Jane Eyre: the other perspective

Being a fan of literature, I have always been very interested in the 19^th century British literature. I am a big fan of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters. Therefore, I have read “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë several times. However, I was terribly mistaken. In this essay, I will prove that I had not finished reading “Jane Eyre” until I finished reading “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys.

“Wide Sargasso Sea” tells the story of Antoinette Cosway, the caribbean woman Mr. Rochester married in “Jane Eyre”. It tells the story of her life, narrated by different characters, and how she became the “mad” woman in the attic. I could see in the novel that she was a neglected child whose only shelters were nature and Christophine, her nurse. However, when Mr. Rochester showed up, she began to feel more protected and loved mainly because she had somebody to talk to and someone to have sex with. In the novel, we could see that Mr. Rochester had never loved her: “It was all very brightly coloured, very strange, but it meant nothing to me. Nor did she, the girl I was to marry. When at last I met her I bowed, smiled, kissed her hand, danced with her. I play the part I was expected to play. She never had anything to do with me at all.” (Rhys, 1992) This quote explains how he never appreciated the island; therefore, he could never appreciate Antoinette because she was the island. The novel finishes when they are in England and she is already under the care of Grace Poole.

“Jane Eyre” tells the story of Jane Eyre, her childhood and her youth and how she found love in Thornfield Hall with Mr. Rochester. In “Jane Eyre” Mr. Rochester is already of some age and he already had his “mad” wife in the attic. In this novel the wife’s name is Bertha Mason and at the end she sets the house on fire and kills herself. When Mr. Rochester explains how he met her he says:

“Well, he (Rochester’s father) hated the idea of dividing the family property, so he left it all to my elder brother. But that meant I would be poor unless I married a rich wife, so he decided I should marry Bertha Mason, the daughter of his wealthy friend Jonas Mason. I was young and easily impressed so when I saw her in the West Indies, beautiful and elegantly dressed, I thought I loved her… After the wedding I learned that my bride’s mother and younger brother were both mad… I soon found out that Bertha and I had nothing in common.” (Brontë, 2000)

When I read “Jane Eyre” I was always thinking poor Mr. Rochester who was deceived into marrying a woman from the Caribbean who was crazy like her mother. When Antoinette attacked him by setting fire to his room, I thought about this unfortunate man who could never be happy because he was linked to a wife who will never allow him to be happy. When he was going to marry Jane Eyre and the ceremony was interrupted because the brother, Richard Mason arrived to speak the truth about Mr. Rochester and Bertha Mason (Antoinette), he felt he lost everything: “I’ve been waiting for you all this time, Jane, he said. And I haven’t heard you scream or shout or cry. Aren’t you angry with me? I never meant to hurt you. Will you ever forgive me?” (Brontë, 2000) At the end, the “mad wife” sets the house on fire and Jane Eyre is told by a servant: “I was one of Mr. Rochester’s servant at the time, and I can tell you it was his mad wife who started the fire in the governess’ room… in the fire the master risked his life helping all the servants out of the house, then bravely went back to save the mad woman. We saw her jump from the roof and fall to her death…because he went back to help her, he was badly injured in the fire, losing a hand and the sight of both eyes.” (Brontë, 2000) Charlotte Brontë provided several reasons for us to feel sorry for Mr. Rochester, that is the reason that explained my compassion towards this unfortunate character, but Jean Rhys provided arguments to stop feeling sorry for him.

When I read “Wide Sargasso Sea” I changed my mind. Although he was somehow forced to marry her, his actions were not noble. He, soon after they were married, stopped loving her, the way she wanted: “Why do you hate me? She said I do not hate you, I am most distressed about you, I am distraught, I said. Then, why do you never come near me? She said. Or kiss me or talk to me.” (Rhys, 1992) This quote proves that there was a break on their relationship and this affected her in an unimaginable manner. Christophine was there at her side curing her thirst for a man who did not want her anymore.

As I could see it, Mr. Rochester is not the unfortunate character he was on “Jane Eyre”, but a man who represents the colonial power on “Wide Sargasso Sea”. After reading Jean Rhys’ master piece I could understand that nothing is ever black or white. There are always shades which can be very helpful when someone is trying to understand a novel such as “Jane Eyre” or “Wide Sargasso Sea”. These two authors portrayed their characters very differently which can be explained, in my point of view, as the different circumstances under which these women wrote the pieces. To conclude, I finished reading “Jane Eyre” when I read the word: passage. The last word of “Wide Sargasso Sea”.

