Jane Eyre XXXVII -- chapter 36: BERTHA THE BANSHEE

1. "To prolong doubt was to prolong hope."
2. Jane leaves a place of peace and bright (relative both, and mostly physically) for this, which brings her such great hope and happiness: "At last the woods rose; the rookery clustered dark; a loud cawing broke the morning stillness. Strange delight inspired me; on I hastened" all of which hold fairly dark connotation.  Despite the destruction of the Hall, how is this imagery justly drawn for her history here?
3. Why is fire here so appropriate a means of destruction?
4. Appropriate, Jane's "illustration," where she describes the one approached as having a veil over her eyes.  I wonder why she switched the gender.

"Keening Banshee," by Robert Bliss

Jane Eyre XXXVI -- chapter 35: GRILLED ALIVE

oldindianphotos.blogspot.com

1. Is St. John indeed punishing Jane?  She believes he incurs no guilt for what he is or, in this case, isn't doing.  What do you think?  --Or is Jane just reading her own impressions into the situation because she feels guilty for scorning him?
2. St. John's obstinacy, in the form of his intentional misunderstanding of Jane, is baffling.  Is his interest in marrying Jane exactly as simple as he pretends?  Or is it even really obstinacy?
3. "It remains for me, then, to remember you in my prayers; and to entreat God for you, in all earnestness, that you may not indeed become a castaway. I had thought I recognized in you one of the chosen.  But God sees not as man sees: His will be done."  By this very declaration, does not St. John believe himself to "see" as God sees, thereby alluding to an inhuman godliness in and of himself?  In context of the story, has God called Jane to the ministry, or has St. John; is there a difference here?
4. "grilled alive in Calcutta" -- I'm surprised how early this shows up in literature.  (etymology of "grill")

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Jane Eyre XXXV -- chapter 34: KISS ME NOW, MISSIONARY'S WIFE

From Jane Eyre:


"She pushed me toward him. I thought Diana very provoking, and felt uncomfortably confused; and while I was thus thinking and feeling, St. John bent his head; his Greek face was brought to a level with mine, his eyes questioned my eyes piercingly—he kissed me. There are no such things as marble kisses, or ice kisses, or I should say my ecclesiastical cousin's salute belonged to one of these classes; but there may be experiment kisses, and his was an experiment kiss. When given, he viewed me to learn the result; it was not striking: I am sure I did not blush; perhaps I might have turned a little pale, for I felt as if this kiss were a seal affixed to my fetters. He never omitted the ceremony afterward, and the gravity and quiescence with which I underwent it seemed to invest it for him with a certain charm."

From The Princess Bride:

"There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C., when Saul and Delilah Korn's inadvertent discovery swept across Western Civilization. (Before then couples hooked thumbs.) And the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy, because although everyone agrees with the formula of affection times purity times intensity times duration, no one has ever been completely satisfied with how much weight each element should receive. But on any system, there are five that everyone agrees deserve full marks. Well, this one left them all behind."

1.     I've wondered about St. John's name.  It makes sense, in a trivial kind of way, that this obstinate and ambitious missionary be sainted by his author, but there's another potential connection.  He and Jane are indeed very similar persons, perhaps because of blood, and certainly by Bronte's design.  Take the long a of Saint and consonants of John and, well, you've got Jane.  Are these two meant to be one, one completing the other not just in body and spirit but in very name?

2.     Is St. John's desire for Jane to wed him strictly practical?  Similarly, is there any practicality that would prevent Jane from marrying him?

3.     "I will throw all on the altar—heart, vitals, the entire victim."  I am interested by the use of the word "victim" here: "late 15c., 'living creature killed and offered as a sacrifice to a deity or supernatural power,' from L. victima 'person or animal killed as a sacrifice.' Perhaps distantly connected to O.E. wig 'idol,' Goth. weihs 'holy,' Ger. weihen 'consecrate' (cf. Weihnachten "Christmas") on notion of 'a consecrated animal.' Sense of 'person who is hurt, tortured, or killed by another' is first recorded 1650s; meaning 'person oppressed by some power or situation' is from 1718. Weaker sense of 'person taken advantage of' is recorded from 1781" (thanks www.etymonline.com).  In Bronte's context, it is more than just this, however, augmented as it is by the subsequent quotation: "I am ready to go to India, if I may go free."

4.     While the similarities are limited, there is a taste here of W. Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil in this chapter.

5.     "...do not forget that if you reject it, it is not me you deny, but God."

6.     "Looked to river, looked to hill": clearly, Bronte was a big Scott fan.  HERE

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Jane Eyre XXXIV -- chapter 33: WHERE WAS THE INTERNET WHEN JANE MOST NEEDED IT?

Norham's Castle

Day set on Norham's castled steep, 
And Tweed's fair river, broad and deep, 
And Cheviot's mountains lone; 

The battled towers. the Donjon Keep, 
The loopholes grates, where captives weep, 
The flanking walls that round it sweep, 
In yellow lustre shone. 

