Understanding Jane Eyre: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series) [Hardcover]

Debra Teachman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0313309396 | ISBN-13: 978-0313309397 | Publication Date: May 30, 2001

Immediately popular when published over a century and a half ago, Jane Eyre has continued to find appreciative audiences since. This student casebook offers a unique interdisciplinary approach to the study of Charlotte Bronte's landmark novel. While it gives insightful literary analysis, it also contextualizes the novel in terms of the historical social issues it confronts. Expert commentary is supported with primary documents from legal and medical treatises, magazine articles, letters, essays and first hand accounts. A personal biography written by Elizabeth Gaskell, an acquaintance of Bronte, offers a detailed account of the Cowan Bridge School which Charlotte attended and fictionalized in Jane Eyre. Educators will find ideas for teaching these topics and for helping students see the connections between the novel and the social concerns it raises. Devoted to close examination of such topics as the diagnosis and treatment of madness and inheritance and marriage law and custom, this work will help students to understand historical cultural influences of yesterday. Contemporary issues such as education and mental illness raised by Jane Eyre are also discussed. Each section offers valuable ideas for written and oral exploration including role playing, debates, and journal writing assignments. Chapters conclude with suggestions for further reading.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-This series entry provides some literary critique of Charlotte Bronti's classic work, but the majority of the book is devoted to excerpts from documents that place the novel in its historical context. These selections address topics relating to the position of women in Victorian England, the nature of female education, the social and professional status of the governess, the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, and the implications of marriage and property law. Teachman uses these issues to illuminate the situations and motivations of the main characters, including Jane, Mr. Rochester, and Bertha, the first wife locked in the attic. Most of the excerpts are brief and accessible but also relevant and interesting, making them ideal for reports. The excerpts on law can get bogged down in technical terms, but the other sections contain enough provocative material to compensate for this flaw. The final section is devoted to the ways these issues are being dealt with in the 21st century, which helps to make Jane Eyre timely and significant to contemporary students. This book should be especially popular among students interested in women's issues.
Alison Ching, North Garland High School, Garland, TX
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Understanding Jane Eyre requires understanding a woman striving to write in a world where women were not allowed to enter the medical profession, where husbands controlled their wives money and communication. This volume not only analyzes the writing of Charlotte Bronte, but discusses life in Victorian England--the education of girls, the role of the governess, the treatment of women diagnosed as insane, inheritance of marriage laws--and compares it with the 21st century. This book will be useful to social studies, English and women's studies classes.”–Gale reference for Students

“...helps to make Jane Eyre timely and significant to contemporary students. This book should be especially popular among students interested in women's issues.”–School Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press (May 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0313309396
• ISBN-13: 978-0313309397
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,410,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Misunderstanding "Jane Eyre", January 5, 2012

By 

Ms Ellie (Western USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Understanding Jane Eyre: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series) (Hardcover)

This book has some valuable background documents on topics that form the story of this great classic novel: marriage law, the Victorian governess, insanity, and women's rights. Reading these excerpts may help high school students understand a novel which is set almost 200 years ago in a world of unimaginable darkness and cruelty. On the other hand, there are two flaws which mitigate against this being a good choice for any high school library. First, the style is amateurish and hackneyed. The author often uses the same word twice in a sentence. I would not want my students learning this rhetoric of literary criticism. Second, there are many factual errors. In the "Literary Analysis" chapter. Richard Mason is called Bertha's stepbrother. This is his relationship in "Wide Sargasso Sea." We know from the marriage certificate read by solicitor Briggs in Hay Church that Richard is her brother and Jonas Mason is their father. Blanche Ingram is characterized as an "heiress" with a large dowry. In the book the Ingrams have little money even though Blanche's brother is Lord Ingram. In her evaluation of the characters of Jane and Edward, Ms. Teachman opines that if they had kept their feelings under control, Jane would not have run off into the night at risk of life and limb. Spoken like a true Victorian! In discussing women's education, Ms. Teachman describes Lowood as a school for the daughters of poor clergymen. She is at pains to tell her readers that it is not a charitable institution. In this, she confuses Cowan Bridge School for Clergy Daughters, which the four oldest Bronte sisters attended, with its representation in the novel as that most infamous of charity schools, Lowood Institution.