Apologia
Cree Toner
ENG 3UE
Mrs. McConkey
December 5, 2011
To different people, a classic novel can mean different things. There are many adolescents that would argue that the Harry Potter series fall into the classic genre because of how strongly attached they have remained to the books throughout their childhood and well into their adulthood. Others might be of the mindset that a novel has to be written in a certain style and contain certain themes in order to truly be deemed a classic. I believe that a classic novel must contain snippets of all of these things; it must be intellectually stimulating, contain a universal theme and be written in such a way that, no matter how great the lapse of time between when it was first published and the time it was last read, it evokes within the reader some kind of powerful emotion. In the words of Ezra Pound, literature is news that remains news. (Pound) It is for this reason that books full of passing trends and flimsy characters will never be thought of as classics. They quickly become irrelevant, swallowed up by nearly identical pieces of fiction, containing similar plots and interchangeable characters. They are overpowered by novels with solid themes, believable characters for whom we feel joy, when they succeed, and empathy, when they do not. Jane Eyre contains all these elements and for that reason is a classic novel.
It is my belief that the most enjoyable part of any novel is when you happen across an authentic character, one who seems just as lifelike as any real person you know and seems to become your friend rather than a collection of letters typed on a page. Ernest Hemingway said, “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” (Hemingway) Charlotte Brontë began with the desire to create such a three-dimensional character, saying that she would show the world a heroine as as "plain and as small as myself." (Brontë) That is exactly what she did with the character of Jane; Jane is not beautiful. She sees herself as being, “poor, obscure, plain and little.” (Jane Eyre, Brontë, 356) Nor does Jayne possess any great charm. Yet this is what makes her a believable character. It is refreshing to see a character that strays from the ideal woman, one who is not beautiful and is not instantly irresistible to any man she comes across.
Oftentimes authors create idealistic characters that we enjoy admiring from afar, but who have no real substance to them; a character that we can actually relate to is much preferred. James Bonnet, in an article entitled “Great Characters- Their Best Kept Secret” says that the secret to great characters is the ability to find a dominant quality within the character and then intensify it. He says, “Every truly great character has a dominant trait that has been taken to the quintessential.” (Bonnet) The dominant trait in Jane is her moral strength and integrity; she is happier to receive a horrible punishment than admit to something she isn't guilty of. This moral integrity Brontë gives to her heroine is present throughout the entire novel. When her Aunt Reed is under the belief that an unprovoked Jane struck her cousin, John, Jane is condemned to spend the evening in the Red Room. Although the Red Room terrifies her, Jane refuses to apologize for something she knows she did not do. In a review of the novel, John Thornton says,“As a narrator, Jane is ideal: objective enough to provide us with a good account of events, outspoken enough to bump the plot along whenever it needs bumping and virtuous enough never to frustrate our expectations.” (Thornton) While Jane lacks the typical enchanting qualities and beauty that are present in many female characters, she has a fresh and strong personality that has allotted her the title of a long-lasting and authentic character.
There are certain themes that will never become outdated, no matter where or when one lives, no matter the age or social status of the reader. The reason these themes are universally used and praised is because we are able to glimpse parts of ourselves within them. Themes such as a loss of innocence, optimism and the power of love, are all subject matters that allow the reader to remember parts of their own past and relate it to what they are reading. Jane Eyre contains many of these universal themes, but the most fundamental theme present throughout the entire novel is Jane's desire to be loved and accepted. The feeling of exclusion, of being unaccepted, whether it lasted for a few minutes or for a lifetime, is something that everyone has experienced at one point. Because Jane experiences these feelings of rejection and belittlement at such an extreme degree, we are able to empathize with her on a deeper level, recognizing within her, our own suffering. Where we might have once received a few harsh words and in turn had a fleeting desire for whoever was doling out the harsh words to think highly of us, Jane receives constant criticism and wants nothing more than “to gain some real affection.” (Jane Eyre, Brontë 91) This desire for acceptance is not something that we seem to be able to control; the blatant hunger for love of any kind is one that is so difficult to satisfy. We desire affection from everyone around us in order to make us feel as though we have some kind of worth, which is exactly how Jane feels. Psychologist Tasha Kelley, like so many others, believes that the desire to be universally liked stems from a low self-esteem and a general dislike for oneself. Jane certainly exhibits a low self-esteem, something that we can't blame her for having, because she is so rarely praised as a child. In the presence of Jane, one of the servants, Mrs Abbot, says the following about her;“Yes, if she were a nice, pretty child, one might have compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that.” (Jane Eyre, Brontë 28) This inexplicable desire for love and acceptance that Jane feels throughout the novel is something that is incredibly familiar to all of us as readers and therefore remains a classic theme that will never become obsolete.
Jane Eyre is not a book. It is a piece of literature, a novel strong in what I believe to be the two most important aspects of fictional writing: character and theme. Jane does not live a charmed life. She is an orphan, raised by an Aunt who openly dislikes her. She attends a boarding school with deplorable conditions and loves a man who has great difficulty showing his feelings and doesn't often treat Jane as she should be treated. There is nothing extraordinary about her story, no great lesson to be learned when the last page has been read. Yet there is an endearing quality about Jane, a humaneness within her that causes us to wish her only great success in her endeavours. The novel, which is simply an account of Jane's life, rings true with the reader because it is a life rather like theirs: simple and ordinary, a life that has it's moments of great sadness and moments of great joy. While other classic novels might have multiple, complex meanings, part of Jane Eyre's brilliance lies in it's utter simplicity.
“Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.” (Salman Rushdie) This quote is one that I believe is applicable to the way in which Brontë wrote Jane Eyre. She did not set out intending to write a novel that preached great lessons, nor did she intend to write a rosy novel full of the happiest characters and most pleasant circumstances. Charlotte Brontë wrote a novel about the life of a plain girl, a girl that wasn't particularly pretty or popular, but a smart, witty girl that knew what she wanted. All plain girls, who aren't particularly pretty or popular, desire nothing more than to have a book written about a girl who is just like them. J.K. Rowling created such a character: Hermione Granger, the female protagonist of the Harry Potter series is often received poorly by many of her classmates, yet she is incredibly intelligent and an inspiration to many female fans of the series. Charlotte Brontë paved the groundwork for characters like Hermione, for any heroine that is not a beautiful damsel in distress.
A classic novel is the quintessential book. I believe that Jane Eyre is a quintessential book, a story about a girl that desires nothing more than to be loved, something that is universal to us all. The characters of the novel come alive and tell a story that deeply moves the reader. Jane Eyre is, without a shadow of a doubt, a classic novel.
