Happily Ever After Cafe discussion

The April to June Classic read is Jane Eyre. Please feel free to join us for a group read and discussion.

Participants:
Pamela
Nikki
Beatrice

Well, I have 3 months to read this one but I started today and I am already to chapter 12. I have not met Mr. Rochester yet though.

Good luck to you, Pamela! I'm going to pass on this one. I'll lurk and see what all of you have to say.

I'm actually listening to it on librovox and reading along on my ebook and I'm enjoying it so far. Its another long one but I seem to be zipping through it fairly easily. Hopefully some of the ones who voted on it will join me ☺

Are you going to watch the latest movie version, Pamela?

I will probably check it out.

I'm starting my copy tonight.

cool, I'm getting back to it soon.

Jane Eyre is my favorite book, so when I saw this, I thought I would join even though I am late.

Do we get to discuss the book here?

Yes, we have through June to read and discuss. I'm only a few chapters pass where Jane meets Rochester so any time anyone wants to start discussing is fine.

I am listening to Audible.com. Also, following the story in my book. I listened to the first couple of chapters so many times, and I never tire of it.

Something that really baffles me are the big words used. If I took my time and looked up all the words I don't know the meanings of, my vocabulary would blossom. Maybe I should do that since I am a writer as well.

I'm on Chapter 5. I hate the way Mrs. Reed treats young Jane. Reminds me of Cinderella in a way.

@Beatrice, yes, a bit of the Cinderella vibe to it. I'm enjoying it too but I slowed down since this is a 3 month read. Once I get going again I won't stop. ☺

@Pamela, how many books are you reading at this point?

Just one other than Jane Eyre. I stopped temporarily on Jane Eyre so I wouldn't finish it too quickly. I plan to get back to it within the next week.

Beatrice wrote: "Something that really baffles me are the big words used. If I took my time and looked up all the words I don't know the meanings of, my vocabulary would blossom. Maybe I should do that since I am a writer as well."

I always say the best way to improve your vocabulary is to read the classics. There was no "dumbing down" the way so many media (especially print) do today. It's also ingrained in me since high school English to pencil an X in the margin by words I am unsure of and look them up later.

lol, I don't think I use big words but sometimes my family will ask me what a word means that I just used. Its funny. A few days ago I told my daughter she needed time to contemplate something and we all got in a big argument about my "big" words.

Contemplate is a good word for her to understand. ☺

yes, it is ☺ She'll be 12 at the end of the month. :0

LOL... One person's "big words" is another person's normal vocabulary. :-D

I'd say "contemplate" is definitely a good word for a 12-yr old to know.

Now, if you want big words that are difficult to understand and even harder to spell, watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee at end of the month. The youngest speller this year is SIX years old!

Exactly, Heather L. No, contemplate is not a big word at all. One everyone should know I think. Even a twelve year old.

Have you ever heard of KISS meaning Keep it simple stupid? I was given that piece of advice from an editor. I think our language has been so watered down, we sound like a bunch of school age kids when we speak. If we can't use a bigger word, I want to know why I have to keep it simple?

see, I told ya'll - not big words. But my family thinks they are. lol

Yes, a great writer can use one word to express something that takes others six or seven.

I agree. Why use several words to say something, when one is all you need?

Beatrice wrote: "Exactly, Heather L. No, contemplate is not a big word at all. One everyone should know I think. Even a twelve year old.

Have you ever heard of KISS meaning Keep it simple stupid? I was given that..."

When I was 12 I knew it...

I was trying to teach my 3 1/2 grandson the word, gravity. When you drop something why it falls to the ground, and doesn't fly up. I only see him once in a while. I will have to ask him if he remembers. I want to try and teach my grandchildren words that mean something in everyday life. Do you think 'gravity' is too big a word for a near four-year-old?

No. You gave him a demonstration. I think it is a word one understands in stages, Beatrice.

