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
