Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

23 reviews

peytonktracy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is easily my favorite “classic” novel. Man, I love Jane Eyre. She’s truly hilarious, witty, clever, and knows herself thoroughly. Mr. Rochester is so complex and interesting - the very definition of a morally gray love interest. This particular audiobook version really brings forward a lot of the wit and humor as well as the less-melodramatic emotional humanity that often gets lost in the gothic mystery of most adaptations. 10/10 would recommend.

Content Warnings

erica_cronje's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Immediate Initial thoughts

Oh My Word.

I am absolutely in love with this novel. It is the perfect combination of character and plot and descriptive language. I adored annotating and as such, analyzing this novel and all it's characters. Everything was absolutely amazing, it was much better that Pride and Prejudice in my opinion, the entire character development, love story and progression of the love story, i just enjoyed it much more, it felt like there was more depth with the characters even though, there is arguably less information and character growth in Jane than in Pride. In simple terms, I enjoyed Jane more in every wat possible.

Day-after-thoughts

I adored this book, have i mentioned that by chance?

There were so many aspects of this novel that just, it was just perfect, in my opinion. The characters, the plot, everything, the progression in the characters and such.

Spoiler

Plot and Characters: although it is not perhaps the most essential part of the novel, there is no lack of plot. The thing that made this novel so wonderful to read , is the characters and the plot intertwines with each other. The characters thoughts and actions are integral parts of the plot. The characters and the plot is not two different things, instead they work as a team, enhancing each other even more. For example, when Jane is shoved into the Red Room, we see her lash out, people commenting on her behavior and yet the plot moves on, they keep tying her to a chair, we keep seeing Jane's thought process, it should be a very chaotic scene, yet it is perfectly balanced.

Writing Style: I am so absolutely in love with the writing style of Charlotte Bronte. the way that 'Jane' is constantly addressing the reader personally, it makes the entire experience just even more personal and you connect easier to Jane as a character. I wrote in an annotation on page 93,

Its almost like it is a long personal letter to a friend, almost like she wrote it for you.

Then the descriptions in general were absolutely gorgeous, of both Jane's thoughts, as well as what is around her, and her actions.

Chapter 2, pg. 13, "The reproach of my dependence had become a vague sing-song in my ear, very painful and crushing, but only half-intelligible.
Chapter 9, pg. 75, "When mists as chill as death. . .for the forest on its banks, that showed only ranks of skeletons.
pg.76. " Disease had thus become an inhabitant of Lowood, and deaths its frequent visitor.

My favorite of all though, is the descriptions of nature and feelings in general. They are personalized and due to this personalization, it just adds something so eloquently beautiful, it just reads beautifully, as often seen in the descriptions of the moon.

pg. 116, "a blue sea absolved from taint of cloud, the moon ascending it in her solemn march, her orb seeming to look up as she left the hilltops, from which she had come. . .
pg. 158, " Memory had giving given her evidence of the hopes, whishes and sentiments I had been cherishing since last night. . . Reason having come forward and told, in her own quiet way, a plain, unravished tale, showing how I had rejected the real and rapidly devoured the ideal.

the discussion of the themes: Bronte has various commentaries on the society of the time, the way love was seen and portrayed, gender roles and how they are enforced into people since birth, women being learned and expected to repress their emotions, as seen with Jane herself. Bronte intertwines it into characters that, if one is nor looking for it, it would be unnoticeable, yet it is prevalent throughout the novel.

In conclusion, there s nothing about this book that i do not love, it is is unbelievably perfect, from the plot, to the descriptions, to the commentary on society and all the themes prevalant in general.

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kelisabeth's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Content Warnings

sienasarah's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wonderfully romantic, dark, and capturing. A novel well beyond its time and one I return to time and time again.

Content Warnings

elara_h's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

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aegireads's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

i wish it was about a hundred pages shorter is all?

