Jane's childhood reminded me of both Harry Potter's and Matilda's for two reasons. First off, all three of these characters are living with relatives who feel a distaste and disregard for their "charity cases." The parents deify their own children, shunning the outsider and leaving them to be terrorized by the cruel older brother figure that ALL THREE CHARACTERS HAVE. Secondly, all three escape their situations through education. The children are taken under the wing of a guardian angel figure (Mr. Lloyd, Hagrid, and Ms. Honey) and find their ways to happiness. To make this comparison even more obvious, both Harry and Jane find solace by escaping to boarding school and excelling as both teachers and students at different times. Additionally, both Matilda and Jane have an antagonist at school. Both Ms. Trunchbull and Mr. Brocklehurst take the advice of their benefactors that the children are to be watched with a keen eye because of their despicable characters. Harry Potter and Matilda are some of my favorite "kid" books, I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that I was a big fan of Jane Eyre as well.
I also found Jane's situation with Mr. Rochester to be eerily similar to "Little Orphan Annie"'s with Mr. Warbucks. Annie was taken in by Mr. Warbucks for a very specific purpose, to be a PR stunt, but their relationship grows from there. Although they come from shockingly different social situations, they begin to appreciate each other beyond the purpose that initially related them. From here, they want to stay together and share Mr. Warbucks' wealth. Similarly, Jane is taken in as a governess and ends up falling in love with Mr. Rochester. This parallel may not be as strong as that between Jane Eyre, Matilda and Harry Potter, but the similarities seem to be more than coincidence.
My question is, did anyone else notice any major parallels to contemporary literature, movies, etc. while reading Jane Eyre? The book is so renowned, and the plot so engaging (in my opinion) that I feel like there are a lot of allusions to it in places we wouldn't expect.
-Matt
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ReplyDeleteI did find a lot of parallels between Jane Eyre and a various amount of contemporary literature i have read.
ReplyDeleteOne that struck me first was of Jane Eyre and the beauty and the beast. In a way both Jane and Belle( i forget if thats her name) dread meeting with the Beast (referring to Rochester's looks). Each dinner Belle is forced to be put in the beast's presence, just as Jane is forced to be put in Rochester's, when he has company over. Both stories have similar responses to those forced encounters. But as the characters get to know each other, both pairs fall in love and are able to ignore their partner's outer flaws. Belle's ability to love the beast even though he is fairly repulsive parallels with Jane's ability to accept Rochester and love him despite his many flaws.
Another part of this story that paralleled with Jane Eyre, is how horrible Belle's sisters are to her, and how her father represents the only family she truly really has, just as how Jane's mother's brother is a fatherly figure to her in the middle of her wicked cousins.
Another contemporary novel who's plot struck me as almost completely parallel to Jane Eyre is "a countess below stairs" by Eva Ibbotson. Like Jane, Anna works for a wealthy family in England. Similar to Jane, Anna looses contact with her family, the master of the home falls in love with her, and she with him, and to add to that, there is a beautiful fiance involved. I easily compared Blanche with Muriel while reading, for they are both depicted as proud, beautiful characters who only seek fortune in their marriage. These two novels seemed to parallel each other in almost every aspect, social differences within their love, the horrible fiance, the aspect of money being involved, and not to mention; the strong compassionate protagonist who everyone perceives as charitable and honest.
The idea of an orphan, or of a child who is often abused by their family members and only loved by the father parallels Jane Eyre's story and seems to me, driven from that novel. Although the novels listed above are only minor examples of parallelism with Jane Eyre, the ideas expressed seem to constantly be used in contemporary literary works, and also movies.
At a blank for a more similar example, I think A Series of Unfortunate Events has a similar theme, where the three protagonists get into all sorts of unfortunate events after they are orphaned. They are very unique characters, and are able to exhibit both dependence and independence to persevere through these unfortunate events. They are definitely less naive by the thirteenth book, having experienced countless sorts of weird but satisfying-to-read-about events.
ReplyDeleteThe Baudelaires come from a wealthy family, but cannot possess their inheritance until Violet is old enough or something. So, they are essentially strapped for cash. This is comparable to Jane leaving a wealthy environment (but out of choice in her case, and this environment is not her first) for Lowood. The Baudelaires do go to some prep school or something in one of the books too!
Sort of like Jane, they are very much on the move. They also face tough moral decisions at different points, though I forget how often they stuck to their values and how often they consented to some peer pressure. Anyway, Jane and the Baudelaires are similar to at least some degree.
Also, I love Roald Dahl's books.