Bronte sisters who lived on past childhood, to become published authors. However, Anne Bronte's novel The Tennant of ildfell Hall may perhaps be the most ostentatiously feminist of all of the texts published by the various female Brontes, from Emily's uthering Heights, to Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Shirley, and even Villette.

Unlike Emily Bronte's uthering Heights, Anne Bronte's final novel does not romanticize or excuse the brutality of her central male protagonist. Rather, Anne validates the central female character Helen Huntington's determination to escape Mr. Huntington's sway. Nor does Anne's novel ideologically excuse even romantic forms cruelty to wives, as…

human nature that people like to categorize and have thinks set clearly to them in 'black and white'. People have always liked to think in terms of dualisms: there is the Cartesian 'body and soul' and 'paradise and hell', and "good and evil' amongst so many other dualisms. Either one category or the other exists. Belonging to that same schematic order of pattern is 'man and woman'. Shades of grey such as sexless individuals perplex and disturb people. They are bound to react with intolerance when faced with these exceptions. Nonetheless, differences of sex are not so clear. This essay is an elaboration on just that, showing that the popular view that there are only two genders in a dichotomous relationship need not necessarily be so. Gender and biological differences of gender are not so clear.
As part of our evolutionary background, people tend to categorize and think in terms…

Charlotte ronte's first novel entitled "The Professor." The paper describes the novel's basis, its narrator and key characters.
In addition to a description and a general assessment of the book, the paper includes fundamental analysis and interpretation of the literary work.

Positions such as how this novel describes Charlotte ronte's personal feelings of passion, love and uncertainty are revealed throughout the material.

The Professor" is a novel written by Charlotte ronte and published in 1857, a few years after her death. As ronte's first novel, publishers rejected the book. It was available in print only after she died.

The story is based on ronte's experiences as a student in russels in the 1840s.

The tale is narrated by a male character by the name of William Crimsworth. Crimsworth is an orphaned, yet educated man who becomes a teacher at a girls' school in elgium.

Early in the story, Crimsworth is flirtatious with the headmistress of…

Feminist Reading of Austen's Persuasion
"I Will Not Allow ooks to Prove Anything":

Women Reading and Women Writing in Austen's Persuasion

Feminist criticism is equally concerned with female authorship and with female readership and in the case of Jane Austen, both issues must be addressed. Frantz in 2009 noted that on one level Austen's influence on female readership has been immense: she claims that "readers and authors of contemporary romance claim Jane Austen as the fountainhead of all romance novels," a genre which constituted the "largest share of the consumer market in 2008" but which is assumed to have an exclusively female readership. Yet feminist criticism of the early novel overall has begun to focus specifically on the rationale offered for novel-reading in the eighteenth century, when the printer's apprentice Samuel Richardson wrote Pamela in imitation of what Jenny Davidson describes as "conduct manuals," or books of etiquette for female readers. As Davidson…

Relationship of "The Old English Baron" and "Vathek" to 18th Century English Gothic Fiction
The rise of Gothic fiction in English literature coincided with the advent of the Romantic Era at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century. Gothic masterpieces such as Shelley's Frankenstein, Lewis's The Monk, and Stoker's Dracula would capture the imagination by fueling it with the flames of horror, suspense, other-worldliness and mystery. These elements are significant because the Age of Enlightenment had been characterized by a cold, objective, analytical focus on nature and humankind. It had been based on the concept that reason was sufficient to explain all events in the world and in fact all creation. Yet as Shakespeare's Hamlet reminded readers, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Shakespeare 1.5.167-168). Part of this interest in the Gothic was inspired by…

The map of the Middle East was completely redrawn as a result of WW1, reflected especially in the case of Turkey, Iraq and Palestine. The Ottoman Turks had ruled the realm prior to WW1 and had an alliance with Germany. The English, always wary of a strong state on the continent making inroads in the Middle East, sought to undermine both German and Ottoman power, and thus allied with the House of Saud, which it supported against the Ottoman Empire. When war broke out, the destruction of the Ottoman Empire was a main objective for England and it achieved that goal. At the same time, the English were indebted to the Zionist Jews who sought a restoration of Israel (Palestine) as a state of their own. Thus, the Balfour Declaration, issued during WW1, promised Israel to the Jews—and as the English now controlled the territory in the wake of the…

