Tolog Review: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
reviewed by Elena Melehani 

The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a famous bildungsroman 19th century novel about a young governess and her adventures at Thornfield Hall where she meets and falls in love with the master of this hall, Edward Rochester. The event of a governess falling in love with the her master is often unheard of, which sets this book very much apart from the regular stories that are told about England in the 1800s. The dissolving of social rankings and boundaries are what made this novel so enjoyable for me to read, since the two main characters do not let their class get in the way of their love. However, Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester do face some other challenges throughout their relationship, which ends up almost completely destroying all the feelings they hold for each other. Their large difference in age would be one of these issues, also the approval of both their families and a certain secret hiding up in the closet test how much they truly care for each other and how far they are willing to go to be with each other. This novel strongly highlights what true love is, but it also teaches us to not forget our obligations and duties before we can achieve complete happiness with the one we love. 

Literature from the mid 1800s English can be rather difficult to read, as I found when reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, and Jane Eyre is no exception. I found some of the writing confusing and often missed something in the storyline due to not total comprehension of what was going on in the novel. However, this was only occasional and it did not affect my opinion of the novel much, since I truly did enjoy it. The cleverness of Charlotte Brontë words and storyline set the plot of this novel to be very different than the well-known 19th century novels we read today. When reading Jane Eyre I felt as if I escaped the excitement of the 21st century and took a trip to the past and observed a lovely story that cannot be topped by any modern romance novel. Jane Eyre was truly a great read, and I highly recommend it for someone like me who enjoys reading a nice classic novel every so often.