Introduction Jane Eyre : Exercice

Amorce :

Emily Bronte's novel The Wuthering Height, with its two main characters,
Heatchli and Catherine, explores the notion of power and love. As in Charlotte
Bronte's Jane Eyre, the young girl Catherine helps Heathcli . She defends him
against his brother Hindley. She is always there to protect him. As in this extract,
where Jane helps Rochester.

Presentation :

In this extract from Jane Eyre, Jane goes to the village to deliver a letter, meeting
Rochester on the way. Jane has just started to work as a governess and does not
yet know the master of Thorn eld House. This is their rst meeting, but she
doesn't know it for the moment. Rochester is injured, so she helps him back on his
horse. Rochester is not a Prince Charming, it is Jane that is the savior. At the
beginning of the text, Jane appears to be frightened, she is alone in the wood and
hears a noise, she doesn't know who might be coming.
Gradually the extract takes another turn, and the key point of the passage is when
she discovers him and all her illusions evaporate as he falls. At the end of the
extract, social norms are reversed as she, the young woman, comes to the aid of
the brave man.

Mouvement du texte :

There are some notable tensions in this extract, especially between light and
darkness, illusion and reality, mystery and apparition, myth and anti-hero.
All this show a contrast between the beginning of the text and its end. The gothic
atmosphere of the beginning, with its fear and darkness, gradually evaporates as
soon as Rochester arrives. The standards are reversed.

Problématique :

This essay will explore the ways in which the motive of reversal is made manifest.

Plan :

A rst part will demonstrate how the text creates a reversal of social norms. Then,
a second part, will investigate the ways in which identity instabilities are formed.
Finally, a third part will reveal how the text is a rewriting of the gothic.
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