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Jane Eyre: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)

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Absence of notes is very unhelpful. Oxford's literary Classic edition much more useful. Norton's collection of biographical snippets and criticism not very through or wide-ranging -- supplemental materials mostly available on Googlebooks, anyway -- why bother? Typeface is crisp. Paperstock durable, but makes item rather heavy for size. Coverart lackluster. Oxford's product superior in almost everyway.Jane Eyre (Oxford World's Classics)

From the time of her uncle's death, Jane Eyre's existence at Gateshead has become unbearable. Her aunt dotes on her own three children and never lets Jane forget that she is living off of the Reeds's charity. After frightening her Aunt Reed with her willfulness and ingratitude, Jane is sent to Lowood School where she continues to exist for eight years.

After placing an advertisement in a paper, she is hired on as a governess at Thornfield where she meets and falls in love with Edward Fairfax Rochester. But a series of odd and dangerous events which take place at Thornfield succeed in tearing them apart until Jane realizes that she must journey alone or else compromise her own sense of self forever.

Jane Eyre is a novel about a woman who comes to realize that she must hold on to herself. Bronte's heroine is strong, willful, and isolated. Her hero is constantly referring to her in an otherworldly sense. But what he sees is otherworldly is simply a strong independent streak. This independence is what the author seems to urge women to cultivate through the character of Jane Eyre. Bronte reinforces the strength of Jane's character by making her plain. By doing this, she forces us to realize the beauty of her character rather than her looks. She has none to recommend her and no fortune to appeal to a man so the reader is certain that it is her character which appeals to Rochester.

The road towards a happy ending is not easy for Rochester and Jane. In fact, even before discovering the truth about the woman in the attic, Jane has taken measures to preserve herself by writing to her uncle in Madeira even though she tells Rochester that she has no family aside from the Reeds, whose connection to her she is forced to admit when Aunt Reed calls for her. This perpetuates the unraveling of their happiness. From the point of separation, however, Bronte sets Jane on the road to self-discovery. With her Rivers cousins, whom she discovers after leaving Thornfield, she comes to realize her full capacity as a cousin, a teacher, and her potential as a servant of God.

By the story's end, when Bronte has led her title character back to a devastated Thornfield, Jane is truly independent in both character as well as finance. There is a role reversal which the reader discovers. No longer is Rochester offering to take care of her, it is Jane, rather, who is in the position of power as she becomes Rochester's helpmeet from the time of their reunion.