I don't think it's odd to revive the thread a year and a half later. :) (In fact, as I type this, I am uploading year-and-a-half-old photos to facebook...)
Initially when I said that Jane Eyre made me angry, it may have been in reference to the fact that this novel and its publication history really gave me a sense of gender inequality as it plays out in the literary marketplace. Bronte (and her sisters) published anonymously, and when Jane Eyre first came out, people either assumed it was written by a man who had no notion of what women were really like (because obviously no women were really as brave and self-assertive as Jane), or that it was written by a woman and that she was therefore depraved, because no good pure woman would write about this kind of struggle. Immediately, gender became an issue outside the text, regardless of what it was doing inside the text.
Now? I think Jane and I have a more nuanced relationship, but I've lost some of the romance...or at least, I've lost the ability to simply enjoy the romance, without sensing darker undertones. Ignoring issues of race and colonial politics (which are very present in the background of the novel), the gender politics of the novel still don't seem "fair." Rochester, as a man, can go running about the continent for years, sleeping around throughout Europe, then show up back at Thornfield and (eventually) end up with the young, virginal governess. Jane is stuck with some old guy. Granted, it's her choice, and I think she makes the right one, but it's frustrating that it's the best choice she has? I have trouble articulating what it is that bothers me about the novel now (aside from some feeling that I should not treat it as uncomplicatedly as I once did). I still love it, but enough people have asked me questions that complicate what used to be an unflinching adoration for this novel.
Gosh, I hope some of that made sense to someone other than me.
Re: Jane Eyre
Initially when I said that Jane Eyre made me angry, it may have been in reference to the fact that this novel and its publication history really gave me a sense of gender inequality as it plays out in the literary marketplace. Bronte (and her sisters) published anonymously, and when Jane Eyre first came out, people either assumed it was written by a man who had no notion of what women were really like (because obviously no women were really as brave and self-assertive as Jane), or that it was written by a woman and that she was therefore depraved, because no good pure woman would write about this kind of struggle. Immediately, gender became an issue outside the text, regardless of what it was doing inside the text.
Now? I think Jane and I have a more nuanced relationship, but I've lost some of the romance...or at least, I've lost the ability to simply enjoy the romance, without sensing darker undertones. Ignoring issues of race and colonial politics (which are very present in the background of the novel), the gender politics of the novel still don't seem "fair." Rochester, as a man, can go running about the continent for years, sleeping around throughout Europe, then show up back at Thornfield and (eventually) end up with the young, virginal governess. Jane is stuck with some old guy. Granted, it's her choice, and I think she makes the right one, but it's frustrating that it's the best choice she has? I have trouble articulating what it is that bothers me about the novel now (aside from some feeling that I should not treat it as uncomplicatedly as I once did). I still love it, but enough people have asked me questions that complicate what used to be an unflinching adoration for this novel.
Gosh, I hope some of that made sense to someone other than me.