Jane Eyre's Artwork
"Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting." --Jane Eyre (9)
There is something extraordinary and spiritual about Jane Eyre's artwork. In her story, Jane's solitary pastime sometimes operates as an outlet of past or present pain, and often offers her a chance to deal with unpleasant memories and emotions. Jane's art transcends her isolation by bringing her into contact with others who see it; it serves as a bridge over the chasm between her desire to be alone and her need for companionship, which is demonstrated by key scenes in the novel that include a viewing of her art. This struggle between isolation ("hidden self") and companionship ("public self") upholds the restlessness of the novel, for Jane's art is her own, marking her as her own woman. Her art offers a means of charting her growth to maturity. The epigraph above is from Jane's comments on Bewick's History of British Birds, Jane's first artistic influence at the beginning of the novel, and is spoken by a young girl whose self is also "undeveloped" and "imperfect." There are five scenes in the novel that define the importance of art to Jane's growth: her three watercolors viewed by Rochester at Thornfield, the miniature of Blanche Ingram that precedes their meeting, her unconscious pencil sketch of Rochester during her return to Gateshead, Rosamund Oliver's request for a portrait at Morton, and St. John's viewing of her work, which leads to the discovery of her identity near the end of the novel. These scenes occur throughout the novel, giving her art a prominence in the story, and there are also several references to her unique artistic...
... middle of paper ...
...
Blom, Margaret. Charlotte Bronte. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977.
Bloom, Harold. Modern Critical Interpretations: Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Ed.. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. London, Penguin Books Ltd.: 1996. (Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Mason).
"Jane Eyre." Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 3. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1982: 42-3.
McFadden-Gerber, Margaret. "Critical Evaluation." Masterplots. Rev. 2nd edition. Vol. 6. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Englewood Cliffs: Salem Press, 1996: 3290-4.
Mitchell, Sally. "Jane Eyre." Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Vol. 3. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Englewood Cliffs: Salem Press, 1983: 297-302.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Introduction. Jane Eyre. By Charlotte Bronte. New York: Bantam Books, 1987: 5-14.
It makes sense if you think about it: Texas, long ago and far away, was part of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s involvement in women’s rights drastically improved and intensified when she met an activist in the Temperance Movement and friend of women’s rights supporters, Susan B. Anthony. With struggles in her personal life, Stanton relied on Anthony for her enthusiasm, mobility, and ability to build a women’s rights movement. They made their first movement in 1852, when they came together to help Anthony’s cause and supervised over the Women’s New York State Temperance Society. Stanton was asked to leave because her views on women’s rights and the topic of divorce.
Domestic violence and abuse takes place within family-type intimate relationships and forms a pattern of intimidating and controlling behaviors, which overtime escalates (Dennis, T. 2014, p 1). It can also cause physical psychological or sexual harm to these relations as well (Gul & Faiz, 2013). Domestic Violence according to Fairtlough (2006) is “the misuse of power and the exercise of control by one individual over another, generally by men over women, with whom they have been in an intimate relationship. It assumes a wide range of abusive physical, sexual, and psychological behaviors.” Dennis argued that domestic violence has become a serious societal and public health issue and is a major risk factor for psychiatric disorders
It is common knowledge that Ray Rice used his wife as a punching bag in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino. What is truely remarkable is that his fiancé became his wife after that vicious left hook to the face left her unconscious. Why do women stay with men who beat them unconscious? Domestic violence is a serious and complex plague of society that affects all, but women make up the largest number of victims in most case studies. In the United States alone, '1.5 million women are raped or physically assaulted by an intimate partner each year. More than 500,000 women victims require medical treatment, and 324,000 victims are pregnant at the time of assault' (Berlinger, 'Taking' 42). Numbers like these show how intense the situation of domestic violence truly is. 'Two women a week are killed by a current or former partner and domestic violence accounts for 22% of all recorded violent crimes' (Jamil 70). Domestic violence takes such a large number in percentages regarding violent crimes, yet often is dismissed by many with the idea that 'this won't happen to me'. Somehow, somewhere, domestic violence will touch everyone whether by someone they know or by televised publication. Though domestic violence affects men as well, the female subject is more often the victim. Domestic violence has a continuous cycle that has been influenced since birth and can be stopped with intervention but each victim's reason for staying will vary.