Bibliography

1) Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

2) Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1992.

D. H. Lawrence in the Classroom

“Readers are made, not born” (Chen)

In the British Literature class, we have been studying many authors and their works, and also one approach to working with literature: the Reader-Response. As I study English pedagogy, one of my main objectives is to incorporate literature in the class. I am very interested in working with literature in the EFL classroom and transmit my passion for literature to my students. The above quote can be explained as the need of introducing literature to students so that they can become good readers. Therefore, giving reading assignments is not enough, so we have to work and deal with literature in the class and help our students grow interested in reading. Consequently, the Reader-Response approach is essential and the most appropriate when my goal is to make readers. In this essay, I will use “The Virgin and the Gypsy” by D.H. Lawrence. I will briefly explain what the reader response is and what the short story’s main plot is. Afterwards, with this piece of art, I will provide various activities that can be used in the EFL classroom.

The Reader-Response approach is the most appealing to me because people get to bring themselves into their own readings. Readers’ experiences play a fundamental role in interpreting and understanding any piece of literature. This approach can be defined as the approach which emphasizes the individual as a reader—responder, the role of the reader as a re-creator who with his/her experience, previous readings, thoughts and feelings enrich any text. Also, the reader interacts with the text mainly because of the objectives of this approach such as encouraging individual readers to feel comfortable with their responses to a literary text, encouraging them to understand themselves better by giving arguments to their responses which will make them be aware of themselves (Chen).

“The Virgin and the Gypsy” is by definition a short story which makes it more accessible for high school students because it contains only one main plot and the language is easy to understand. The main plot of the story is the connection between the girl, Yvette, and the gypsy and the circumstances under which they met. We can also see that she and her sister had problems in her house especially with her aunt Cissie because they could not understand how this lady interfered with everything in the house. They also had to deal with the absence of their mother who left with a younger man. This story is a very accessible one because it is simple and easy to read. We need to consider our students’ proficiency level so that they do not feel overwhelmed by a piece of literature that is too complex for them.

By using the Reader-Response, we are compelled to include the student centered classroom. Most of the activities that I will briefly present need to be developed through group work and the teacher plays the role of a monitor and a guide in the class. This story can be used in the EFL classroom quite easily. We could be using this story for various classes and with many different activities. At the beginning they can build mind maps with characters’ relationships; that will make reading more understandable (Buehl, 2000). That would be the very first glance to the story. This process is completely necessary so that students do not get confused with the story or the characters.

Later on, we can focus on the story by asking different types of questions such as: factual or memory questions, interpretation questions, application questions and evaluation questions (Chen). So that understanding is clearer we should begin by asking factual or memory questions in order to make sure they do know the story and can later on provide an opinion with strong arguments about certain issues by including information and examples from the text. According to what I want to accomplish, the most suitable questions to be used would be application questions because students will draw on their own experiences because they will be relating the story to their personal lives. Their personal responses are essential for answering these questions.

Another activity in order to include this short story into the classroom is by asking our students to role-play different scenes or parts of the text (Chen). This is always fun and challenging for the students because they like to participate in the class. Through this activity, they will be able to show their own interpretations and maybe provide a twist to the plot. They should have as most liberty as possible and be able to disagree with what the writer decided to write in the story.

With “The Virgin and the Gypsy”, students can be asked to write several response journals to different questions so that they can prepare themselves for a conversation class because “selected readings have great potential for stimulating conversation, because once students are exposed to a given reading, they have a new fund of information that can be used as a departure point for discussion” (Dobson, 2005). The idea is that I decide on a few topics that are interesting and accessible from the reading so that students, after being assigned and prepared one topic, can participate in a discussion in groups where they can discuss the different topics presented in the story.

The last activity I proposed for including this story in class is creating their own stories (Chen). They can be about the story itself, for example a different ending or something related to relationships between gypsies and people from other races. This would be a long process and I would include many revisions and editing. They can read each others’ stories and make comments and adjustments on how to improve the plot or the writing. The most remarkable characteristic of writing their own stories is that it makes the writing exercise more meaningful for students (Chen) since they will have freedom for writing and creating whatever that appeals to them.

As a conclusion, I can say that we should always try to find time to include literature in the class. The stories we can access can be of any kind as long as they are adequate for our students’ skills in the language. As you can see, the activities are quite varied and easy to develop because you only need to engage your students with the different processes. By using the Reader-Response approach students will be encouraged to provide their opinions about what they read and the process will not be as that of reading for a comprehension test. They will be reading for learning, for getting to know themselves better and for growing.

