Friday, October 20, 2017

Is Jane Eyre a bildungsroman novel?

Many people see Jane Eyre as a coming of age novel from her poor childhood to Lowood then on to Thornfield. I do believe that it is a coming of age novel but not starting from childhood to Lowood. Her coming of age starts to grow and flourish when she goes to Thornfield. She is still merely a child at Lowood when she started and left. She knew nothing else of the outside world so there was no growing up. It was her coming to Thornfield that furthered her knowledge of life by meeting with Rochester, Fairfax and even learning things from Adele. This coming of age novel I believe truly didn't start till she arrived at Thornfield.
By at
Labels: ,

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 22, 2017 at 1:25 PM

    I agree with most of what you said. Although I don't believe that the coming-to-age part of this novel started at Thornfield. It started at Lowood. Helen Burns plays a big role into shaping Jane into being a woman. The parts before Lowood only set up the life of Jane. Lowood changes Jane so dramatically that it was be hard to leave it out of this bildungsroman. In all, I disagree with the idea of the bildungsroman part of this novel started at Thornfield.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 23, 2017 at 4:26 PM

    I agree with the fact that you said this novel is a bildungsroman, a coming of age novel. With this said, I believe that the coming of age starts at Lowood, or even maybe a little bit at Gateshead. I agree with Michael's comment, saying that is started before Thornfield. I also agree with Michael in saying that Helen Burns changes Jane a ton, especially shaping her into a women. With all of this said, I agree with a majority of what you were saying, but I believe that the coming of age started before Thornfield.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 23, 2017 at 7:41 PM

    I agree with what you have said here, this novel does seem to be a bildungsroman. As for when the coming of age starts I believe this begins at Gateshead. The way she is treated there starts to kind of shape her into what she wants to become, nothing like Mrs. Reed. As both Colson and Michael stated though I also feel that she was shaped mostly during her time at Lowood, influenced by Helen Burns. So yes I do believe this is a bildungsroman but I feel it starts earlier than Thornfield.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)