The Randall novel also violated several caveats placed by the Mitchell estate upon authorized sequels: "that Scarlett never die, that miscegenation and homosexuality be avoided" and Randall further suggests that "Scarlett had a black ancestor, that Tara was really run by savvy slaves who knew how to manipulate their white masters and that Rhett pursued Scarlett only because she looked like her mulatto half-sister, Cynara, who was the true love of his life" (Katutani 2007).
As noted by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in its "Comprehensive Opinion Vacating Preliminary Injunction" dated October 10, 2001, finding in favor of Randall's publishers, copyright law does not protect an artist against criticism or commentary -- far from it, copyright was designed to promote freedom of expression, yet that was exactly what the Mitchell estate was attempting to stifle. (17).

orks Cited

"Comprehensive Opinion Vacating Preliminary Injunction." Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals

October 10, 2001. November…

Orson elles to Visual Arts
One of the most influential motion picture directors and producers of the 20th century was Orson elles, whose well-known radio rendition of "ar of the orlds" in 1938 panicked an entire country long before September 11, 2001. Shortly after "ar of the orlds," elles would go on to direct "Citizen Kane" in 1941, regarded by some film critics as the greatest motion picture ever made. Although "Citizen Kane" would remain his crowning achievement, elles went on to make several more movies, including some of the biggest money-makers of their time. To determine how elles' career started and what his contributions to the visual arts have been, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature, followed by a summary of the research, important findings, and an assessment concerning what was learned regarding this topic and rationale in support of that conclusion.

Review and Analysis

The contributions to…

Thus, Nordan does not only give an account of this main event in the true story of Emmett Till, but adds important information about the characters involved to stress the reality of the social tensions that existed at that time in the South. Besides the extensive use of magical realism, Nordan also employs several "blues strategies" to structure his narrative, as Baker points out: "In olf histle, Nordan uses several blues strategies, not the least of which is the blues technique of playing through the break, to explore the interracial implications of the Emmett Till story."(Baker, 48) the blues technique is also important because it is obviously used as a means of recreating the story within an African-American tradition. Actually, at the very moment of Bobo's fatal whistle, there is a blues singer on the porch of the store that accompanies the events with his music: "The blues singer…

All without distinction were branded as fanatics and phantasts; not only those, whose wild and exorbitant imaginations had actually engendered only extravagant and grotesque phantasms, and whose productions were, for the most part, poor copies and gross caricatures of genuine inspiration; but the truly inspired likewise, the originals themselves. And this for no other reason, but because they were the unlearned, men of humble and obscure occupations. (Coleridge iographia IX)
To a certain extent, Coleridge's polemical point here is consistent with his early radical politics, and his emergence from the lively intellectual community of London's "dissenting academies" at a time when religious non-conformists (like the Unitarian Coleridge) were not permitted to attend Oxford or Cambridge: he is correct that science and philosophy were more active among "humble and obscure" persons, like Joseph Priestley or Anna Letitia arbauld, who had emerged from the dissenting academies because barred (by religion or gender)…

omen's Nature In Oliver Twist
hen assessing women's original nature and how it is manifested and displayed in Oliver Twist, it becomes clear that the three main female characters all portray a different version of how women can be perceived and render themselves. Rose, Agnes and Nancy. However, the exploration of women's nature and how it was defined in the Victorian age need not be limited to those three. It is illuminating and revealing how Dickens poses and presents the women of Oliver Twist and the reactions that tend to be elicited by those that read and review this work. On the whole, it is obvious and clear that Dickens levied a full-frontal assault against the system and regimentation that were held against women, the poor and the ruffians of society. As it pertains to women, this obviously included the concept and idea that woman that keep themselves virginal, prim and…

Victorian Literature: Gender in Mill on the Floss
How is moral and emotional life in George Eliot's the Mill on the Floss shaped by gender?

The romantic narrative of George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss is dependent upon a series of contrasts. The heroine, Maggie Tulliver, is forced to choose between two men, Phillip akem, a poetic dreamer who is deformed, and Stephen Guest, who is dashing but somewhat shallow. The two men represent the different sides of Maggie's character. On one hand, Maggie is extremely intelligent and forthright, more so than anyone else in the novel. She is an unsparing critic of the society around her and seems marked from birth as dark and different like Phillip. On the other hand, Stephen's exciting nature attracts her. However, Maggie, unlike a man, is unable to leave the area of her birth and strike out on her own. Ultimately she chooses by…