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flowergirlannaaaaaaa's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Jane Eyre, while widely regarded as being an iconic feminist novel, is nothing groundbreaking. The protagonist, Jane, is a very dull one to follow, especially given the extremely slow pace of the book. Rochester, her love interest, is abundantly older than her and extremely manipulative. Bronte takes an abundance of time embellishing her text with description--while it is pretty prose, it amounts to little more than that. My main issue with the book, however, is the blatant way

Spoiler

Bertha Mason, one of the characters, is handled. She is written off as unfeminine, insane, and disgusting, and is frequently juxtaposed to Jane. It seems as though Bertha's exclusive purpose within the story was to be a plot device: her agency is only relevant when it comes to developing Jane and Rochester's toxic romance. If Bronte wanted to write a trendsetting feminist novel, she should have done so by not weaponizing lack of femininity and mental illness as a means of degrading any woman close to Rochester other than her beloved protagonist. Bertha was his lawful wife, but Rochester decided she was 'too Black' and 'too unfeminine,' to be around, so he locked her in his attic and was confused when she began acting genuinely erratic and hostile. Bronte portrays her repeatedly as a monster rather than as a person. It was painfully obvious reading that book that those who hail it as iconic and inclusive refuse to acknowledge the flaws in the "happy ending." As a segway into that, Jane is seen to have no flaws throughout the book, other than her lack of ability to exit a toxic relationship, which isn't at all portrayed as a flaw in the text. On the contrary, Bronte treats Jane's return to Rochester as a 'deeply sympathetic act.' This only further promotes the widespread mentality of the time that women must give up and devote their lives to men 'out of the kindness of their hearts,' regardless of how much abuse they endured. He tried to trick her into committing bigotry when she did not consent. He held his past suicidal thoughts over her head to justify how he locked Bertha in his attic for decades (and our 'feminist' protagonist took no issue with the notion of locking 'unfeminine' women in attics). He threatened Jane. He intentionally flirted with other women just to make her jealous. And yet she still went back to him. Why? 'Because of true love?' That is not feminist by any stretch, it's just a bad romance novel. Jane also is never seen struggling to cope with her trauma or lashing out, because 'God forbid an accurate portrayal of mental illness, or just God forbid a woman being mentally ill. God forbid having a protagonist like Bertha.' The "happy ending" is a mary sue protagonist being put on a mantle with a horrible husband, and it sure as hell isn't happy for Bertha, who commits suicide towards the end of the book. And look, maybe Jane didn't know that Bertha was dead when she went back to Rochester, since the suicide happened beforehand. But Charlotte Bronte sure as hell did. She made the conscious choice to have Jane and Rochester be wed immediately after Bertha Mason kills herself. It leaves an incredibly bitter taste in my mouth to know that the female character most fucked over by the patriarchy, Bertha, was only treated as an obstacle so the male and female lead's relationship wouldn't be 'too easy.' I listened to someone suggest once that she 'killed herself so Jane and Rochester could be together' and wanted to vomit.

And you know what, maybe I'm just a random person on the internet that very passionately hates the way this book is received, but a spin-off book called "Wide Sargasso Sea" was written many years later by an entirely different author. It handles many of the topics I just addressed and

Spoiler

is unafraid to portray Rochester's manipulative, controlling disposition from a lens that isn't rose-tinted. Bertha Mason is the main character, and it's the (different) author's take on how she came to marry Rochester, be abused by him, and go insane.

I would highly recommend reading it.

All in all, I found this a highly boring and uninteresting read. Once again, the prose itself was gorgeous, but that's all I can say in its favor. I wouldn't hate this book so much if it weren't for the reputation and reception it tends to have. I had to read this for a feminist literature curriculum and was embarrassed by how terrible the feminist themes were executed. It made me sick to read what felt more like a blatant attack on feminism. Yes, it was original for its time, but that's where it ends. Stop teaching that this book is the pinnacle of feminist literature, old or new.

Spoiler

Teach about the history behind neurodivergent, 'unfeminine,' 'unruly,' and colored women (people in general, but especially women) being shoved into asylums that equated to torture facilities because they didn't fit the mold.

Teach about the way people with genuine mental illness were treated and still are treated.

3/5 from me exclusively on the basis of significance and prose.

Content Warnings

quinna_corinne's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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annapox's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Content Warnings

epsyphus's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

I can't imagine why I'm always hearing about Wuthering Heights when this book exists. I loved the romance and the mystery. I liked the narration a lot.

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