The warriors on the turrets high, 
Moving athwart the evening sky, 
Seem'd forms of giant height: 

Their armour, as it caught the rays, 
Flash'd back again the western blaze, 
In lines of dazzling light.

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1. My new favorite analogy: "I again felt rather like an individual of but average gastronomical powers, sitting down to feast alone at a table spread with provisions for a hundred."  I don't think it's entirely accurate here, but what an image!  And certainly "gastronomic powers" could not have carried quite the same meaning then as now, when we have such things as competitive eating.
2. The behavior of Mr. Rivers is interesting to me:  his return to Jane's place has the appearance of being merely weather-related; the fact that he sits and waits some time indicates he is without hurry, regardless of whether he's building up his courage or wavering over how to articulate his motives; but the most curious is his immediate, apparently hurried departure.  What's his deal?
3. Forget Bronte: does cosmic force exist that would draw together such estranged families as these, and why?  Perhaps more importantly (and coming back to the author), how does Bronte avoid the appearance of contrivance here (basically, the "Oh-wow-we're-cousins-isn't-that-freaking-convenient?")?
4. Regardless of what happens in the conclusion of the book, what might prevent Jane, and remain within her character, from sharing the wealth with her new-found family and living with them happily ever after at Marsh End?
5. The travel or stagnation of information--its content, context, quantity, and quality (among other characteristics) --play a huge part in the creation of fictions and their conflicts.  Consider the palantiri of The Lord of the Rings, and their effective transference of selective information (or misinformation, depending upon the strategy behind their implementation).  The entire plot of Jane Eyre could not happen (well, not without excruciating ignorance on the part of its players) in the modern world.

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Jane Eyre XXXIII -- chapter 32: EXEMPLARY LOVE or TANGENT

32 is another chapter that passes the reader simply from one point to another, though the destination remains nebulous.  The story, while doubtfully in context of the whole of the story (which I don't have yet), appears tangential, and for that comes across as over-long and superfluous.  I do wonder, particularly as Jane is yet dreaming of Mr. Rochester, that there is something in the development of the difficult relationship between Mr. Rivers and Miss Oliver that will somehow inform or influence Jane--but to what end?  If not, then I really don't see the point of drawing so far out this secondary story.

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Jane Eyre XXXII -- chapter 31: WHY . SO . SERIOUS ?

"La mort du fossoyeur," Carlos Schwabe;
(thanks wikipedia)

From Sir Walter Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel: canto 3, XXIV:

So pass'd the day; the evening fell,

'Twas near the time of curfew bell;

The air was mild, the wind was calm,

The stream was smooth, the dew was balm;

E'en the rude watchman on the tower

Enjoy'd and bless'd the lovely hour.

Far more fair Margaret lov'd and bless'd

The hour of silence and of rest.

On the high turret sitting lone,

She waked at times the lute's soft tone;

Touch'd a wild note, and all between

Thought of the bower of hawthorns green.

Her golden hair stream'd free from band,

Her fair cheek rested on her hand

Her blue eyes sought the west afar

For lovers love the western star.

1. Mr. Rivers has just given Jane the rundown of his life and his abandoned ambitions, and now he's faced with this gorgeous girl and, upon offering mild reprimand for her being out and about so late, "...he crushed the snowy heads of the closed flowers with his feet."  I suspect foreshadowing, but judging by further paragraphs, the crushed flowers are for his forceful efforts to quell the love in his heart for this pretty thing cooing over both him and his dog (after all, if she can't caress him, might as well caress his dog--metonymic, it would seem).
2. "inexorable as death" -- what a way to paint your brother!  Inexorable = grim.

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Jane Eyre XXXI -- chapter 30: DEPARTURE THE FOURTH

1. What is Mr. St. John Rivers' weight and burden that creep up in his sermons?
2. I hear Jane's words when Mr. Rivers speaks of the philosophy of life.
3. Is there a point to writing in the Rivers' mother's uncle's death (aside from permitting me an excellent opportunity for ridiculous apastrophic indulgence)?
4. Moorland.

an example of moorland

Jane Eyre [30] -- chapter 29: MARSH END

1. "Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there firm as weeds among stones."
2. "Paste" for the pies sounds rather nasty to our modern, American ears, and I have never heard it used as such before.  Before I check the etymology, however, let me go over this: paste is awfully close to pastry, which indeed is word commonly used to describe the stuff for pie crust, among other things, and both paste and pastry are similar to pasta, which is more than just noodles, but the dough from which they're made.  Makes sense, I think.  The etymologies: pasta, pastry, paste (which has a rather humorous later usage).
3. The casual, classic good looks of Mr. St. John are an interesting contrast to the forceful, oft brutal, "manliness" of Rochester.
4. Issue of grammar: "Now you may eat, though still not immoderately."  
5. Is it a philanthropist who helps one find gainful employment?
6. "My sisters, you see, have a pleasure in keeping you, as they would have a pleasure in keeping and cherishing a half-frozen bird some wintry wind might have driven through their casement" (emphasis added).