... President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine with Soviet sympathies, he fired at the car hitting the president twice, once in the neck, and in the back of his skull. JFK was pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital shortly after getting shot 2 times to the Lower neck and Upper skull. Then two days, after JFK’s assassination Lee Harvey Oswald was assassinated by Jack Ruby a Dallas Nightclub owner. “To the American public, as well as his first historians, John F. Kennedy is a hero and was a visionary politician who, of not for his untimely death, may have averted the political and social turmoil of the late 1960s.” After John F. Kennedy was buried his wife Jackie Kennedy said, “There’ll be great Presidents again, and the Johnsons are wonderful, they’ve been wonderful to me, but there’ll never be another Camelot again.”
Bronte, Charlotte. The Letters of Charlotte Bronte: 1829-1847. Ed. Margaret Smith. 2 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1995-2000.
Analyse the methods Charlotte Brontë uses to make the reader empathise with Jane Eyre in the opening chapters. Reflect on how the novel portrays Victorian ideology and relate your analysis to the novel’s literary content.
During the 1980s and 1900s, domestic violence was one of the most unreported crimes that involve females and males getting hurt and dying. Kicking, choking, killing, and saying brutal or despise words that could hurt the victims physically or emotionally are considered domestic violence. In fact, many victims are afraid to seek for help. According to “The Domestic Violence Resource Center (DVRC), women account for approximately 85 percent of all intimate partner violence, with women aged 20-24 at greater risk” (Batten, par.16). Most pregnant women are at risk as well. “But underlying approach is still one that assumes the perpetrators are men and the victims are woman” (Haugen, par. 1). Moreover, both males and females believe that domestic violence is a solution to their issues.
Woolf, Virginia. "The Continuing Appeal of Jane Eyre." Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987. 455--457. Print.
Domestic violence is any cycle of behavior that is used by one or both partners in an intimate relationship to achieve and maintain power (Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence). Families all over the world deal with domestic violence. In most cases, the husband or boyfriend is the abuser and the wife, girlfriend, or child is the victim. In more cases than people think, the male partner is the victim. Domestic violence against men is rarely mentioned when addressing the subject. This might be because it is two men in a relationship or the man doesn’t want to be thought of as less “manly”. In either case, violence against men is just as serious as violence against women.
McLaughlin, M.B. "Past or Future Mindscapes: Pictures in Jane Eyre." Victorian Newsletter 41 (1972): 22-24.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Richard J Dunn 3rd ed. 1847. New York: W. W.
Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre in 1847, a novel that follows an orphaned Jane and her endeavors throughout the early years of her life. Bronte introduces specific social structure criticisms, including sexism and feminism, independence, and orphan life that reflected the time period in which the novel was written. Specific social criticisms discussed in Bronte’s work have allowed it to be a coming-of-age novel, as high school students nationwide continue to read this classic work. Similarly, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables of 1908 parallels motifs discussed in Bronte’s Jane Eyre, such as sexism and feminism, independence, and orphan life. “By any standard, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables is a stunning success.
The novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, has a plot that is filled with an extraordinary amount of problems. Or so it seems as you are reading it. However, it comes to your attention after you have finished it, that there is a common thread running throughout the book. There are many little difficulties that the main character, the indomitable Jane Eyre, must deal with, but once you reach the end of the book you begin to realize that all of Jane's problems are based around one thing. Jane searches throughout the book for love and acceptance, and is forced to endure many hardships before finding them. First, she must cope with the betrayal of the people who are supposed to be her family - her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her children, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. Then there is the issue of Jane's time at Lowood School, and how Jane goes out on her own after her best friend leaves. She takes a position at Thornfield Hall as a tutor, and makes some new friendships and even a romance. Yet her newfound happiness is taken away from her and she once again must start over. Then finally, after enduring so much, during the course of the book, Jane finally finds a true family and love, in rather unexpected places.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre represents the role of women in the Victorian era by giving the reader an insight into the lives of women from all social classes. Jane Eyre therefore represents figures of the Victorian time yet the character of Jane Eyre, herself, can be seen as very unconventional for the Victorian society.