Bibliography

Buehl, Doug. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. Delaware: International Reading Association, 2000.

Chen, Chi-Fen Emily. Teaching Literature to Children. <http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/CLit/Teaching.htm>.

Dobson, Julia. Effective Techniques for English Conversation Groups. Washington: United States Information Agency, 2005.

Outline

D. H. Lawrence in the Classroom

1. Introduction
2. Reader Response Approach
3. The Virgin and the Gypsy
4. Activities
5. Conclusion

Invasion to Poland

I really liked the poem “September 1, 1939” by Auden. I liked it because it is a very political poem. It deals with the feelings of the people when the Second World War began. After reading it, I felt touched by his way of expressing the fear of each family, mother, father, child and people in general of the uncertainty of never knowing what will happen with the country and themselves. This highly connected with the idea of the governments making decisions across Europe which did not consider people’s opinion. The hopelessness was so immense and it is like that when you know that no matter what you think or do, nothing is going to change and nothing is in your hands. In the poem, Auden is questioning many things that we as humans have done wrong. For example, he questions that humans are always craving for what they cannot have. Nowadays, it is seen that we are craving for what the advertisements in the mass media are offering. Many times we cannot have everything and our priorities are not well arranged because we do not prioritize education and health in order to buy the new flat screen.

In conclusion, I would definitely use this poem as a cross-curricular activity with the History subject when students are being taught the World Wars.

Oscar: A boy alone in the city

While I was reading Oscar’s entry, I was remembering one time when I was at the subway station and a person had fallen to the rails. I heard some other people saying:” couldn’t he throw himself somewhere else or at another time”. Oscar’s perception of why we do not see children wandering around the city is pretty similar to my understanding of the dehumanized world we live in.

It is true that sometimes hopelessness of getting a job leads people to steal. However, we should encourage our students to go to the last honest and legitimate resource to face the situation instead of committing crimes. It is hard, but otherwise it can be considered as encouraging the students to do illegal deeds.

I also think that sometimes we have to create opportunities for our students so that they can become autonomous subjects who can create their own opportunities as well. Our teaching will make our students be better able to face the society we live in and then their opportunity of changing it will come.

I really liked Oscar’s entry because it really made me consider topics present in Oliver Twist as well as different things we see daily. It is really interesting to see how he relates everything to our Chilean society and ,at the end, that makes it more real.

The Waste Land

As part of our course, we read T.S. Eliot. He was an American poet who later changed his nationality to British. He as many others experienced war in an England which was very involved in it. After reading Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land”, I felt quiet shocked and confused.

Shocked simply because it is amazing to see in one poem how the war affected people’s lives specially in Europe. Here we understand the concept of existentialism. After the war, people were left with a feeling of nothingness. There was nothing in their hands to change their lives or society: all decisions were made by others.

I felt confused because Eliot presented a new way of writing. The sudden change of settings and narrators makes the poem very confusing, but, at the same time, a very rich one. During the different stanzas we can see that the settings are constantly changing. For example, in the first stanza, he begins in spring and unpredictably changes to summer.

Another feature present in the poem in the incorporation of other languages because he includes most of European people and countries in the concept of the waste land. Therefore, using different languages makes us understand the point he was trying to make.

I am now left with a feeling of lack of understanding. There is definitely much more to understand in this poem and I have not been able to get it. I guess, I need to work more with this poem, so that I finally understand it.

Lawrence Himself

In my opinion, D. H. Lawrence has an exquisite way of writing. It was so easy to read his stories: “The rocking horse winner” and “Odour of Chrysanthemums”. I very much enjoyed them.

It is also very interesting to see how most of his writings are autobiographical. Consequently, the fact that most of his male characters, particularly the man of the house, are miners is not coincidental. His father was a miner; therefore, he transmits that and puts his early life setting and context into his stories. We can see this especially in “Sons and Lovers”, one of his greatest novels and probably his most autobiographical one and in “Odour of Chrysanthemums”.

He also played with premonitions in both the stories. The sense of premonition is presented in “The rocking horse winner” every time the child rides the horse and hears the name of the winning horse. In “Odour of Chrysanthemums”, he introduces premonition when the wife feels something is wrong with his husband’s arrival. I really liked that in these stories.

In conclusion, male characters as miners and the small miner town as settings are definitely landmarks to his works.