Tkx Lisa. One word he doesn't understand and it's a small word is "NO". lol

LOL! Yeah, that's a tough one. ☺

lol

I think it's a good word for a near 4-yr old, especially since, as Lisa Kay said, you provided a demonstration.

When my youngest niece (now 7) was about that age, she overheard her parents and friends joking about some minor injury a friend had received, to which her dad said something along the lines of, "Gee, guess we'll have to amputate."

You can imagine their surprise when, about a week later, my BIL hit his head on the car while buckling my precoscious niece in and she asked, "Do you need to amputate, Daddy?"

It's funny what children will pick up on. I remember many years ago singing songs with my niece(2) and nephew(4) and I got silly and starting singing "99 bottles of beer" and they just looked at me. Well. I stopped and the next day my nephew starting singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall". lol

Heather L wrote: "Do you need to amputate, Daddy?"

LMAO! Too cute.

Oh, corrupting your niece & nephew, Pamela! LOL!

lol ☺

I thought I'd try and get the discussion going with a few questions on the first few chapters

1. The Reed family doesn't like Jane. I realize they have her because Mr Reed promised to look after her but he is now dead. Why do you suppose Mrs Reed allowed her to live there instead of finding another place for her? Or even tossing Jane to the streets? Any comments on Mrs Reed? The children?

2. Why is Jane scared of the red room? Do you believe her really saw a ghost? What about her reaction?

3. What did you think of Mr Lloyd and his belief that Jane should be sent away?

4. What did you think of Mr Brocklehurst? Will Jane enjoy going to this school? Will it be an improvement over the Reed home?

Mrs. Reed probably kept her because she would look very bad in the public eye if she sent her away without a cause. She was simply "keeping up appearances." As soon as she could contrive a reason however, she certainly did get rid of Jane.

@PM, that's what I believe too. And of course sending Jane to school made her look good versus throwing out on the street and thought of as hateful and cruel.

I agree, Mrs. Reed only kept Jane to make herself look good. To me just about anything is an improvement over the Reed home.

How far along is everyone in the book? I'm just about done. I've been trying to stretch it out as much as possible, but the second half has been so good it's been hard to put down :)

Just finished chapter 20. I'm enjoying it. I got a library book I need to finish and then I'll finish Jane Eyre.

I got involved with gardening and when I get in, I fall asleep reading. So I will probably have to take the entire time frame to get through it.

Mrs. Reed and her children are so much like Cinderella's step-mother and her siblings. It must have been the way of the times for it seems to be a trait picked up by many families. Hatred toward a step-child. How sad!

The reason Mrs Reed has kept Jane is because the husband asked Mrs Reed to take care of the child, and in her own, but selfish way, she thinks that is exactly what she is doing. She is honoring her husband's wishes, but being cruel toward Jane for she loathes her.

The Red Room is a place where Mrs Reed has to deal with her husband's ghost (in a sense). There she fears him as though he were alive. England, at the time, was very superstitious concerning the dead. Even Jane fears ghosts coming back to haunt the living. Somewhat like Scrooge. I have had the same fears and can certainly understand how these people have felt toward the dead. When one is afraid of dead people, they cannot escape them. It was not a ghost, but Jane believes it was, and so there was no escape for Jane as she was locked up.

I think Mr Lloyd had compassion for Jane and understood her fears of both the dead and the living in that household. I don't believe he intended her to face what was to be her future at Lowood.

Mr. Brocklehurst is a tyrant and uses his religious beliefs to the extreme. Some people do that. They see the sty in the other's eye, but don't see the log in their own.

The story of Jane Eyre is very close to a biography of Charlotte Bronte.

Remember the workhouses in England at the time. Charles Dickens writes about them and how poorly they are fed and how cold the atmosphere suggests.

Sorry this is so long. I love to hash and rehash these stories.

I am only on chapter six.

Oh, I lucked out. I don't know what it means that this is a "challenge" but I started Jane Eyre early last year, and finished it at the end year. The middle gap was due to the passing of my mom due to cancer. It was also the last book that my mom read before she passed away. I had loaned her my Kindle to read it. I loved it, and my favorite part of the book that I could relate most to was this:

Jane: "If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should--so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again."

and Helen Burns' response: "Would you not be happier if you tried to forget her severity, together with the passionate emotions it excited? Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs."

