Jane Eyre - looks aren't everything

I had to read Jane Eyre for Women and Literature. Now this is the second time that I have read this novel and I have to say that it is much better the second time around. I don't think that ninth grade students can really understand and appreciate all that this novel has to offer other then the romance story.

Since most people have read or at least heard of the book before so I am not going to bore you with description of the plot and go right to my thoughts. I can not stand St. John Rivers. I think he is boring, obnoxious, and a prick. I am not against religion and I think that clergy should have a strong sense of duty, but to take a young girl (Jane is only nineteen) to India so she can die too young in life is just heartless. Not only that but to tell this same girl that you do not love her, but wish to marry her and think that this will be okay is just...naive. There is no faster way to a girls heart then tell her that you want her to come die with you in India because she is smart not because you love her. Maybe it is because he didn't speak with her unless he was teaching her, but it was obvious that he has no idea about what her personality is like. Though I have to admit (and agree with my professor) that he sounds hott with two t's.

*Jamie Bell is supposed to be playing St.John in a new movie coming out in 2011*

What got me even more upset than St. John is the fact that Jane was about to go with him! I knew how the book ends and I still was almost ripping my hair out during the scene where she almost said yes to his marriage proposal. She said that he suppressed her nature, character, and soul, but she thought that going to India because she couldn't be with Mr. Rochester that was cool. She already said marrying St. John would basically be killing herself before she even got to India and that she could not hold up to the climate well, I just didn't understand her logic. However maybe if I had born in the time and in her position it would make more sense, but as it is I can't get into the Victorian England mindset on this point. 

Second thought is that I always forget Mr. Rochester as well as Jane herself are supposed to be unattractive. Maybe because he is so interesting and entertaining or maybe because Jane loves him and it is her eyes we see him through, but I always see someone who is relatively attractive. I like him so much more the St. John because he cares about Jane's nature as well as her personality. Mr. Rochester could have had the beautiful Miss Blanch, but he chose someone who suited his mind. I also picture Mr. Rochester almost as attractive as St. John and even in the movie adaptions he isn't ugly or even unattractive. Now I know Hollywood has to make everyone pretty, but they could find someone who fits into the first picture that Bronte gave us.

This read through also showed me how much more the novel was then a romance. Bronte comments on the decline in literature (mostly poetry) in her time and many other wide reaching comments. Religion is also a giant part of this novel that I brushed off before as filler. I think I related a lot more to Jane this time because I feel like I am like her in a lot of ways. I am plain, smart but not extremely so, love to read and learn, and also very passionate when occasion calls for it. And damn it I am going to admit it I want the fairy tale romance with a personal Mr. Rochester! Jane follows her heart and her reason through out the novel and even though it causes her pain it also makes her happy in the end. Not only that she isn't pretty and she marries the ugly, blind, crippled man because she loves him and not the young, hot one because she thinks its her duty to God. YOU GO GIRL!