Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber

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In literature a reader often discovers "strange" encounters between the main characters and others in the story. These encounters usually serve to illustrate what characters learn about themselves as a result of these encounters. In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber," each heroine must deal with specific consequences of these "strange" encounters. The characters emerge as their true selves as a direct result of these experiences.

Jane Eyre and the heroine in "The Bloody Chamber" each experience a rather strange courtship which serves as each girl's first encounter with the man in her life. Jane Eyre meets her future husband Rochester when he is injured in a fall. He turns out to be the father of the girl for whom Jane is caring. Rochester is a much older man, and at age 18 Jane is wise in the ways of the world due to her orphaned upbringing with a hateful aunt and her time spent at Lowood, a boarding school. At first Rochester is harsh and abrupt with Jane. They eventually become friends and have time to build a real relationship; they have much in common in spite of their different status in life. After their engagement, Jane dislikes the wealth that Rochester pushes on her, feeling like a dress-up doll in the clothing he provides. She remains true to her "plain looks" and smart demeanor. Yet all the while Rochester keeps a dark secret from Jane: his first wife Bertha Mason is locked in a room on the third floor of the house. Rochester's explanation centers on the fact that he was tricked into marrying her and that Bertha is mad.

The heroine in "The Bloody Chamber" experiences quite a different courtship. She too is a young girl, age seventeen, and her suitor is an older man. She, in contrast to Jane, is extremely naïve and does not know herself, having lived with her mother in a close, loving relationship, which proves most beneficial in the end. She experiences a quick Parisian courtship with his third wife "dead just three short months before I met him" (p. 10). She questions what such a wealthy, influential man would want with her, for they have little in common. When her future husband showers her with fancy clothing, she gladly wears it, for what she already owns is unsuitable for her new status.

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