I don't know about you all, but very often have I come across the same feeling as young Jane; where a person has betrayed me in some way, and I as a LEO feel the need to defend. I think Helen's response was well written, and very wise.

Words to live by, in my opinion!

Thanks for the answers. And that wasn't all that long, Beatrice.

I do wonder what it was that caused Mrs. Reed to hate Jane so much. Was it because of Mr. Reed, maybe? I suppose Mrs. Reed could have blamed Jane in some way for her husband's passing.

Fear is an interesting thing. It does indeed cause you to imagine such horrors.

Yes, I do think Mr Lloyd saw much and had compassion for Jane's plight.

I immediately disliked Mr Brocklehurst. Not a person I'd want around me.

I loved Helen. Such a sweet spirit.

Pamela(AllHoney) wrote: "I loved Helen. Such a sweet spirit."

Agreed; her illness made her wise beyond her years, I think.

I just finished chapter 23. Sigh!

So anyone want to add discussion questions?

I'll admit a few

5. Jane goes to school. Do you feel her circumstances are any better at the school?

6. What are your thoughts on Miss Temple? Helen Burns? Miss Scatcherd?

7. Any comments on (view spoiler)[Helen's death? (hide spoiler)]?

Finished Jane Eyre.

@Ashlee--I love the quotes you have pointed out. They do make good sense on either side of the spectrum. Imagine these young girls with such wits about them? Both girls have suffered immensely by this time, and they have developed such characteristics.

@Everyone -- I haven't had a chance to read more since I am so busy with so many other things, but in reality, I think Jane is better off in the school. She meets Helen there and having a good friend to talk to helps her deal with life's situations.

Helen(like mentioned) is a saint. When Helen is tortured and then dies, my heart breaks at that point.
What did Helen do to deserve this? And while all the torture was going on, she did not complain at all. Unlike Jane, but Charlotte brings out the best in these two awesome characters with such distinctive personalities and ideas.

I will have more to add when I read this again. It is raining today and I can't be outside. LOL

Beatrice wrote:"Helen(like mentioned) is a saint. When Helen is tortured and then dies, my heart breaks at that point. What did Helen do to deserve this?..."

I cried too. I almost never cry when reading but it was so emotional. I loved Helen and hated that she died so young.

So sad about Helen :(

I finished a few days ago and I'm still thinking about the book. I didn't want to finish so soon but I couldn't put it down. Like Pamela, I rarely cry when reading, but this book just got to me. I guess that's the reason it's called a classic :)

It does have me thinking days after I'm done. I also think about the author and how perceptive of the world she must have been. I find I wonder a lot about the authors lately. What sort of person they were to have such talent and then there are those who I wonder how they got published. lol.

FYI note - Charlotte Bronte used a man's name when she published this.

I read Jane Eyre when I was thirteen, and I've re-read it a handful of times since. It's easily my favorite book of all time.

I actually had an excerpt read during my wedding ceremony:

“It was a fairy, and come from Elf-land, it said; and its errand was to make me happy: I must go with it out of the common world to a lonely place—such as the moon, for instance—and it nodded its head towards her horn, rising over Hay-hill: it told me of the alabaster cave and silver vale where we might live. I said I should like to go; but reminded it, as you did me, that I had no wings to fly.

“‘Oh,’ returned the fairy, ‘that does not signify! Here is a talisman will remove all difficulties;’ and she held out a pretty gold ring. ‘Put it,’ she said, ‘on the fourth finger of my left hand, and I am yours, and you are mine; and we shall leave earth, and make our own heaven yonder.’

It is, in my opinion, a perfect romance novel. Mostly because Jane is always grounded in reality and honest about life. She never abandons her morals, even when she had reason to. I never understood the appeal of sneaky, simpering heroines.