Fairytale and realism in Jane Eyre Article by: Carol Atherton
Dr Carol Atherton explores how Charlotte Brontë mixes fantasy with realism in Jane Eyre, making use of fairytale and myth and drawing on the imaginary worlds she and her siblings created as children.
Irony in Jane Eyre
What happens when that prime piece of technology you've finally saved enough to buy goes on sale for half the price the day after you bought it? Or when the dream guy or girl you've been pining for for ages turns out to be the worst date you've had in your life? If something like this has ever happened to you, you've felt the sting of irony, which we can define as using language that means the opposite of the stated intent, usually for the sake of comedy.
Irony turns Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre from a simple story of an impoverished governess in love with a rich bad boy, Mr. Rochester, into a chilling Gothic mystery, which is a genre from the 18th century that combines horror and romance. Jane Eyre is a novel of twists and turns, sinister secrets, and life-altering surprises.
Irony With Jane & Rochester
Perhaps the most significant ironic element is the love between Jane and Rochester itself. Jane is a paragon of virtue, the ideal model of a 19th-century British woman. Jane is moral, upstanding, and driven by a powerful sense of right and wrong. Mr. Rochester is the opposite of Jane. He takes one mistress after another and doesn't much care who knows it. He spends his life drinking and carousing across Europe.
Even so, there is something in Rochester that makes Jane's heart sing. Nothing captures a virtuous woman like a man in need of saving and a soul in need of redemption. Rochester's heart softens for Jane. She's no great beauty; not a beauty at all, in fact. She has no money, no family, and no name. She is, ironically, the last woman a man with breeding and fortune should want to marry, and yet she's the first that Rochester wants. After all, he's seen all the society girls you can imagine, and he wants none of them.
