Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Famous gothic story

 

 

I have been meeting with Jane Eyre a few times. Last time I remember it was so much fun. It is not the book, but the reader, since this afternoon I have enjoyed Jane Eyre.

I have listened to yet another adaptation for the Romanian National Radio, with Victor Rebengiuc, the greatest actor alive in the lead male role.

For much of the novel, Jane Eyre is poor and has to take orders in the position of a servant, but she is also a kind of Cinderella- noble, modest and valiant.

The presence of a “phantom” may add spice or work as a turn off. A few years ago, I hated this dark side and the fact that Mrs. Rochester kept showing up, intent on burning or biting someone.

The soap opera writers of today may have read Jane Eyre and other good novels, where the unexpected keeps happening. At the altar, the groom turns out to be already married and keen on becoming bigamous.

Sounds like it comes from Mariachi mixed with The Young and the Restless or Dallas.

However evil that sounds, Mr. Rochester wants to marry Jane Eyre, even if he already has a wife. All this with the best intentions and this is not a case of

                “Hell is paved with good intentions”

Mr. Rochester is the fairy tale knight, without the white horse but trapped by a lunatic wife. Instead of making every effort to dispose of her, the good hero is taking all the trouble to care for the nut case and resist her attacks and slander.

Taking a cynical view, this man is into BDSM and likes being tortured. But even that has limits-

You do not want yourself mistreated to death.

Actually, after an attempt on his life he gets a little crossed and he has a speech at the would-be wedding which is rather derogatory of his actual wife. But she deserves all of it.

I was thinking a few days ago that religion and science can be reconciled at various points, if we are not fundamentalists and stick to the “original and literary sense” of some of the holy texts.

The original sin, which makes so many innocents suffer, could be explained in terms of genes.

Why do children suffer and how can we take that back to their ancestors- symbolically Adam and Eve?

It is the genes that I can associate with the serpent and the act that makes later generations suffer.

Poor Mrs. Rochester comes from a family of Mad Men, and they had not worked in advertising, like those in the famous, awards winning Drama Series.

This is where we could see some little crack in the perfect portrait of Mr. Rochester- he complains that the family cheated, knowing perfectly well how many mental patients they had had in their history.

A perfect personage or better said a saintly one would have thanked for the opportunity to show his resilience, compassion and, well…saintliness.

This is an extremely popular book. In fact, I do not know another so successful with the public on goodreads, albeit I do not read Dan Brown and vampire stories.

It has more than 890,000 ratings and some 22,000 reviews.

So there is yet another to add to the clutter.